A Zoroastrian tryst with the Chinese - Tale of a forgotten community

http://thevoiceofthezamorin.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-zoroastrian-tryst-with-chinese-tale.html

The first recorded Parsee pioneers of Hong Kong were Heerjibhoy Jivanji Readymoney who with his brother landed in 1756. The Parsees mainly traded in shipping, tea, silk, cotton, spices, sandalwood and opium. Though the number of Parsees in Hong Kong, have never exceeded 200 at any time, their contributions to the development of the peninsula have been considerable. Among the prominent names were Pestonjee Cowasjee, Rustomjee Dhunjishaw and Framjee Talati who were present when the British Landed in Hong Kong on 26 January 1841. In the first 25 years, as many as a quarter of all foreign firms in Hong Kong belonged to the Parsees. Sir Hormusjee N Mody was the principal donor and founder of today’s Hong Kong University, the Kowloon Cricket Club and the Sailor’s Home in Wanchai; while Mr. Dorabjee Mithaiwala was famous for starting the Star Ferry Service, now a beloved icon. Most Parsees today, though quaint in their nature, hold many-a-prominent position of reckon in the Hong Kong economic sphere.

The contributions of the Hong Kong Parsees to the former British Outpost in the Far East can best be summed up by the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “In Numbers, they are beneath contempt, but in contribution, beyond compare”.

The Parsee involvement in the opium trade constituted an important component in the rise of Western Capital in Asia, the development of the Indian and Imperial economies, and the growth of Bombay and other colonial centers.

Many- a-Parsee made their wealth through this lucrative trade and over the years decided to set base in Macau, Hong Kong and Canton in Mainland China. Being clannish and business oriented apart from their philosophy of “Good thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds”, the Parsees found it relatively easy to penetrate into the uncertain Chinese Markets of that time, remnants of which are seen in the Estrada dos Parsees or Parsee Road, where a quaint cemetery lies, now forgotten along the slopes of the imposing the Guia Lighthouse of Macau, as virtually all left to Hong Kong and beyond following the economic prominence of these lands. It is also learnt that the Chinese Government, in co-ordination with the Hong Kong Parsee Community, are trying to revive the Parsi Heritage in Canton that suffered a major loss during the Cultural Revolution.

Mithra, commonly known as Mehr, is the Zoroastrian Angelic Divinity (yazata) of Covenant, Light, and Oath.