November 26, 2021

Latter-day Saint Charities has long had a place in its heart for the persecuted Yezidi people. We and our fellow LDSC missionaries were guests of Baba Chawish, the spiritual leader of the Yezidi, at Lalish, the most sacred spot in the world for the Yezidi. Barzani Charity Foundation dressed us in traditional Kurdish clothes for the occasion. (Even Geri Giraffe was excited!)

Here we are with Baba Chawish, to Jim’s right, who always wears his traditional attire and has the responsibility of the Lalish Temple and sacred grounds.

Here are all the missionaries. The couple to Jim’s right are the Standages who are assigned to Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, and the couple on the left side of Baba Chawish are the Andersons who are the wheelchair program specialists who came over to Iraq for one week to train new wheelchair assessors at the Barzani Charity Foundation. The brother, Steve, next to them trains those who assemble and customize the wheelchairs.

Middle East Missionary Team!

Young adult Yezidi in traditional dress making a pilgrimage to Lalish the day we were there.

Yezidi visiting Lalish.

Young Yezidi man.

The young Yezidi kiss Baba Chawish’s ring.

Yezidi at Lalish.

The entrance to the Lalish Temple. The black snake is considered sacred. Their tradition states that when Noah was in the ark a hole appeared that threatened to cause the ark to sink. A black snake coiled itself up to plug the hole and thereby save Noah, his family, and humanity. For this reason they respect black snakes.

This is Pir Dayan (Pir is a Yezidi title of a princely Yezidi class) next to Baba Chawish. He heads up the Barzani Charity Foundation office in Sinjar where the ISIS genocide of the Yezidi took place. We will work with him to help the Yezidi families through the winter as their villages are still destroyed and armed terrorist factions still roam the area.

Inside the Temple is the tomb of their holy man, Sheikh Adì ibn Musafir who lived in 1162 A.D. The Yezidi religion believes in one true God who created the world through 7 angels, one of them being Gabriel. Baba Chawish led us around the tomb 3 times in a sacred procession as he sang a haunting, beautiful hymn.

In the chamber next to the Sheikh’s tomb, there are 365 pots filled with olive oil from the olive trees in Lalish. The grapes are crushed by hand to extract the oil. On special holy days the pots are lit.

Another view of the room of the old vases.

Jim in the chamber of the pots. The structure to his right has a special significance. There is a piece of red wool and if the thrower of the wool makes a wish and can have it land on top of that structure and stay, their wish will come true.