Pandama

Pandama
Tarmida Sahi Bashikh wearing a pandama (mouth veil) as he reads Mandaean prayers at Yahya Yuhana Mandi during Parwanaya 2025
Typemouth-veil
Materialcotton cloth
Place of originsouthern Iraq and southwestern Iran

The pandama (Classical Mandaic: ࡐࡀࡍࡃࡀࡌࡀ) is a mouth-veil worn by Mandaean priests while performing baptismal ceremonial rituals. It is the loose end of the burzinqa (turban) and is wrapped around the mouth and lower face. The pandama also protects the face from water during masbuta rituals. The pandama is worn only by officiating priests, not by Mandaean laymen.

Etymology

The word pandama is of Iranian origin. Macuch (1965) gives the etymology pandama < *paddan < padān.: 45 

In the Qulasta

Several prayers in the Qulasta are recited when putting on and loosening the pandama, including prayers 7 and 55.

Symbolism

According to Shahram Ebadfardzadeh, an Iranian-American yalufa (learned Mandaean layperson) in San Antonio, Texas, United States, "when the priest officiates, he is an angel, and his lower face must not be seen, but covered up.": 29 

See also

References

  1. ↑ Al-Mubaraki, Majid Fandi; Al-Mubaraki, Zaid; Al-Mubaraki, Brian (2000). The Mandaean Rasta: Its Making and Wearing. Northbridge, New South Wales. ISBN 0-9585705-6-6. OCLC 50163136.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ↑ Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people (PDF). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515385-5. OCLC 65198443. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. ↑ Macúch, Rudolf. (1965). Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  4. ↑ Drower, E. S. (1959). The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
  5. ↑ Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2023). 1800 Years of Encounters with Mandaeans. Gorgias Mandaean Studies. Vol. 5. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-4632-4132-2. ISSN 1935-441X.