Lalish Revisited

Tiziana was slightly suspicious that I might be Yezidi as we traversed below the temple to the sacred river of Zimzim to drink and wash. But it just isn't true. The truth is I find Lalish to be a mysterious and magical place. This time as there were only two of us, we were able to explore at leisure. We wandered through the little paths to all the little buildings, all of which are part of this temple complex. I was told it is quite busy during the festivals although I haven't yet managed to time my trip to catch one.

The above photo is of a road leading to the highest point of the mountain/hill overlooking the temple. The white areas house alcoves with more spaces to light the oil lamps at night.
(Above photo by Tiziana) These women were coming down as we were going up. They eyed our shoes suspiciously, but our guide had told us we could put them back on after leaving the temple.
And after wandering, we stopped for tea at the house of the family on the left: the Faqirs. Apparently, two families live at Lalish; the Faqirs and the Babachawish. My guide this time was an English-speaking man from the Faqir family with a desire to speak better English and study at our university (His first degree was completed at the University of Mosul).

Anyway, he tried to explain to me about the families and castes of the Yezidi society, but it was somewhat confusing. Of course there are plenty of websites to illustrate this more clearly, but it seems that the Mir (descended from Tawsi Melek) is the spiritual leader and under him are the Sheikhs (descended from 6 of the 7 great angels), the Pirs (descended from Sheikh Adi -in one of the tombs at Lalish) and the Murids (majority of Yezidis). I guess my new friend is a Pir?