The Valley of Detachment
The scene depicts the Valley of Detachment, in which the pilgrim moves beyond the illusions of the self. The valley was first depicted in the poem as a frozen tempest, and as such I felt the valley should be a light blue color to represent the cold tundra. This valley shows how insignificant are the things we put emphasis on compared to the all-encompassing reality of the divine. The lines I took for the Valley of Detachment depict a lot about fire and how the world would burn to ash, so the central piece would be fire. I decided to depict the wings of the Simorgh as part of the fire since it not only signifies the anecdote about the moth and the flame, but it also gives a suggestion of how the pilgrims reach the Simorgh. They must go into the flames in order to burn away the physical self. This act would liberate the soul from the physical self, and the soul would be able to continue onwards to receive enlightenment without the weight of the self dragging it down. This composition is made with Sketchbook.
Background music: Original composition for Santur and Daf
by Danial Shariat
A note on the music:
“It was quite difficult to replicate detachment musically, therefore the closest I could come to was having many jumps from lower registers to much higher, replicating the ascending feeling of detachment.” — DS