By Lambe Lamis 
May possibly I notify you a tale? It starts with a issue. Do you bear in mind the times of the 1960s and early 1970s or have you listened to about them? All those were being the instances of the Cuba Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The occasions of ‘The Beatles’ inquiring for ‘Love, Like, Love’, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, the ‘Rolling Stones’ and Cat Stevens on his ‘Peace Train’, the moments of Hare Krishna, Make Really like-Not War, the situations of Woodstock, Hippies and Flower Electric power, the occasions of Ravi Shankar with his Sitar, Yoga, Yogis and India. Does any of this ring a bell with you? Very well, that was also the time when I had my initially face with Incense sticks. It was definitely ‘en vogue’ to burn incense sticks especially on parties and to drift away on swath of incense smoke into the realm of dreams of a improved earth. Certainly, in the 1960s we had been all set to build a earth without the need of injustices and wars, in transient, to make the entire world a much better place, or so we thought, “Peace, brother.”
Back then when I have experienced my initially ‘Incense Party’ encounters I did, between others, not know two things, particularly that the aspiration of a improved globe would, alas, not come to be fact and that the calming fragrance of incense sticks would 1 working day come to be an daily fact of my everyday living.
What was back in the 1960s the exotic pinnacle of my everyday living as an adolescent in Germany, who with Ravi Shankar enjoying in the qualifications burned incense for no causes other than to appreciate the sensory pleasure and the exotic atmosphere coming together with it, did later become an integral section of my each day lifestyle. With out Ravi Shankar, even though. That was 25 yrs ago when after some decades in South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand – all nations in which incense sticks engage in an vital position in the people’s life – I did, finally, put down roots in Burma.
In my present day lifetime I am surrounded by the smoke and aromatic scents of incense sticks at pretty much every single corner. At house on my family’s Buddha altar, on the streets in nat residences that are placed in or at Banyan trees, in my friends’ houses, in the many smaller sized and much larger temples and pagodas that are lining the streets, and even in offices and quite a few area outlets almost everywhere are incense sticks slowly but surely burning absent, largely emanating their wonderful fragrance of sandal wooden, which is the most critical and largely employed ingredient in Asian incense. On the other hand, in situation the incense sticks are made use of as a repellent to preserve absent the troublesome mosquitoes it is citronella that is utilised as all-natural insect repellent.
When searching at it intently my short article ought to in fact be titled ‘Burma, Buddhism And Incense’, not ‘Incense Sticks’ for the sticks are only supporting the layer of fragrant things that is attached to it and burned by way of flamable incense a process that is also referred to as immediate burning. Aromatic aspects or fragrant biotic supplies used for incense are generally all varieties of woods, roots, resins, bouquets, seeds, fruits, herbs and leaves that release a nice fragrance when burned. Dependent on the intended use some of the primarily used products are sandalwood, agar wooden, pine, Cyprus, cedar, star anise, vanilla, cardamom, frankincense, benzoin, myrrh, mastic, Dragon’s blood, galangal, sage, tea, rose, lavender, clove and saffron.
The incense adhere is just one particular of several attainable varieties of flamable incense. The other varieties are cones, coils, ropes and paper. But the sticks are the by people worldwide most greatly utilized type of incense. Also, they were being the very first variety of incense I have seasoned and it is as a result specifically the incense sticks that remind me on people periods in the 1960s and the nice inner thoughts the incense sticks have triggered then and do nonetheless trigger currently when they are slowly and gradually burning away that have triggered my want to generate this posting.
Incense sticks are mostly pink, occasional yellow or dim grey to black and available in two varieties, which are the cored adhere and the good adhere. The cored adhere that is primarily manufactured in China and India the place they are called Agarbatti (derived from the Sanskrit word Agaravarthi, gara = odour, agar = aroma, varthi = wound) contains incense substance and the supporting main of a stick largely created of bamboo whilst the reliable stick that is largely made in Tibet and Japan is made fully of incense materials. Even so, considering the fact that the solid stick has no reinforcing main it is breaking simply. One particular special style of stable incense adhere is the ‘Dragon Stick’. These sticks are normally extremely massive and are burned in open place only for they develop these a significant total of smoke that if the incense would choose area within shut room individuals in the area would be swiftly suffocated.
The key reasons incense is utilised for are to worship divine beings and ask for favours of them, to facilitate meditation, to aid therapeutic procedures, to cleanse (both of those non secular and bodily) and disinfect, to repel bugs or to just delight in the sensory satisfaction of the fragrance. But no matter what the purpose incense is employed for, inquiring for divine favours or facilitate meditation or to guide healing procedures or cleansing and disinfecting or repel bugs or to just appreciate sensory satisfaction it all transpires out of the identical motive, which is to make the globe a improved location to be and boost lifetime both on a little or lesser scale for a constrained variety of people today or on a huge scale for mankind in its entirety.
So considerably I have penned a ton about my own expertise with incense and what incense is creating and employed for and not so significantly about incense itself. But I believe that is in so considerably excusable as incense does not exist for the reason of incense by itself – meaning it is no conclusion in itself- but for its favourable consequences, which is to contribute appreciably to the human beings getting into the condition of being balanced, relaxed and content. And it is these favourable matters that have caused the coming into becoming of incense and moreover not only that it continue to exists but that it was even more made from its earliest forms into the science of aromatherapy.
The historical past of incense starts just at the moment when the initial guy-created spark jumped and lit a fire. The name incense itself makes it possible for drawing this summary due to the fact it is derived from the Latin word incendere that suggests ‘to burn’. Even so, though it is particular that incense already exists as long as male-manufactured fire it is completely unsure wherever it has originated from. But I consider that it is harmless to suppose that it was not just one precise area from which it originated but that it was people today of several distinct cultures in lots of distinctive spots who identified and recognized independently the value of incense and realised that incense is influencing the point out human beings are in spiritually, emotionally and – believe that it or not – also physically. And then men and women commenced to set incense to distinct but mainly spiritual and therapeutic works by using the border concerning which is, by the way, blurred. Millennia outdated archaeological conclusions and historic traditions from all around the earth do not only help this assumption but are irrefutable proof that it is a right assumption.
Exactly where is the incense adhere coming from? It was the Chinese who during the reign of the Ming Dynasty that lasted for practically 300 many years from 1348 to 1644 invented and introduced the incense stick that is referred to as Joss adhere in China. There is a extensive assortment of different incense adhere fragrances obtainable for which reason the sticks can be classified in accordance to their aroma as floral sticks, sandal wooden sticks, perfumed sticks, and so on and so forth.
It is no incident that I have set ‘worshiping’ at the leading of the a.m. summary of employs mainly because of all the employs incense is put to the use in religious ceremonies is absolutely the most significant a person. By the by, incense making was an art created and practised by monks and this delivers us to the main of the matter Burma, Buddhism and incense.
Incense plays even though there are cultural variants a central component in all religions from e.g. Christianity to Islam to Hinduism and Paganism and there is certainly substantially to generate about. Having said that, in this post I want to confine it to Buddhism in basic and Buddhism in Burma in particular. I have not stated Buddhism in one particular sentence with religions because Buddhism is by typical definition not a religion. The definition of religion is really complex and I acknowledge that the solution to the dilemma ‘Buddhism faith or philosophy?’ depends on how religion and philosophy are defined. Depending on what your own interpretations of religion and philosophy are Buddhism will be a religion, a philosophy or each. What tends to make issues so challenging to identify is the fact that there is no absolute consensus amongst scholars on what is necessary for a little something to be deemed a faith. Nevertheless, in my view Buddhism is a ‘Way of Lifestyle Philosophy’ relatively than a religion. I may make this a topic of one more short article someday in the long term but for now I depart it at that.
For all the variations in the detail most religions are fairly substantially alike, which goes also for Buddhism. The first motives are the exact, the top targets are the exact same and it is only the implies to arrive at the best purpose that vary. The various key sorts of Buddhism are Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Vajrayana Buddhism.
Theravada Buddhism, which is the oldest present type of Buddhism commenced its triumphal march into current days Burma – considering that 1989 also termed Myanmar – soon after acquiring been brought to the initially civilisations in this location particularly, the Mon and the Pyu kingdoms by missionaries from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) prolonged right before the initial visual appeal of the Burmans also referred to as Bamar who had been animists.
From the Mon Kingdom ‘Suvannabhumi’ the ‘Golden Land’ Theravada Buddhism also spread to neighbouring countries these as Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
In 1056/57 A.D. Theravada Buddhism was released into the mainly animistic Pagan (Bagan), the 1st Burmese Kingdom, by king Anawratha right after his return from the victorious navy campaign versus king Manuha’s Mon Kingdom Thaton. King Anawratha who dominated Pagan from 1044 to 1077 A.D. was converted to Theravada Buddhism by Shin Arahan, a Theravada Buddhist monk from Thaton.
Following the collapse of the kingdom of Pagan in 1287 A.D. the tradition of Theravada Buddhism that was practised all through the nation and experienced turn into dominant was ongoing. Burma is nowadays with 86 % of its population being born Buddhists the 2nd on the listing of Theravada Buddhism bulk nations around the world following Thailand with 90 % of its population staying Theravadins. Burma is also a single of the most active Buddhist countries and has the largest number of monks and nuns relative to the whole population. At this point I truly feel the will need to give further more explanation concerning the sort of Theravada Buddhism that is practised in Burma due to the fact it is not the pure Theravada as it was practised by the Mon.
Burma’s Theravada Buddhism is a combination of Theravada, Nat Cult and Naga Cult, in other words and phrases, a combination of Theravada Buddhist doctrine, Hinduism and deep-rooted aspects of the original spirit worshipping. In the pursuing I will give a pretty quick clarification as to why this is so.
Even the highly effective king Anawrahta was unable to eradicate the animistic beliefs of his people just after getting converted to Theravada Buddhism and established to make it the dominant belief in his kingdom. Most probably he was also unwilling to do that as it would have definitely been satisfied with the robust resistance of his subjects. Therefore he compromised. On the a single hand he condemned animistic customs and beliefs and on the other hand he integrated parts of it into Theravada by officially accepting a group of ‘Nats’ (celestial beings or guardian spirits) lessened to 36 ‘handpicked’ primary nats to which he included as the 37th nat ‘Thagyamin’. Thagyamin is truly a Hindu deity based mostly on Indra, who is as the ‘King of Nats’ reigning about ‘Tavatimsa’ (abode of celestial beings also referred to as heaven or 7-maximum abode of heaven). Both ‘Naga Cult’ and ‘Nat Cult’ have assimilated with Theravada Buddhist doctrines in Burma and have become an integral element of Burmese people’s beliefs in particular in rural spots. Even Buddhist pagodas have nats and nagas as guardian spirits. As to e.g. Yangon’s fantastic, golden ‘Shwedagon Pagoda’, (the world’s largest and most famous pagoda) this is the nat (guardian spirit) ‘Bo Bo Gyi’. Bo Bo Gyi is in harmonious coexistence with Thagyamin and photos of Gautama Buddha on the pagoda terrace protecting the Shwedagon from unwell fate.
Irrespective of the unique Buddhist custom burning incense sticks is an vital ritual. It is customary for Theravada Buddhists to incorporate incense sticks into their offerings comprising aside from the incense sticks fruits, bouquets, h2o and a candle. Nonetheless, the range of incense sticks made available as a present to Buddha is not selected arbitrary. It is usually a few to equivalent the ‘Three Jewels’ in Theravada Buddhism the Buddha, the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings) and the Sangha (Buddhist monk neighborhood) what would make it a whole of 3 incense sticks. These 3 incense sticks are lit jointly and In the Theravada Buddhist custom positioned as an supplying in front of a Buddha statue either at pagodas or on residence altars in which the home is quickly stuffed with the sweet fragrance of Sandal wooden, a wooden that is since millennia of the utmost value to Buddhists.
Some terms of warning and suggestions are at this stage in time suitable simply because in shut environments incense smoke does also have negative results on the humans’ health and fitness. The keyword is ‘indoor pollution’.
In accordance to scientists incense smoke has a unsafe mixture comprising carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and other volatile chemical substances. These substances can as the researchers say be straight connected to physical issues these as headache, lung problem, liver dysfunction and even most cancers. Thus, rooms in which resources employed for incense are burned need to be very well ventilated so that a continuous and sufficient inflow of clean and cleanse air is guaranteed in buy to cut down achievable harm to wellness to a minimal what is, preferably, zero.
We have now reached the stop of my short article and I hope you like it. In circumstance you have not however produced any personal working experience with incense sticks I suggest that you give it a serious try.