History of
incense
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Awareness of scent can lead to a deepened contact
with the past. For example when you catch your typical 'grandma's scent' it
can invoke certain memories. And these memories can activate a whole range of
emotions. Scents are often used in regression-therapy to activate memory. So
it seems that scent has an aspect that goes beyond time. Burning Frankincense
on a hot coal can help to make contact with religious traditions with which
you have affinity. Within the Egyptian tradition incense was widely used and
I personally feel an intense contact when I use substances they used
thousands of years ago. In a similar way some people have an inexplicable
drive towards the mysticism of the far east, here also incense can help
crossing those boundaries. For these reasons it is useful to know something
about the history of incense. |
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The Middle-East Various people in this region used incense.
There were often many applications. The Egyptians for example used Myrrh in
the embalming of their deads, used it as an antiseptic medicine, and to burn
on their altars as a sacrifice to the Gods. There is archeological evidence
for the use of incense until 4500 years ago. In the younger Egyptian temples
we can read in the inscriptions incense ingredients that we still know today:
Frankincense, Spikenard, Mastic, Henna, Rose, Cinnamon and a few others. The
most famous incense that we know is called Kyphi and is supposed to have
healing and psycho-active properties. Only... the recipe is lost en until the
day of today perfumers and incensemakers try to restore it in its former
glory. There are many scents for sale that pretend to be Kyphi or to be
inspired by it. |
Ramses offering incense to Osisris |
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In the Jewish tradition we find back a
similar legendary recipe. In the bible-book Exodus, about 3000 years ago, a former
Egyptian priest called Moses, gives explicit instructions for an incense that
has to be used in the Tabernacle, a Jewish version of a temple. This recipe
is called the Kethoreth and contains Galbanum, Storax, Onycha and
Frankincense. There is a discussion going on about what exactly is 'Onycha'.
In any case, this incense could only be prepared by initiated Jewish priests
and whoever broke this rule risked being stoned to death. |
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As valuable as gold... |
The queen of Sheba, probably in the neigbourhood
of contemporary Yemen, visited the Jewish king Salomo and brought many
valuable scents with her, like Frankincense and Myrrh. The trade route over
land or through the Red Sea was long and full of danger, like robbers and
pirates. This drove up the price to astronomical heights. The control over
this Frankincense trail was taken by merchants from the people of the
Nabateans. Along the route they built fortifications and cities. The most
famous city of the Nabateans is Petra in Jordan. End points of the route were
the Palestine city of Gaza and the Syrian city of Damascus. Later on the
Romans became very fond of incense and they put a fleet in the Red Sea to
safeguard the incense trade. |
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The far East Buddhism had indoubtedly had the largest
impact on the spreading of incense all over the world. The foundation of this
belief goes back about 2500 years and was spreaded quickly all over Asia. The
story goes that in a monastry the acolites often fell asleep during the
meditation sessions, understandable but also a little embarrassing. Now it
occured to the abbot that the smoke of a burning Sandalwood fire caused an
alert state of mind. And so the burning of Sandalwood was introduced within
the tradition as a means to improve the quality of meditation. It were also
the Buddhists who researched and applied the healing powers of incense. Later
on the Hindus take over the application of incense in their Ayurvedic
medicine. |
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Chinese incense altar
Incense alarm clock; as the incense burns up the
twine, the balls fall with noise in the saucer |
In the west the use of incense
stayed limited to loose incense, but in Asia the incense stick was invented.
Initially one made a mixture of Sandelwoodpowder, Elm-root and sawdust which
after the addition of water was rolled to sticks and being let to dry. In 550
CE the incense stick reached Japan from China where its cultural status can
be compared with tea. A special application of the
incense stick is the measurement of time : A stick with a certain length and
diameter needs a certain length of time to burn up. In this way a visit to a
nice Geisha lady was measured in 'a stick'. The incense alarmclock is another
nice application. The making of scented oil is probably
very old in Asia, maybe even as far as 5000 BCE. Via techniques like
'enfleurage' vegetable scents could be added to a carrier oil like almond or
olive oil. Distillation is an invention of Persian alchemists and about 1000
years' old. Through the invention of distillation it became possible to maken
ethereal oils. Asia has a lot aromatics to
offer, to mention a few : Patchouli, Nag Champa, Benzoin, Elemi, Aloes,
Borneol, Star Anise. |
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Elsewhere In Northern America incense was much applied in
religious shamanistic ceremonies of
which the smudging with aromatic herbs is the best known. We call this
smudging. In a smudge mixture we find aromatics like : Sage, Lavender,
Conifer, Sweetgrass and Copal. Also Tobacco is applied by the Amerinidians. From Middle and South America we also find
evidence for the uses of incense by the priesthood. Widely used was Copal,
but history leaves many open spaces, partly because of the cultural genocide
of which Indians all over the Americas became the victim. From more recent times we find in the
Shamanistic traditions many African influences. |
Smudging |
