aromatics for use in their rituals. They gathered them from the richly forested Amanus mountains in Syria or imported them from Arabia. The wood, resin or sap of a wide variety of aromatic substances, including myrtle, galbanum, tamarisk, cypress, bdellium, cedar, frankincense, ladanum, spikenard, myrrh, calamus, mastic, juniper and opobalsam, were used as incense in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia. The incense was offered either upon an incense altar, similar to those found in southern Arabia; on a hollow pottery shrine, specimens of which have been traced to the third millennium BC;4 in an incense ‘lamp’ designed to hook on the wall; in a vase-shaped censer; or in a shallow bowl placed on top of a tall cylindrical pottery stand, which is depicted in many Assyrian relief carvings. These often contain a conical mound of incense which looks very similar to the cones of incense or ‘unguent’ used by the Egyptians, which were composed of a blend of powders, oils, resins and fats.
Like the early Egyptian term for ‘perfume’, the Mesopotamian word for ‘unguent’ had religious associations. Assyrian sculptures at Ninevah show incense being burned for the sun-god and it is known that the Assyrians used aromatics during rituals connected with the cult of the dead. The Babylonians also sometimes sprinkled their meat offerings with incense as a way of consecrating the food, making it holy and therefore acceptable to the gods.
But again, the principal and underlying basis for the use of incense in Syria and Mesopotamia was the belief that its odour ensured divine favour. Where incense was burned, the gods assembled – as if they actually manifested their presence through scent. It was also thought that the fragrance of the incense worked like a drug on the minds of the gods, as well as on the minds of men: their wrath was calmed, they gave positive oracles (incense smoke was used as a form of divination) and looked kindly on the misdeeds of man. Incense was the means by which the human soul could be cleansed before the face of god:
Incense, dwelling in the mountain, created in the mountains,
you are pure coming from the mountains.
Fragrance of juniper, fragrance of cedar, incense dwelling in the mountains.
The powerful incense has been granted to us,
the high mountains provide it for purification
in the pure censer, filled with awe inspiring splendor,
the sweet oil, the choice oil, worthy of the table,
and the pure [aromatics], the materials of the purifying craft.
Make the incense fumes, their purifying product, issue forth:
May he be clean like heaven, may he be pure like the core of heaven,
may the evil tongue stand aside!5
It is clear from this text that to the Assyro-Babylonians incense was also a substance of purification, especially with regard to those rich odoriferous resins derived from coniferous trees like cedar, juniper and cypress. This corresponds to the central idea behind many Oriental practices, especially those of the Buddhists, in which incense is used extensively as a means of purification.
THE FAR EAST
The Chinese have one of the most ancient systems of herbal medicine, which includes a vast number of indigenous species, such as the Chinese or Japanese angelica, but also imported aromatics. Sandalwood, for example, is listed as an incense and medicine in numerous ancient Chinese texts. Apart from sandalwood, the Chinese have also used storax and the powdered bark of cinnamon and cassia as incense from very early times. Balls of jasmine were used in China to cleanse the atmosphere surrounding the sick and to scent the air during public festivals. Bronze incense burners found in China date back to the Shang Dynasty (1600–1030 BC) and incense still forms an essential element in the religious ceremonies of the Far East today. Borneo camphor, for example, has been used as an incense in the East since ancient times and is still burned in China at funerals.
Like China, India has always been very rich in herbal plants and aromatics have played an important role in traditional medicinal practices as well as religious rituals for thousands of years. The Hindus adopted the ritual use of incense from the Chinese and introduced other ingredients, including frankincense, sarsaparilla seeds, benzoin and cyprus into the recipe. They were the first to use the roots of plants, such as that of the lime tree (Tilia) and Indian spikenard as incense materials. Strongly scented floral fragrances, such as jasmine or rose, also contribute to the characteristic sweetish scent of Indian incense. Fragrances like saffron, cassia, cardamom, cinnamon, aloe-wood, basil and patchouli are also common. In Hindu temples, the god Shiva is offered incense every four hours, mainly frankincense and cyprus.
However, the most popular incense material throughout the Far East is derived from the sandalwood tree. The highest quality comes from Mysore in eastern India. In India the oil is often combined with rose in the famous perfume aytar, which is used to purify body and soul. Sandalwood, cloves, cardamom and curcuma are also blended to form a powder called abir which is used during Hindu ceremonies. In Tantric yoga, sandalwood is described as the scent of the ‘subtle body’, and is used to awaken the kundalini energy and transform it into enlightenment.
Other early evidence of aromatic materials used for ritual purposes in the Far East has been found in the Indus Valley, at the foot of the Himalayas. Harrappan figures of the Mother Goddess dated to the third millennium BC still show the dark stains left by incense smoke. Thousands of years later in Tibet and Nepal, incense is still in use as an offering and purification material, as exemplified by the Tibetan Buddhist Riwo Sangcho or ‘Smoke Puja’. During the rite, cypress and juniper – ‘incense offering of the mountains’ – is commonly burned in order to purify all past karma, and combat and appease negative influences including ‘the elementals who cause disease and bring obstacles, the evil portents of dreams and all kinds of bad omen’.6 This Tibetan rite typically combines animistic-type beliefs with later Buddhist concepts, which ultimately transforms the practice from a purely personal ritual into one which embraces the whole of existence.
Incense was introduced to Japan together with Buddhism in AD 538. For the following 200 years it was used exclusively on Buddhist altars, before being gradually integrated into the everyday life of the Japanese people. Over the next few centuries the practice of scenting clothes using a censer containing resinous balls of incense became extremely popular and aristocrats are known to have fumigated their rooms with a variety of aromatics. At this time, all the incense materials used in Japan were imported via China from different parts of the world. Prominent among the substances used were sandalwood, camphor, borneol, cassia, costus, spikenard, tumeric, angelica, clove, styrax, benzoin, frankincense and aloe or eagle wood.
By the eleventh century, the art of combining different scents had developed into the ‘incense competition’, where interested parties got together to try and guess the composition of their fellow-contestants’ compounds. At the same time, the art of ‘listening’ to incense became associated with the aesthetic appreciation of the period, where a judge would comment on each recipe and express in poetic form the type of mood evoked by its form and fragrance.
Then in the fifteenth century, the ‘kodo ceremony’ or ‘art of incense’ was born. Like the tea ceremony, which emerged during the same epoch, it is a ritual practice based on the spiritual culture and established manners of the Japanese people. During the ceremony, the participants are required to smell, identify and then comment on the particular aroma and effect of 10 pieces of agar wood. The incense material used in the art of incense is
