Tibetan incense
Tibetan, Nepalese and Bhutanese incense sticks are considered the purest as of composition and have the best medical characteristics. They may include 10 up to 40 natural components, collected manually. According to ancient Tibetan formulas all herbs, roots and minerals for these incense sticks are collected in the highlands of the Himalayas at strictly defined time. Tibetan incenses don't have a bamboo core, which makes them different from Indian ones and provides a more pure fragrance. Tibetan incense sticks are not only used in aromatherapy, they can also be helpful in needle therapy (acupuncture).
Now that Tibet is a part if China, Tibetan incense sticks are also produced in India and several hearths of Tibetan culture.
Usage of incense sticks
A number of nations of the ancient world, e.g. the Sumerians, the Kelts, and the Egyptians used fragrances of herbs to aromatize the air, to exterminate insects from their habitations, to develop intelligence and memory. In ancient China, India, Persia and Tibet incense sticks and powder were an essential attribute of every habitation. Oriental medicine advises to burn incense to raise one's capacity to work, to protect oneself from virus diseases, to relax, to throw off negative thoughts and emotions, and even to raise sexual power.
Nowadays most types of incense, including aroma sticks and powders, are manufactured in China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Thailand and other countries of South-East Asia. Aroma sticks differ very much in their composition: there is oil-based, herbal, floral, camphoric, honey-based and even... dung-based incense.
An aroma stick consists of powder that serves as a base, and aromatic oil. Most often they use charcoal powder or masala powder (that is composed of grit and fragrant flowers pollen) as a base. Charcoal-based incenses are always black and exhale the pure fragrance of the filling oil. Masala-based sticks may be of various colors, from ecru to umber. Their fragrance is a mixture of aromas of the filling oil and the powder.
"Tibetan Incense", transl. by Yana Soboleva
