Our New Author - Oxanna

Hello folks. I’m happy to introduce you my good friend Oxanna, well-known traveler and photographer. She’s done me a honor while agreed to lead her own column at the blog with her reportages. Her story about herself you can find in the next post.

The Contest Results

So, our first contest is over. I must admit, we received less reviews and articles than expected, and very few of them were worth to be published. Anyway, thanks to all participants!

And now - our winners!

• The 1st prize - Monica Torres from Spain shared with us her experience of burning sang;
• The 2nd prize - Chandra Prakash from US with his article on 8 Reasons for Burning Incense;
• The 3rd prize - Viv Smith from UK with her very touching personal story.

The winners will receive emails on how to get their prizes.

Thank you all, we’ll repeat it the next year!

How To Use Sang: Monica Torres

The Tibetan Incense Shop Review: Sarah Shannon

Just a quick note to say thank you for fantastic service. I have enjoyed shopping on your web site and I am absolutely delighted with the speedy delivery. I also especially would like to mention that your overall attitude and presentation, such as web site information right down to how the product arrives, and also the way the incenses were packed, gave me a positive experience and in some cases made me feel good about myself. One thing left to say - very well done. I assure you I will be back to shop with you again in the near future. I hope you will continue to grow and expand.

Wishing you many more happy customers and with warmest regards,
Sarah Shannon,
Cork, Ireland

8 Reasons for Burning Incense: Chandra Prakash

It’s generous. It connects you to the elements. It sparks appreciation. It is healthy. It brings you back. It joins heaven and earth. It offers a lesson. It makes you prepare.

Those who never or rarely use incense often think of it as merely an air freshener or an odor eater and are unaware of the many benefits of incense to the mind and body. Even many incense fans who use it regularly may not fully appreciate all its physical and psychological benefits.

The list below will make it clear why just about every religion since the beginning of time has used incense for its spiritual powers, why tribal healers and physicians throughout history have used incense for its healing powers, why monks have used incense for thousands of years for its concentration powers, and why artists use incense to inspire creativity.

1. It’s generous. Ritual is an important part of living, even small rituals that may seem inconsequential. The insignificance of offering a stick of incense is key. It doesn’t move you any closer to stated goals. It doesn’t seem to address your current concerns, whether they are about personal relationships or world hunger. Yet, offering — without expectation of something in return for your gesture — is training in generosity, the act of letting go.

2. It connects you to the elements. Incense has to be lit. It requires fire to ignite and oxygen to burn. We need oxygen to breath and fire to live. It is a truism to say that to survive, we need a relationship to our world, our elemental world, the world of our senses. By striking a match, lighting and sensing a stick of incense, you have reignited a relationship with the world that sustains you.

3. It sparks appreciation. It takes time to find incense that appeals to you. Japanese varieties can be delicate and floral. Tibetan incense evokes a warm, earthy quality. There are many subtle differences and endless varieties. But you will offer incense that pleases you. What do you like? Do you know? Another way of putting this is: what makes you happy? By enjoying incense in the context of practice, you set a positive tone for your session. Practice is about appealing to the part of you that is able to relax, slow down and appreciate. Cultivating appreciation is the ground of discipline.

4. It is healthy. Incense enhances concentration & focus, prevents infections, relieves headaches, fights depression, reduces anxiety & tension, aids insomnia.

5. It brings you back. When you sit down to practice, the smoke from your incense joins you. Some even select the length of their incense stick to time their practice session. You may be lost in thought when, suddenly, you are brought back to the moment by the scent from a plume of incense wafting by. At this moment, you can recall the intention to practice that prompted you at the time you offered the incense and gently return to your discipline.

6. It joins heaven and earth. Smoke moves in space. Space extends everywhere. When you light incense you can invoke space. You can do this by letting the smoke go where it wants. Who would try to tell smoke where to go? At the same time, space is a reminder of earth. Eventually, after enjoying the space of heaven, smoke will settle into dust and land on earth. We can’t forget to enjoy the space of heaven in our practice. Practice takes effort –fire—but it can be lighthearted. It doesn’t have to be so serious. It is natural to enjoy space. It is natural to settle on the earth.

7. It offers a lesson. The incense stick begins at a full length and then grows shorter as it burns. There is no way to repair or retrieve a stick that has burnt. At first the scent is strong, soon the stick is gone and the scent will be faint. Sometimes the ash sits on top of the stick, like a memory of past glories, before toppling off into the incense bowl. The smoke may rise slowly like white ink from the stroke of an invisible brush or may disperse, fanned by hidden currents of air. All experience is fleeting — like the smoke from a stick of incense. This is a true lesson.

8. It makes you prepare. To offer incense, you need incense, matches, a bowl. You need to think about this before your practice session. To practice, you need time, a place, and intention. You have to work to gather what you need for practice. You have to plan and organize your life so you can sustain a practice. Your time and your space have value. They are the very commodities of existence and essential resources for practice. Always in short supply, they can be squandered or not. Prepare well and your practice will go well.

Chandra Prakash, Boulder, CA

Tibetan Incense Shop Review: Melinda Karston

I just wanted to tell Tibetan Incense Shop how happy I am about the service I have received and the products I ordered. It was an absolute joy to browse through your website and have a look at all the products. You have such an extensive range of incense and I was really pleased with the very competitive prices too!

I have only recently become a customer but when I ordered some things from you it arrived within ten days from Europe, and that’s impressive. It was all packaged appropriately and it was so nice to have things ordered and handled efficiently. I plan on being a very long time customer of Tibetan Incense Shop and plan to recommend them to friends and family.

Thanks again!

Melinda Karston,
Seattle

Incense Review: Kate Steinard

Recently I began thinking about incense – the different types and scents, my favorites and where I was when I first smelled it.

It comes in sticks, ropes, powder, coils, dhoops, wood chips, cones. And comes from India, China, Japan, and all over the world, but the best ones are from Nepal and Tibet. You can light it for rituals or light it ‘just because’.

I’ve enjoyed many scents from the basic cheap to the handmade expensive and I always return to sandalwood. Or a sandalwood mix. It loyally permeated the sixties with me and followed me into the next century. Sandalwood has the history and the memory factor that none of the others have.

My first sandalwood incense experience began at a head shop in Daytona Beach, Florida. The ‘after dinner’ crowd was shopping and people watching on the sidewalks next to the beach. My senses were riveted with sounds of motorcycles, music by the Tams, kids screaming for snow-cones, Moms sipping on Singapore Slings and the freaks were stopping in the head shop to buy some new music or a peace sign patch. I could smell the incense long before I could see the head shop. I go inside and buy a ring with a large red stone. I hear Surrealistic Pillow on the turntable and we discuss the songs and talk about Grace Slick. I stood out like a sore thumb in my small town, but these were my people and I feel a real kinship with them.

Anticipation surrounded me that summer night and I felt I was in the midst of a beautiful memory that would last a lifetime. Permeated in a young girl’s adolescence and the smell of sandalwood.

Kate Steinard,
Daytona Beach, Florida

Burning Incense Review: Xian Kim

Obviously burning incense is not directly to do with meditation, but there’s an indirect connection. As part of our preparation for meditation it’s common to settle down by going through some form of ceremonial ritual.

Rituals can be very simple of very complex. One of the most common forms of ritual action is to light incense. It’s best if this is done mindfully. First one lights candles, and then the end of a stick of incense is lit in the candle flame. Usually we let the end of the incense burn with a flame for a few seconds, and then the incense is gently waved in the air. This has the effect both of extinguishing the flame so that the incense is now glowing as an ember rather than as a flame, and of sending a stream of smoke into the air. Some people will then bow before sitting for meditation.

I’ve always found that the choice of incense is important. Certain kinds of incense can produce a very calming effect, and we can very quickly build up positive associations with a particular scent, so that the mind becomes quiet and a retreat-like atmosphere settles around us.

The more refined the incense is, the more likely it is that it will have a positive emotional and mental effect. Japanese incense is generally more refined (and in fact the world of Japanese incense is like the world of wine, with a great variety of qualities ranging from merely good to connoisseur-level). Indian incense can be more rough and chemical-smelling. Tibetan incense is more natural, and although some is refined much of it is like a fire on a hillside. That’s my experience; your mileage may vary.

Xian Kim, NY

Aromatherapy Incense Review: John Marshall

I love many incense from your site, and especially from Aromatic series. Here is my review on some of them.

Benzoin. I really liked this soothing scent. It’s sweet and floral, in just the right combination of light and rich. My partner (not always wild about incense) loves it and says it reminds him of honey or honeysuckle. It’s very relaxing - I use it when reading or unwinding - and it’s definitely in my top five.

Amber. Being an asmatic I just could not take smoky scent indoors. This incense opened up a whole new world for me. They are low smoke and have a delicate scent the permeates the room even with one stick lit! Amber is one of my favorite scents from way back. Being a child of the 70’s when incense was very much in I used to burn incense everyday. Now that I have found Morning Star incense I can again smell the delightful calming scent of Amber! A quality product and a very good price.

Jasmine. It’s so hard to find jasmine incense that isn’t charcoal blanks dipped in oil. Even when the oil is of the best quality, dipped incense can’t hold a candle to a good durbar or masala. This is a nearly perfect jasmine scent, delicate and potent at once. The pleasant wooded undertone contrasts nicely with the jasmine, keeping it from getting too heady while loaning it an irresistible, ambrosia-like quality.

Tuberose. This is one of my all-time favorite scents. I find this irresistable. I put the opened packs in my clothing drawers, so that my clothes will be scented with this fragrance. It is very powerful emotionally, although the frangrance is not all covering. It is its essence and not its strength that makes it so inviting.

And a couple of words about your great site.

Since I first found your website I simply fall in love, then (unfortunately :) or not) I get addicted to the website and your wonderful items! You are the first (and often the last) place I am looking for the incenses. In addition your customer care service is second to none! I just placed order yesterday and another one today - and I am pretty sure it wasn’t the last one! Many thanks for wonderful things, reasonable prices, great service and simply for being there for me! I already recommended you to my friends! Thanks again.

John Marshall
Cape Coral, Florida, US