A Conversation on Incense: The Guimet Museum's Fragrant Legacy
Long regarded as a key topic in scholarly study and debate, incense culture—encompassing the burning of Sang and incense—stands as a central emblem of Tibet's material civilization and spiritual life. In an earlier series of eight articles, the author gave a systematic account of this culture's origins, its place in both religious and everyday settings, the aromatic materials of foreign and native origin, and the traditional methods and distinctive readings associated with it.
Incense culture—transcending distinctions of time, place, ethnicity, culture, and social class—has become an integral component of Tibetan culture, according to Tibetologist Chabpel Tseten Phuntsok (1922-2013). This view appears in his essay "The Custom of Tibetan Ritual Incense Burning," published in Tibetan in the 4th issue of "China Tibetology" in 1988 and in English in 1991.
Nathalie Bazin, a French scholar with a long association with the Guimet Museum, focuses on organizing, researching, and curating Himalayan collections. To further introduce Tibetan incense culture, the author will selectively translate her article "The Art of Incense Offering in Tibetan Buddhism.
Originally appearing in 2013 within the special issue "Aromas and Rituals in Asia" of the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," the article was accompanied by images that were all added by the translator.
Incense offering rituals are important in Tibetan Buddhist art, as certain iconographic themes and artifacts demonstrate; incense represents diligence, which ultimately leads to enlightenment. Within the Chakrasamvara system, a deity who was originally a purification figure—known as वज्रडाक (Vajraḍāka) and also རྡོ་རྗེ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་ (Dorje Khandro), though some manuscripts write རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔའ་བོ་—is commonly shown in an "upper deity and lower incense burner" composition. Burning sesame seeds in the incense burner causes fragrant smoke to come out of the mouth, together with either three fruits (འབྲས་བུ་གསུམ་) or six medicinal substances (བཟང་པོ་དྲུག་). This smoke is believed to dispel negative karma, sickness, and other hindrances.
Among the five Vajra goddesses that embody the five desirable offerings, the Incense Vajra Goddess (गन्ध/गन्धवज्र; དྲི་རྡོ་རྗེ་མ་) represents the olfactory sense. Although her skin color varies, she is typically portrayed with a conch filled with aromatic liquid. In Tibetan Buddhism, one of its foremost rituals involves presenting the Five Desirable Offerings to gurus and peaceful deities to please them, which shows the devotee's commitment to renouncing sensory pleasures.
Among the four goddesses—flowers, incense, lamps, and ointments—the Incense Bearer (धूप; བདུག་སྤོས་མ་) personifies incense burning. Typical depictions show her with a dark complexion while holding incense utensils [translator's note: incense burner, incense tray, incense bowl]. The Incense Vajra Goddess is also frequently placed within this same grouping [translator's note: i.e., the Ointment Goddess; དྲི་ཆབ་མ་].
In the 11th century, some of the most exquisite murals in Tibetan art history were completed in Western Tibet, a region that holds significant importance in the religious and art history of the later dissemination period of Buddhism. As for the Incense Bearer and the Ointment Goddess, they can manifest with either one face and two arms or three faces and six arms, and are found in different mandala themes.
The first level of the Sumtsek Temple in Alchi has ten magnificent mandalas adorning its walls. In some of these, Vairocana—the "illuminating" central deity with four faces and lord of the Vajradhatu—is featured; at the four corners of the square, the four offering goddesses are shown, symbolizing the four directions. 2.
The "Cave of the Offering Goddesses," located in the village of Piyang (ཕྱི་དབང་།), is one of the many Buddhist caves there—meditation or worship caves, now part of the Donggar-Piyang site complex. This cave's three niches originally held a clay sculpture, and the deities painted on its walls belong to the mandala centered on that sculpted figure. These mandala murals draw upon scriptures translated in the early phase of the later dissemination period.
In the mandala, the Incense Bearer is depicted twice: first, she holds an incense bowl decorated with bird motifs in her right hand; second, the bowl rests on a lotus while she grasps the lotus stem with both hands in a reverential pose. The figure has a dark complexion and is richly attired. Likewise, within mandalas, the two goddesses are frequently rendered in three-dimensional form, a notable instance being the central hall of Tabo Monastery (ཏ་པོ་དགོན་).
In 1042, the kingdom of Guge carried out further renovations on the central hall of Tabo Monastery, which is now located in the Spiti Valley. The construction of this monastery had been initiated in 996 by King Yeshe Ö (ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་; 947-1024/1031). The painted clay sculptures in that hall are part of the Vairocana mandala [translator's note: including sculptures of offering goddesses and related metal decorations].
Within Tibetan Buddhist art, five categories of objects are frequently employed as symbols for the five desirable offerings, which may correspond to the five Buddhas. In this system, the sense of smell is linked to Amitabha Buddha. Additionally, the Bodhisattva of Fragrant Hands (དྲི་ལྡན་ཕྱག་), who belongs to the "Sixteen Bodhisattvas of the Auspicious Aeon," is also regularly seen in the arrangements of mandalas with various themes [translator's note: alternatively rendered as the Bodhisattva of Fragrant Elephant; སྤོས་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་].
In the offering table positioned before the main deity, or at the bottom of the painting, and sometimes beside the landscape on either side, these items typically appear—either occasionally on their own or arranged together on lotuses, plates, or offering bowls. Representing the sense of smell are horizontally shown conch shells filled with aromatic oils or liquids. These conch shells are set on the offering table or positioned in line with the fruit offerings, which symbolize taste.
It is worth noting that in ancient South Asia, the conch shell had already become a significant emblem of Vishnu, the principal deity, symbolizing spiritual authority; its powerful blast could vanquish foes and proclaim triumph in warfare [translator's note: see previous articles on conch shells]. In certain instances, conch shells are also positioned alongside musical instruments—such as cymbals and stringed instruments—that represent the sense of hearing. For Buddhists, the conch is regarded as an important hand-held object denoting the far-reaching proclamation of the Dharma.
Inside the conch shell, the aromatic liquid is most often light blue, though yellow occurs on occasion. When the conch is regarded as a musical instrument, paintings usually show it in a vertical position, as opposed to the horizontal orientation it has when it stands for the sense of smell. In Buddhist stories, the shell's contents are described as saffron water or five-fragrance water [translator's note: holy water containing sandalwood, musk, nutmeg, saffron, and camphor essence].
Cypress [translator's note: for the aromatic properties of pine and cypress, see previous articles] is regarded as a sacred tree across the pan-Himalayan region and holds the foremost place among aromatic materials in Tibetan incense culture. Above 3,000 meters, expansive cypress forests—referred to as “fragrant forests”—are found, with trees averaging twelve meters in height. Because its branches and leaves produce a cinnamon-like scent, cypress is widely used in diverse purification rites.
Reting Monastery, founded in 1057 by Dromtönpa (འབྲོམ་སྟོན་པ་; 1005-1064), the great master of the Kadam tradition, lies within a cypress forest. In the monastery's historical accounts and legends, these cypress trees are located in different directions around the building, jointly constituting a sacred landscape. The sacred cypress's seven layers of bark are used to correspond to the Seven Buddhas, who correspond in turn to the seven revered teachers commencing with Gendün Drupa.
To this day, the cypress forest [translator's note: Tibet Reting National Forest Park] still serves as a place of worship, and cutting down trees there is strictly forbidden for any person or group. In many artworks featuring Dromtönpa [translator's note: especially those illustrating his previous lives and lineage], the cypress forest forms the central landscape of Reting Monastery, where seven turquoise-colored sacred trees represent the seven revered teachers.
In Tibetan incense making, aside from cypress, close to thirty other materials such as saffron, sandalwood, agarwood, and musk are typically used. Cypress itself serves as a key medicinal component in traditional medicine. During Sang offering rituals, its branches are burned to invoke divine protection. Furthermore, the scent of cypress is said to support meditation by reaching deeper states of consciousness.
In certain rituals, incense of three kinds is presented to the upper, middle, and lower realms; while doing so, the thumb and index finger form a mudra, the incense is held with the other three fingers, and mantras are recited [translator's note: nevertheless, this kind of incense practice is seldom seen in Tibet]. When arranging offerings in the traditional manner, the incense offering is the fourth item counting from the left, consisting of incense sticks set in a bowl filled with rice or barley.
In the ritual sequence, the fifth offering is the lamp, which represents the illuminating quality of wisdom, while the sixth is the ointment offering—liquid aromatics such as saffron water or flower water—that signifies purity and cleanliness. The fragrance of these offerings draws in the Gandharvas (गन्धर्व; དྲི་ཟ་), celestial beings who serve as musicians and dancers, typically with males singing and females dancing. To make these offerings effective, they must be consecrated through the recitation of mantras [translator's note: especially Om Ah Hum].
Metal incense vessels in Tibetan Buddhist art come in a wide range of shapes, many of them highly appealing. Some are fashioned like furnaces or bottles and sit on three- or four-legged bases; others hang from three chains, similar to traditional Christian incense vessels, while still others are made as square boxes [Translator's note: For local names of incense vessels, please refer to previous articles on Tibetan incense].
Housed at the Guimet Museum is a metal incense box, eighty centimeters long, believed to originate from Derge in eastern Tibet, where exceptionally refined Tibetan incense vessels are crafted. Dating to the 16th or 17th century, this gilded box is inlaid with turquoise, crystal, and lapis lazuli, and engraved on its surface are jeweled curtains, sacred deer, and soaring dragons.
Strongly shaped by Central Plains styles, this metal incense box also features jeweled curtains that appear to issue from the mouth of a central glorious face (किरीटीमुख; ཙི་པ་ཊ་), whose claws firmly hold the curtains in place, while the moon ornament atop its head may be carved from ivory [Translator's note: For more on the glorious face, refer to previous articles]. Furthermore, the Guimet Museum possesses a pair of 19th-century copper curtain-top chain incense burners adorned with rows of lotus petal patterns.
In 1912, the celebrated French Tibetologist Jacques Bacot (1877-1965) donated this collection. Its surface bears engravings of three resplendent faces upholding lotus curtains, decorated below with strings of jewels.
From the Guimet Museum’s holdings come the early-14th-century "Drigung Kagyu Master: Sangye Wön Drakpa Pel" and the 19th-century "Copper Canopy with Chain and Censer," the latter given by Jacques Bacot. A partial view of the image depicts disciples and donors. Within this thangka, which dates to the early 14th century, a noteworthy feature is visible: a disciple donor positioned in the lower left corner performs an offering ritual to the central deity—his own guru.
In other thangkas of the same era, an empty conch shell is usually set before the disciple donor. Here, however, a spherical incense pouch with a chain rests beside him [Translator's note: The main deity in the thangka is Sangye Wön Drakpa Pel (1251-1296), the founder of Riwoché Monastery of the Drigung Kagyu tradition]—a distinctive design that calls to mind 9th-century Tang Dynasty artifacts, such as the gilded silver incense pouch recovered from the Famen Temple crypt in Shaanxi.
Flowers are offered to the guru and peaceful deities using vases or bowls. The Campaka flower (ཙམ་པ་ཀ་), a symbol of Maitreya Buddha/Bodhisattva, serves as incense. As for the ritual vase, it is decorated with peacock feathers and filled with saffron water, accompanied by the five aromatic substances that represent speech (with varying interpretations). The peacock feathers are believed to transform poison into nectar [Translator's note: refer to earlier articles on birds].
From this flower, it is said, arises the enlightenment tree associated with Maitreya. In Tibetan iconography, the flower itself symbolizes Maitreya (though, as the translator notes, Pine trees and Naga trees can also serve this symbolic role). The artwork 'Maitreya Buddha' (15th Century, Private Collection) accompanies this article, which is translated from Suolangwangqing's blog.