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burning incense
Incense burning at the Longhua Pagoda, Shanghai, China.
incense
- Related Topics:
- ceremonial object
- thurible
- incense burner
incense, grains of resins (sometimes mixed with spices) that burn with a fragrant odour, widely used as an oblation. It is commonly sprinkled on lighted charcoal contained in a censer, or thurible. Incense-bearing trees were imported from the Arabian and Somali coasts into ancient Egypt, where incense was prominent in religious ritual—e.g., at the daily liturgy before the cult image of the sun god Amon-Re and in the mortuary rites, when the souls of the dead were thought to ascend to heaven in the flame. Incense was employed to counteract disagreeable odours and drive away demons and was said both ...(100 of 451 words)