Incense Sticks on Display
Incense is a preparation of aromatic organic materials, intended to release fragrant smoke when burned. The constituents of the visible "smoke" comprise not only the combustion products and liberated particulates common to burning organic materials, but also (and most prominently) solid and liquid organic compounds volatilized by heat and released from their surrounding matrix only to condense into fine droplets on contact with the relatively cool air of the surrounding environment. This can be understood by analogy with the observed condensation of water vapor in the breath on a cold day. The scent evolved by the burning of incense depends upon its specific composition — the term incense referring to the manner of functional utilization rather than to any commonality among the substances so utilized with respect to their odor or other inherent properties. As an ancient article of trade, incense gained employment in religious ceremonies the world over, and in the context of preserved tradition characteristic of such ceremony those uses persist unchanged. Concomitant with religious use in the ancient world, prescription of incense materials and their smoke in medicine and the emergence of a culture of aesthetic appreciation for incense facilitated even greater ubiquity for incense burning. The forms taken by incense have changed with advances in technology, differences in the underlying culture, and diversity in the reasons for burning it.
Size: 3713px × 5568px
Photo credit: © Studio9 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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