Hey all!
Welcome back to my blog! This week I will be touching on the topic of incense burning. Incense has a long history with China, dating thousands of years back to the Xia Dynasty (circa 2070 -1600 BC) where the practice first began. When incense is burnt, smoke is released along with various scents depending on the type of oils and wood used in production. The most common purpose for burning incense is for the worshipping of deities and ancestors, especially during festivals like the Chinese New Year and the Hungry Ghost Festival. Other purposes include timekeeping, odour-removal and even aromatherapy.
Of course, there are concerns with the smoke that is released from the burning of incense. Many studies have documented the health risks of exposure to incense smoke, such as this study conducted in Taiwan. The study lists some of the pollutants in incense smoke, such as particulate matter (PM), and gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxides. The study also mentions that temples in Taiwan burn approximately 3,580 tons of incense annually alone, and this is without factoring the incense burnt in households. As you can see, it all adds up. The amount of incense burnt by an individual might not amount to much in terms of pollutants, but the collective amount can be very impactful to our health and environment.
Curious to find out how my peers felt about this issue, I decided to conduct a short survey to gather their views. I had a total of 22 respondents, of which nine were working or studying in an environment-related field. Exactly half of the respondents have households that practice the burning of incense. The table below shows that burning of incense daily and during certain festivals is indeed quite common in these households.
Of the 22 respondents, only 3 of them felt that the burning of incense was not harmful to the environment.
I then probed further and asked the respondents how they felt about the willingness of their households to burn less incense. Majority of the responses indicated that their households would most likely be unwilling to do so, citing reasons such as religious practices and tradition being hard to break away from and how the impacts are seen as being relatively inconsequential, especially amongst the older generations. One respondent also mentioned that it would be possible if there was an alternative, else it would be difficult to convince people otherwise. The responses are unsurprising, as this tradition has existed for so long with seemingly little to no negative impacts. Even in the case of using alternatives, I feel that some might reject them and prefer to stick to the more traditional options, in fear of offending the recipients of their offerings and worship. These responses show that once again, traditions can pose a challenge when attempting to change the mindsets of others, especially one that is so integral to Chinese culture. As traditions can be a rather sensitive issue, I wonder how best we can approach them to achieve meaningful results.
See you next week!
Jun Yu
Hi Jun Yu,
I agree that traditions such as incense burning are unlikely to change in the near future given its long history and deep-rootedness in the Chinese culture. However, I do wonder if advocating the scaling down of such practices would be better, as compared to a frequency reduction. For instance for incense burning, the common practice is to burn 3 joss sticks for each altar. Yet, there are some (my family included) who choose to burn a single stick as they reasoned that it conveys the same degree of respect. What are your thoughts on this?
Cheers
Yu Xun
Hi Jun Yu!
Thank you for sharing the results of your survey! Your post has made me realise that when added up, this tradition can really impact the environment! Personally, I don’t have many friends or family members that participate in this tradition, but I do have many neighbours that practise this quite frequently, and I must say it is rather concerning sometimes (due to its impacts on both human health and the environment). However, like you mentioned, traditions are hard to change, and are indeed sensitive issues, because it seems disrespectful to comment on these traditions or propose alternatives.
This is quite different, but reading your posts made me think about the numerous other controversial traditions around the world. Whaling, for example, is a very popular tradition for many different communities in Japan, the Makah Indian tribe in USA, the Iñupiaq people in Alaska, and many many more. Many of these receive more attention and opposition than traditions like incense burning, and my guess is because it directly harms whales and poses a threat to biodiversity, thus garnering more emotional response from people. Although I also don’t support these traditions, I wonder why people oppose these whaling traditions so openly, seemingly disregarding the fact that they may also hold a lot of cultural value for the communities that practice them, but hesitate to oppose traditions like incense burning. Perhaps it is also because people are less aware of the impacts of traditions like incense burning?
– Hope 🙂
Hi Hope,
Your comment & Q are so interesting. Have you thought about the influence of marginalisation ? Meaning, traditional practices by indigenous whalers in the Arctic – indigenous peoples in general are marginalised and have very little power in decision-making.
Meanwhile, you could argue (no offense) that China is a juggernaut with a history of imperialism, including marginalisation (and worse) of indigenous and other peoples.
Might this make it comparatively difficult to speak out against Chinese practices whether they occur in China or among diaspora populations ?
Just a thought.
jc
Hi Jun Yu! I have wondered before if burning incense has a huge environmental impact and your post managed to answer my question. You mentioned that your respondent felt that if there were alternatives available people might switch away from burning incense. Do you think that this can be a viable option in the future? I feel that for some people, the alternatives might not feel as ‘authentic’ and not ‘following tradition’.
-Alicia 🙂
Hi Jun Yu,
This post and the comments / questions by your peers raise a much bigger issue. At least in my mind. The tension between having respect for other cultures & traditions and moving with the times, including recognising and confronting traditions that effectively violate human & environmental rights.
For example, as you may know, many culture engage in forced marriages between men & girls, often within the same family. Or many cultures practice female genital mutilation. Often, these practices are done in the name of religious beliefs.
Would you and your peers (e.g., Yu Xun & Alicia) who seemingly advocate for a soft / sensitive approach also advocate for a soft approach when it comes to these other issues ? Where do we draw the line in the sand ?
jc