Baitang Community and Suzhou Sanhexuan Culture Co Ltd jointly hosted an event on Jan 3 when the participating residents learnt a lot about traditional Chinese incense ceremonies in a room with delicate aroma and beautiful music.
    An incense ceremony expert started the event with a detailed account of the origin and types of traditional Chinese incense ceremonies, the materials and tools used in the ceremonies, and benefits that incense can bring for people’s physical and mental health.
    The expert laid emphasis on zhuan incense which, also called seal incense, is named after zhuan shu, or seal script, an ancient style of writing Chinese characters. According to her, Chinese in the Tang (618–907) and Song (960-1127) dynasties initiated the ceremony of using a lit incense stick to burn incense powder formed in the shape of the Chinese character to fill their rooms with fragrance.
    “Zhuan incense was also used as timepieces at that time,” the expert added.

Following that, the expert taught the residents to conduct an incense ceremony in person, and guided them to cultivate their mind in the process.