Al-Bukhor (Incense) is one of the special scents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is a hospitality supply used for welcoming guests. People use incense on special occasions, weddings, and feasts, and agarwood incense is one of the prominent scents known in the local culture.
Agarwood incense extraction
Agarwood is extracted from perennial trees by cutting it in the middle and getting the wood from the inside. The wood types vary according to the trees' age, which is between 5 to 10 years, though some trees might age until 40. The older the tree, the higher the quality of the agarwood.
The importance of agarwood incense in Saudi culture
The agarwood incense is vital among Saudis because they present the agarwood to each other in occasions, and sometimes people gifted it in a special box. Agarwood incense is smelled all over houses when expecting guests. Many people use it on Fridays.
The agarwood incense types
Many types of incense are used in Saudi Arabia, including agarwood incense, Taif rose incense, Javanese incense, sandalwood incense, and frankincense "mastic" incense.
The agarwood incense includes many types, the most valuable and the rarest of which is the Cambodian agarwood due to the difficulty of finding it. The sandalwood is native to India and Southeast Asia. There is also Indian, Thai, Filipino, and Chinese agarwood, while blue agarwood is one of the most expensive types because of its high quality. The clementine agarwood is characterized by its rapid spread and stability. It has a strong aroma, and its source is the Indonesian islands.
The original agarwood incense is expensive and has a persistent scent due to the long time it takes to extract it from a tree called the laurel tree or Aquilaria. On the other hand, agarwood habitats and places of extraction are in several countries of South and Southeast Asia.
On the religious level, the Perfume and Incense Unit uses the best types of aged incense to perfume the Great Mosque of Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. The Unit belongs to the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque. The incense types include Natural Maruki Double Super and Clementine agarwood, which are used to perfume the Kaaba and all the mosque's facilities.
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