[Buddha-l] Re: Can Buddhists quit smoking?

[Christopher Fynn]

Hi Erik,

> Hi Chris,

> sorry to 've kept you waiting, but I was busy this weekend. The 
> ingredient is THC, the effective stuff in cannabis, see 
> http://sourceryforge.org/index.php/Incense . You may also enjoy 
> http://zebra.sc.edu/smell/animesh/animesh.html .

> 
> Erik
> 

H'mm - the THC referred to in the (unsourced) remark in the sourceryforge
article is alleged to come from "gum mastic and some brands of frankincense"
- neither a usual ingredient in Tibetan incense. Many kinds of incense
Tibetans use (and burn in the most prodiguous quantities) are in powder form and 
contain no extracted gums. The only gums that might be there would be those in 
the whole plants the powder is made from. Whole juniper branches are also often 
placed on embers - which really produces vast amounts of thick smoke.

While cannabis indica is a very common weed in the lands on the southern 
Himalayan slopes where much of this incense is made - I've never seen or heard 
of it being used in incense manufacture (other than way back in the 60's I heard
of some western travelers disguising hashish as Nepali rope incense).

In Eastern Bhutan cannabis is usually fed to pigs as it is supposed to make
the pigs docile and the meat sweet. The favorite dish of people in that part of 
the world is large slabs of pork fat (typically 3 or four inches of fat with 
maybe an eighth of an inch of meat). As THC concentrates in fat where
it remains for a considerable period - I've always wondered if that is why
they enjoy this dish so much. (People from that part of the world do tend to be 
very laid back.)

Anyway, if you are interested in researching possible hallucinogens in Tibetan 
incense, I can probably come up with a number of Tibetan texts dealing with 
incense manufacture and ingredients - there is apparently a specific formulation 
for almost every deity in the Vajrayana pantheon and there are many medicinal 
types as well.

The most expensive varieties of Tibetan incense sometimes do contain things like 
musk and beozar - and since these are animal products I avoid them. However 
since these ingredients are expensive they are rarely actually used in the 
commercial kinds of incense exported to the west - though several brands claim 
to contain them.

with all good wishes

- chris