Samadhi Incense

I am writing this explanation according to what I know, as a form of general knowledge about incense production. This explanation is also requested by the Tharpa Choeling nuns. They asked me to give a name for the incense and write an explanation of what is exactly the way the incense is being produced and what substances they use.

I think Tingdzin Dugpo or Samadhi Incense is the most suitable name for the incense produced by the nuns of Tharpa Choeling. Usually we use incense mainly for making offerings to Buddha and Dharma when we do prayers for the purpose of attaining enlightenment. Meditative concentration or Samadhi can be developed if we manage to accumulate enough merits and for that the greatest way is to make offerings to Buddha and Dharma while having the correct motivation. There are two types of offerings, mental and physical. For mental offerings, we manifest various divine substances that fill up the whole universe and even the universe is multiplied infinite times through meditative concentration. Such offerings we make to the Triple Gems. For physical offerings, we make an effort through our body, speech and mind to obtain clean and pure substances which we sincerely offer to the Triple Gems. Among the two categories of offerings, mentally developed offerings are better than physical offerings. However in order to develop our ability to make mental offerings, we need to start from making physical offerings.

From the vast substances of offerings available in this world, many great masters prefer to offer incense and water which are considered the best substances for offering. Water is itself pure and incense is made from very pure and natural substances. Yet both do not need much effort to obtain and are not costly. Our main hindrance towards obtaining merits through generosity and the main cause of negating whatever merits accumulated through generosity is miserliness. If we offer something expensive and later regret spending so much, it not only eliminates our merits accumulated from generosity but also develops the cause for us to be born as a hungry ghost. So offering a stick of incense or a cup of water will be least likely to cause us to develop such negative thoughts, because offering such substances is affordable to us yet such substances are easily available and pure.

According to the text of making incense offering, great masters of the past and present light incense while they meditate and manifest from the incense smoke, five offerings that satisfy the senses and fill the whole universe. These offerings are made to infinite Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha constantly. In Tantric practice, besides making the offerings to the Triple Gems, the practitioner also makes offerings to infinite Gurus, Yidams (Tutelary Deities) and Dharma Protectors as guests of the pure field. One thus accumulates both merits and wisdom. Also the incense smoke manifests five sensual pleasures that flow to the lower realms to satisfy the inhabitants and eradicate their suffering and causes of suffering. They are immediately relieved from their suffering and at once gain happiness. In this way, we manage to pay back the debts owed to them in the past and purify the Karma of experiencing such suffering in future.

This is the practice of the great masters who have the ability to make mental offerings in the way described. Ordinary people like us may not be able to practice in this way and make mental offerings but we can still obtain similar results due to the precious substances of the great masters which are carefully preserved and passed down from ancient times and being mixed with the incense. Those blessed substances and herbs used not only have a nice fragrance but also have a healing effect for various types of ailments. Especially for the Samadhi incense that Tharpa Choeling produces, cleanliness is most important throughout the whole process, from preparing the incense all the way till packing is completed. The nuns wash their hands thoroughly before they prepare the incense substances by grinding them.

The incense contains many rare substances, such as the herbal leaves from Nagri Gyawu mountain of Tsurphu, which is very famous in Tibet. The story goes that nothing was growing in that mountain until one day when Karmapa shaved off his hair and asked his assistant to throw his hair at that mountain with good wishes. The assistant did as he was asked accordingly. After some time, an herb called Balu started to grow and covered the mountain. Until today, Tibetan people from near or far try to get at least a little bit of that herb so as to clear the impurities in the environment and purify the obstacles they are experiencing.

Muktinath spring water is also used to moisten the incense powder as this spring water has its own special quality. The story of the special quality of the spring water of Muktinath goes back more than 1000 years when the 84 saints made a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and obtained the realization of Chakrasamvara. They then visited Muktinath as they saw through their superior vision that this place is the holy mandala of Chakrasamvara. They decided to pour the water which they brought from lake Manasarover, whose water directly comes from Mount Kailash, in this holy place. Immediately the water became the source of 100 springs and the walking sticks they planted in the ground became trees. That holy water can heal many types of sickness and due to the aspirations of great masters, by coming into contact with it, we can develop wisdom, positive energy, good fortune and we will be aided in our spiritual development. Besides this, the Anis also gather holy water from many holy places and famous mountains to mix into the incense so that whenever the incense is burned, all the benign gods and beings are pleased and the negative forces are eliminated.


So many herbs and substances are needed to be obtained in order to make good incense. The fragrance may not be strong yet should smell pleasant and soothing. I can't give each and every name of the incense substances because I don't know their names in English; some substances may not even have an English name. The only substances whose English name I know are white sandalwood, saffron flower and Juniper leaves. Agaru is the Sanskrit name of the wood from a very rare tree that has a very nice fragrance and is very expensive to buy, but we got the wood from some disciples who generously donated it for the incense.

I personally think that the Samadhi incense which the Tharpa Choeling nuns are producing can help each and everyone who use it to accumulate merits as well as clear all the impurities in the environment that are generated from negative elements in the outer universe and our inner defilement.

The practice of making Tibetan incense has a long history dated from the 7th century when King Songtsen Gampo sent Thonmi Sambhota to learn Sanskrit in India. He brought back many treasures of knowledge such as Buddhist texts and the method of making incense. Since then, Buddhism started to flourish in Tibet and the demand of incense increased. Since then, incense producing on a small scale was practiced by various monasteries and later on, Mindroling (a monastery) started to make incense of a very high quality which became famous in Tibet. After that, most incense makers followed their method and used the same substances. Our Anis obtained special advice from some experienced and well known Tibetan incense makers and integrated the ancient Tibetan method of making incense with the use of new technology. An incense pressing machine is used in the making of the incense.

Production was launched on 10th March 2009 which is the full moon day of the miracle month and the nuns are now making incense at Kirtipur. Very soon they will come out with nice and beautiful packaging and deliver the incense to wherever the incense is needed.

Incense are drying under shaded and clean place.

Some of Holy subsances herbs from holy places before grinding.

This is Balu from Nagri Gyawu of Tsurphu.

The herbal flower from Holy Place of Namtso Lake, Tibet.

The herb from holy place of Dolpo She mountain.

If you are interested and need to communicate about incense,

You can mail to Ani La at this mail: samadhincense@gmail.com