On my way to school as a boy I used to pass a temple. Every time I walked by it, a lovely scent drifted out and caught my nose. Sometimes I tried to peep inside to see what on earth could smell so good. Inside, something was being burnt in a vessel that looked like a clay pot, and as the smoke rose the scent spread all around.
One day I told a friend that there was a beautiful smell around his temple and that I loved it. He said, that is dhoop, incense. Since then the name has stayed with me. The scent is not one you forget either. It is so dear to me that even today, whenever I see smoke somewhere, a part of me hopes that someone has lit dhoop. Sometimes the hope comes true, and sometimes it gets put away for another day.
Not only in temples
I used to think incense was burnt only in Hindu temples. That idea broke at a relative’s house. I had barely stepped in when the smell of dhoop reached me, so I asked him why he had lit incense. He said the smoke was useful for all sorts of things, and that it drove the mosquitoes away. I sat there for a long while that day, a little drunk on the smoke.
Shamim’s call at Baldha Garden
A while ago I got the chance to visit Baldha Garden with Udbhid Chattar, a group I follow on social media. Chance is the wrong word, it was good luck, because I had been telling Shahidul for quite a while that we should go to Baldha. Of the garden’s two parts, the one called Psyche is not open to everyone, but thanks to the group we got in. It is full of trees, familiar and unfamiliar. That walk deserves its own post, so I will keep it short here.
We were all wandering at the far end of Psyche when Shamim called out. I went over and found him sitting under a tree, peering at something. The moment I reached him he asked, have you seen dhoop? Look, this is the dhoop tree. I was stunned. What did a dhoop tree mean, was that smoke really made from this tree? Did this tree have anything at all to do with incense? I did not know, and neither did Shamim.
Turning these thoughts over, I looked at the tree again. It was tall and broad, with no branches at all on the lower part, as if someone had planted an electric pole there and stuck a great mass of leaves on top. The trunk was very smooth and earthy in colour, you could call it grey. The leaves high up looked a lot like garjan leaves, which is exactly why I had first mistaken this dhoop tree for a garjan. The label gave the scientific name as Canarium resiniferum Bruce ex King, in the family Burseraceae. I wrote both down.
Back home, a little searching showed that our suspicion was right. This tree and the incense in the temple are closely related. A kind of resin oozes from the trunk, and once it is dried, that is what is burnt in temples as dhoop.
Meeting it again at Mirpur
I met dhoop again in section 57 of the Mirpur Botanical Garden, and honestly, that is where I got to know the tree properly. Many dhoop trees stand there planted in a neat row. I learnt there that the trunk carries long vertical marks. The leaves are a little stiff, glossy on top but noticeably different underneath, where they are covered in fine hairs.
The name gave me some trouble, though. The family was the same, Burseraceae, but the scientific name on the plate was Canarium zeylanicum (Retz.) Blume. Yet the tree at Baldha and the trees here looked almost exactly alike. I have since learnt that Canarium zeylanicum is a Sri Lankan species, separate from Canarium resiniferum, so one of the two labels probably deserves a second look.
Getting to know the dhoop tree
In Bangladesh the tree grows wild in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and so it has a few local names there: bari rata, dhonia rata and pairang. It is not only ours either. It grows naturally in neighbouring India, in Myanmar and in China as well.
Studies have reported a number of terpene compounds in its resin and oleoresin, among them limonene, alpha-pinene and alpha- and beta-amyrin, while the bark and wood have yielded phellandrene and sterols such as sitosterol. The timber is useful too, and goes into veneer and plywood. The fruit and seeds are a source of good oil, and in many countries the fruits are eaten.
I have a strong wish to plant a dhoop tree beside my own house. If it grows up and keeps giving me resin, I will dry it all day, burn it at night, and sleep without a care in the world.
The traditional uses described here are for information only. Consult a doctor before using any plant to treat an illness.
Leave a Reply