Mike and I popped into an incense shop on one of Glodok's little streets on Chinese New Year Eve.
We walked around sniffing the incense, trying to find one we liked. Most of them smelled like bad bath soaps and air fresheners (the bane of many people I know in Jakarta… a Facebook petition against them should be started). But we found some we liked.
But the most comical thing in the shop were all the "fake" items people want to take to the afterlife with them. Cardboard gold bullion, fake soap, fake boomboxes, fake jewels, fake wall clocks. There mustn't be any malls in the afterlife… something that would be hard for Jakartans to adjust to!
Err…Betty, perhaps you’re unaware (or you are aware of this but don’t care anyway)…it’s a very, VERY big taboo in the Chinese Indonesian community to use Chinese incense for other purpose than for praying (mostly for the dead)…I noticed you’re picking up one of those praying incense for recreational use? That’s a big no-no.
In the Indonesian Chinese community, lighting THESE type of incense are meant to invite spirits of the dead, so it’s very closely associated with death. There are lots of other types of incense in Indonesia for recreational / relaxation use, but PLEASE don’t use these ones!!