The Lotus Sutra praises agarwood as “a rain of heavenly flowers” and “a fragrance of the heavens.” Of the six offerings made to the Buddha, the first is incense, and among incense, agarwood is held foremost.
Agarwood was also placed inside Buddhist statues during bokjang (腹藏), the rite of enshrining sutras and treasures within an image. It carried the meaning of an incense offering, along with the wish that the enshrined objects would remain intact for ages to come.
Agarwood appears several times in the Bible as “aloes.” The Psalms speak of the fragrance of a king’s garments, and the Book of Numbers likens the tents of Israel to trees of aloes.
The agarwood tree grows only in tropical rainforests. So agarwood was shipped from Champa in central Vietnam and from Sumatra to China, India and Arabia, and onward to Silla and Japan. On the sea routes that carried spices, silk and ceramics, agarwood was always among the most costly goods.
The Shōsōin (正倉院) repository in Nara has preserved a large block of agarwood called Ranjatai (蘭奢待) for more than a thousand years. From the Muromachi period, Japan developed kōdō (香道), the Way of Incense, in which agarwood is gently heated and its scent appreciated. One does not “smell” incense but “listens” to it (monkō, 聞香).
As the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted,Numbers 24:6 (KJV)
and as cedar trees beside the waters