Until the other day I had no idea what frankincense looked like, smelled like or where you even got it. Now I do.
The original smell of Christmas (remember the 3 wise men bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus in Bethlehem?) started in the Middle East. No Christmas didn’t always smell of cinnamon that is wafted through American department stores or the chestnuts roasting on an open fire on Oxford Street.
Frankincense trees in Oman
Frankincense has been traded for around 5000 years. It is the sap tapped from the scraggly looking Boswellia tree and grown in Oman, Yemen and Somalia.
Omani frankincense is said to be the best in the world and the more opaque the resin, the more pure it is. You can even eat it. These humble looking trees are so hardy they grow in deserts and seemingly just out of a rock. But they don’t start producing the resin/sap until they’re about 8 – 10 years old. Hence its rarity. They’re said to be declining too and throughout Oman you’ll see small fenced-off areas with trees in them. Unusually I hardly saw fences anywhere in Oman. Cattle, camels and goats just wander where they please and the farmers call each other on their cell-phones (which is an odd sight) to let them know they have their stock.
To get the sap out, the tree is cut (tapped) so that it runs, then they let it harden on the bark before picking it off.
Buy a scoop from the souk
I have a jar of it that has bark still stuck to each ‘rock’. Long known for its medicinal qualities, frankincense is used in treatments for asthma and as anti-inflammatories. It smells a lot like pine and I bought an incense burner and coals that you light, then you place a little rock of frankincense on it which melts into the charcoal and smoke wafts up your nose. It’s not a good idea to have it burning inside lest your smoke alarms go off – unless you want to test them that is.
Apparently the smoke is also a good mosquito deterrent so I shall put that to the test this summer. It certainly smells better than citronella.
A typical frankincense burner in Oman
Oman is quite new to western tourists. Most people I speak to wouldn’t know where to place it on a map and certainly don’t have it on their holiday horizon, but I loved it.
The history, traditions and culture remain completely unwesternised (unlike their neighbours Dubai and Abu Dhabi) and only being an hour’s flight from Dubai or Abu Dhabi, it makes for an easy stop over on the way to Europe from Australia and New Zealand.
If you’d like more info on some itineraries for a holiday in Oman, United Travel have 2 great packages they’ve put together starting in the capital city, Muscat, and spending a few days in the desert, driving across wadi and experiencing the true taste of this historical Middle Eastern country.
Tags: frankincense, Oman
Megan Singleton is an