THE SCENT OF OMAN

Once considered more valuable than gold, frankincense, an aromatic resin harvested from scraggly desert trees, is indelibly linked to life and luxury in Oman.

- NIVEDITA JAYARAM PAWAR

A calming, earthy scent greets me as soon as I land at Muscat International airport. The mystical fragrance continues to haunt me in the car to Shangri-La Hotel in the Barr Al Jissah area. It’s here in the grand lobby of the hotel that I come face to face with the scent—curling up from a latticed metal diffuser, close to the Omani coffee pot. Frankincense or luban (the Arabic name), is the quintessential scent of Oman. Whether you’re in a souk, masjid, mud-brick fort, a modern shopping mall or a traditional Omani home, the distinctive aroma of burning frankincense is never far away.

The birth of Frankincense 

Frankincense (from the French ‘franc encens’, meaning ‘pure incense’) is an aromatic resin obtained by making small incisions on the bark of the Boswellia tree. The sap that oozes from the cut gets collected in tearshaped droplets. The aromatic resin then hardens and becomes little crystals of frankincense which is then hand cleaned and graded into various classifications. Though Boswellia trees grow in Arabia, Yemen, Africa and even some parts of India, they really thrive in the deserts of Oman. The highest quality frankincense is collected from a rare species that proliferates in isolated wadis in Oman’s southern most province of Dhofar.

Frankincense from Boswellia sacra tree here is considered the best Frankincense also has a storied biblical connection. It was brought as a gift by one of the three wise men, along with gold and myrrh, to honour the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Many believe that these gifts brought to baby Jesus may well have been the origins of the gift giving custom at Christmas.

During excavation of the UNESCO heritage site of Khor Rori a fortified port city in Muscat, incense burners were found with frankincense still on them.