Burning Tibetan Medical College Holy Land Grade 2 today, after trying Grade 1 yesterday - I can't tell too much of a difference between them yet, but people say there is one so I'll have to get to know them better. After reading a lot about Holy Land and how powerful and strange it is, I had built up quite an image of it in my mind. Of course it didn't smell anything like what I was imagining! In fact it is rather similar to the colourful Serghina incense traditionally burned in the city of Fes, Morocco, a spicy sweet mix of frankincense, benzoin, and goodness knows what else. There is also a warm and rough animalic side to it, which I presume is the pangolin scales and deer musk. This plus the woody campfire background paints quite a picture - if you close your eyes you could be on a mountaintop somewhere with a bonfire burning and some exotic beast turning on the spit.
Incense-Traditions included samples of sticks from the Gang-zi Mani, Dzongsar, and Wara monasteries. The first two have a similar note in them that doesn't quite agree with me, at least not yet, a sort of overpowering sickly sweetness. The Wara is outstanding, a sort of halfway house between the smoky rustic Tibetan vibe and the more quiet Japanese warm woodiness. The OFS blog suggests that this is because of a higher agarwood content. Or course these are all very affordable sticks so it can't be that much, but maybe a little goes a long way.
One day I might graduate to the high end incenses that are mostly discussed here, but for the time being I'm very happy with these lower grades, and with some of the Shoyeido lower end offerings such as Hakuun which I can't get enough of. Lots to look forward to, at any rate!