I find Tibetan style rope incenses to be quite neat, even if I don’t use them fairly often. I spent a good deal of time reviewing the Essence of the Ages big line of ropes and found many of them fascinating and a good half dozen or more quite essential to the growing Tibetan incense collection (give the Lama rope a try on your next order, it’s inexpensive and amazing.) In retrospect, some of the other more uncommon rope lines really don’t hold a candle to most of that line, particularly in strength of aroma or disntinctiveness. One exception to this rule I reviewed a while back and undoubtedly there are a few others I’m missing.
Unfortunately the trio of incenses making up the Aakash Bhairab Dhupaya set are among those that really don’t crest the wave when it comes to distinctive rope incenses. I do like the fact that the ropes are longer and thinner than the usual as it cuts down on what is usually a prolific smoke content, but in doing so the company increases the amount of lokta paper being burned, which has a sort of cardboard/burnt marshmallow/vanilla aroma of its own that tends to interfere with the scent at these levels.
The Herbal rope (tip colored red) isn’t what I’d personally think of as herbal, in fact it’s the first example of an incense too dominated by the lokta paper. The scent is generally that vanilla/low quality wood sort of scent and it’s not really pepped up by anything. The Sandal rope (yellow) does what it says on the lid, but is fairly low quality wood and the lokta paper, again, cuts through giving it quite a bit of papery vanilla scent. The Healing rope (green) is probably the best of the three, fruity, mellow and smooth and seems to have at least as much sandalwood content as the Sandal rope. There seems to be a bit of benzoin in the mix as well as the lokta paper. Even as the best rope of the three, it’s a bit generic overall.
Triloka’s Tibetan Blend Himalayan Rope Incense is one of a few Triloka ropes and is a step up quality wise on the Aakash Bhairab trio. It’s definitely heavy on the woods with what seems like a lot of juniper and sandalwood (red and white) content and herbs blended throughout. Like most ropes it also has that vanilla like lokta paper scent but it’s much thinner than it is in the ABs. Overall this too is fairly generic, but there’s a light cinnamon and spice content that helps to make it a bit more accessible.
It would be hard to recommend any of these before checking out the Essence of the Ages/Direct Help Foundation line, so if you’re interested in ropes, look into those first. These certainly aren’t unpleasant but have little to them that would separate them apart from the greater pool of ropes.
Olfactory Rescue Service 