[stuartcr]

I really like the smell of incense, but the food offerings, sometimes get too ripe. Like you said, smells bring back memories and we associate events with them. I used to go to Glasgow a lot, and that place had a very distinctively unpleasant smell almost all over the place. Living most of my life near the water on the east coast of the US, I guess I’m spoiled by relatively clean air.

[ravager]

The temples in India are a whole different world. I have been to some ancient temples in India built of stone, completely dark from inside and only lit by oil lamps. The stone walls are black and dripping with amber, wax, bat guano and grease. There is a pyre of burning wood, butter,caramel sandalwood, incense, amber, camphor,dung, milk, honey, .....smell of lemongrass,marigold, fresh flowers along with rotting flowers. The smell can be overwhelming. It all sounds gross but its not.

Tantra resort and ashrams in US pay top dollar to create milder versions of that experience.

[ravager]

We can recreate sanitized version of everything her in the US but just not the real experience of walking inside a temple that lasted for a few thousand years. India combines beauty and horror in ways no other country can.