Incense stick-making is the only income for the women living on the banks of Loktak Lake other than fishing.
India has a rich tradition of using incense in many social and religious occasions since time immemorial. Incense sticks, also known as agarbathi (or agarbatti derived from Sanskrit word Agaravarthi, gara = odour, agar = aroma, varthi = wound ) and joss sticks, in which an incense paste is rolled or moulded around a bamboo stick, is one of the main forms of incense in India.The basic ingredients are the bamboo stick, the paste (generally made of charcoal dust and joss/jiggit/gum/tabu powder - an adhesive made from the bark of litsea glutinosa and other trees), and the perfume ingredients - which would be a masala (mixed) powder of ground ingredients into which the stick would be rolled, or a perfume liquid sometimes consisting of synthetic ingredients into which the stick would be dipped.
Manipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Its people include the Meitei, Pangal (Muslims), Naga, and Kuki, who speak different languages of branches of the Tibeto-Burman family. The state is bounded by Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south, and Assam to the west; Burma lies to the east. It covers an area of 22,327 square kilometres (8,621 sq mi).
The Meitei, who live primarily in the state's valley region, form the primary ethnic group (60% of the total population).The term Meitei now refers to five social groups -- the Meitei marup (believe in only Meitei culture and God), Meitei Christians, Meitei goura Chaytonya (believe in both Meitei and Hindu gods), the Meitei Brahmins (Manipuri Brahmin locally called "Bamons") and the Meitei Muslims (called Miah Meitei or Pangal). All of them has Meiteilon as their mother-tongue. Their language, Meiteilon (also known as Manipuri), is the lingua franca in the state.
Manipur had been known throughout the ages as Meitrabak, Kangleipak or Meeteileipak as well as by more than twenty other names. Manipur came under British rule as a princely state (kangleipak) in 1891.Manipur was a union territory from 1962 and later became a full-fledged state in 1972.M.K. Priyobarta became the first state Chief Minister (1972--74).Manipur is one of the seven states of Northeast India. The state is bound by Nagaland in the north, Mizoram in the south, Assam in the west, and by the borders of the country Burma in the east as well as in the south. The state capital of Manipur is Imphal. The state lies at latitude of 23°83'N -- 25°68'N and longitude of 93°03'E -- 94°78'E. The total area covered by the state is 22,347 km². The capital lies in an oval-shaped valley of approximately 700 square miles (2,000 km2) surrounded by blue mountains and is at an elevation of 790 metres above the sea level. The slope of the valley is from north to south. The mountain ranges prevent the cold winds from the north from reaching the valley and bar cyclonic storms originating from the Bay of Bengal.
source - Wikipedia
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