The Frankincense Trail - BBC documentary

[ejazr]

A fascinating 4 part documentary about the history of frankincense trade and rituals along the length of the trade. Also gives some interesting insights to tribal practices in the middle east.

 

[Singh]

I saw part of this documentary on TV. The Saudi driver was cool !

Frankincense has very important religious/spiritual connotations too, am I right ?

 

[ejazr]

It is quite informative, I learnt a lot of things that I didn't know as well.

Who would have thought that there is a tribe called the flower men who put crowns of flowers on their heads and dance in Saudi Arabia? lol
Or the camel jumping sport in Yemen?

I think frankincense definitely has a more religious significance for Christians as can be see in part 4 where almost all different sects of Christianity use Frankincense in some shape or form. But it is definitely a middle eastern tradition.

There also was a trading route to Gujarat and Malabar coast from Oman and Yemen as part of the incense route which reads its peak between 7BC and 2AD. After that, the sea route directly to Egypt from India undercut the profitability of the South Arabian trade routes and led to their decline. There is a pretty cool red sea diving sequence where they show a sunken trading ship of that era. (Incense Route - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Still interesting to note that globalisation existed in the East far before it was popularized by the west

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Frankincense has very important religious/spiritual connotations too, am I right ?

Why Gold Frankincense and Myrrh? - Star and Magi

The ancient church also understood the gifts to symbolize aspects of Christ's life and ministry, the work He would do. The gold, as mentioned before, suggested His royalty as King of the Jews and Lord of lords. In the frankincense, they saw His divinity. The myrrh represented His humanity—and that to the fullest extent because myrrh suggests death and burial. Thus, the gifts came to show Jesus as King, God, and Man.