Sometimes in Chinatown, you may come across shops selling incense bundles and paper packets. Ever wonder what those are? Wentworth Buddhist Supply on Jackson / Cross Ross Alley courtesy author This store is a "Buddhist Supply Store" (even though they serve Daoists as well), and they offer items needed to pay proper respect to our ancestors, as well as other traditional items for the practice of Buddism and Daoism. The incense stick bundles, often called joss sticks (a pretty archaic term), are usually made of sandalwood, and are known as 檀香 (tang-xiang). They are burned as offerings and to aid communication with the spirits. They are also sometimes used to simply scent the room, or around Chinese New Year, as a way to light small firecrackers. BONUS FACTOID: Honolulu's Chinese name is 檀香山, literally sandalwood mountain, because there used to be a lot of sandalwoods exported from Hawaii. The white packets are offerings to ancestors and are paper offerings of cloth...
An exploration of San Francisco Chinatown typically NOT covered by tours