Tashi Choephel (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཆོས་འཕེལ།) is the founder of Be Dur Ye, a center devoted to the production of Tibetan incense for ritual, home purification, and healing. The name of the factory (Be Dur Ye, བཻཌཱུརྱ་བོད་སྤོས།) carries a layered meaning: it recalls a precious Tibetan blue gem, whose pure deep color resembles that of the Buddha of Medicine, and it also echoes the blessing of one of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, who directly consecrated the project and encouraged Tashi Choephel to put his deep medical knowledge into practice. Indeed, his life has been dedicated to the study of Tibetan medicine, which required intense training in Tibetan language, philosophy, and botanical knowledge. Through this formation, he developed a refined understanding of medicinal plants and, especially, of how they can be combined in the traditional manufacture of Tibetan incense. He began the Be Dur Ye factory in 2011, first establishing the workshop in a very small house. At that time, there were no machines, the quantity of ingredients was very limited, and he worked with only two basic sets of herbs.
Little by little, he began travelling to other areas to collect specific plants and materials, preparing the blends and grinding them himself. Over the years, the incense was increasingly appreciated, and the project gradually expanded until he was able to buy land and build the current factory. Today, the incense is sold to monasteries, county-level hospitals, Chinese companies, and individual customers, but the center still preserves the spirit of its humble beginning: deep knowledge, patience, and a close relationship with the land.
The vision behind the factory is rooted in the idea that incense is not merely a product, but a carrier of Tibetan medical and spiritual knowledge. In Tibetan culture, incense has a strong religious and healing character: it is believed to purify spaces, calm the mind, support health, and create harmony between human beings and the unseen world. There is the faith that, through the proper use of incense, harmful forces can be pacified, and benevolent deities can offer protection. For this reason, the combinations are not arbitrary, but are based on methods described in Tibetan Buddhist and medical texts. Tashi Choephel’s work stands precisely at this intersection between healing and ritual, between the body and the invisible.
His commitment is also evident in the fact that the incense-combinations are entirely natural: not a single chemical is used. All the ingredients, thirty-one in total, are made up of herbs, plants, and minerals, and on the most basic level six key herbs are combined to create the fragrance itself. Yet each plant has its own role, and its own life shaped by altitude, climate, and season. In this way, incense becomes not just an object, but a composition of landscapes, knowledge, and relationships between humans and nature.
This richness of ingredients gives Be Dur Ye its very distinctive character. Most of the herbs used for incense are also part of Tibetan medicine, and each one contributes a specific quality, not only to the smell but also to the balance and efficacy of the final blend. Some plants grow under rocks at altitudes above 4000 meters and are valued for helping to regulate blood pressure.
Rhodiola (སྲོ་ལོ་དམར་པོ།, srolo dmarpo), native to the Tibetan Plateau, is known as a powerful adaptogen, useful against altitude sickness, fatigue, and emotional exhaustion, while also strengthening the lungs and heart. Red Sandalwood (ཙན་དན་དམར་པོ།, tsan dan dmarpo), brought from India, is used for its cooling and purifying properties, while Kailash aster (ལུག་མིག, lug mig), found in alpine meadows and scree slopes, is associated with the treatment of fever, lung conditions, and inflammation. Other ingredients include the fragrant orchid (དབང་པོ་ལག་པ, dbangpo lagpa), valued as a nourishing tonic and also used as a natural binder because of its sticky quality; Tibetan cumin (གོ་སྙོད, go snyod), appreciated as a digestive aid; sweet wormwood (གུལ་མོ་, gul mo), known for clearing “heat” from the body; local plants such as Kimpa (མཁན་པ།, mkhan pa), which helps the incense burn evenly; and Soka (སུར་དཀར།, sur dkar), a small-leaf azalea used to improve energy and immunity. Some ingredients are striking not for their scent, but for the role they play in the balance of the composition: amber, travertine, stone-and-soil mixtures from very high altitudes, and even treated seashell fragments, which soften the overall fragrance.
There are also plants such as Pompi (སྤང་སྤོས།, spang spos), and Dongku (ཏང་ཀུན།, tang kun), each carrying its own medicinal, aromatic, or structural function within the incense. What emerges from this world is almost a geography of scent and healing: alpine roots, forest-edge flowers, grassland herbs, stones, minerals, and traces of the sea all meeting in one carefully measured formula.
The making process itself reflects this same balance between tradition and adaptation. Be Dur Ye produces incense in two main forms: the standard long filament shape and the stupa shape. The filament incense is made with a specific machine, while the stupa-shaped incense is still entirely handmade. In the past, yak horn was used as a press, a reminder of how deeply this knowledge is tied to older local ways of working. For the stupa incense, all the herbs are first combined and ground into a fine flour. Alcohol is then added, and the mixture is left to ferment for three days, during which it gradually develops its own smell. After that, it is pressed and worked into a dough, using body force and manual pressure, before being shaped by hand. The process is slow and physical, requiring sensitivity as much as technique. It is not only a matter of producing incense, but of bringing together ingredients, time, and embodied knowledge in the right proportion.
Looking to the future, Tashi Choephel’s path is one of continuity and thoughtful growth. He plans to further develop the existing factory by restructuring the current building into two distinct spaces: one dedicated to the workshop, warehouse, and raw materials, and the other conceived as a physical shop. This next step reflects a clear intention: to strengthen the practical side of the business while remaining faithful to its foundations. In this sense, the future of Be Dur Ye does lie in giving tradition the space and structure to continue living. Through incense, Tashi Choephel is not simply producing an object of fragrance; he is preserving a form of Tibetan knowledge in which medicine, ritual, landscape, and care for life and nature are still inseparable.
