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As Malaysia battled the pandemic this year, its anxious citizens sought guidance from religious deities, with many generating small plumes of smoke in their homes in honour of these gods.
For more than 1,000 years in Buddhist and Taoist cultures, people have lit incense as a means of connecting with higher powers in times of crisis.
While the coronavirus ravaged the world, a 93-year-old man continued labouring in his workshop on the Malaysian island of Penang, crafting handmade incense,
exactly as he’d done for 70 years. Incense by Lee Beng Chuan. Courtesy Ronan O’Connell
Penang once brimmed with independent joss-stick-makers, but factories now dominate this industry, leaving Lee Beng Chuan as the island’s last incense artisan.