Giant candles, joss sticks banned for polluting air

GIANT incense sticks and candles used in Chinese religious practices have been banned by authorities.

Officials said smoke from the towering objects could pollute the environment, and that some devotees had recently been trying to outdo each other by using bigger joss sticks and candles.

Some had been using incense pillars as tall as a three-storey building, burning up to 25 giant sticks for more than 24 hours at a time.

The huge sticks can cost up to S$3,000 each.

Incense sticks are an important component of Taoist religious practice.

Worshippers believe the smoke helps waft prayers towards their deities.

But officials said competition for the biggest joss sticks went against the spirit of the religion, the Straits Times reported.

"Some people forget about praying and religion and think it is like a contest now to get bigger and bigger joss sticks," Singaporean business owner Chang Seng Chye, 42, told the newspaper.

The Singapore Environment Ministry has set strict size limits on joss sticks and candles with effect from March 1.

The new regulations limit the size of incense sticks to two metres in length and 7.5 centimetres in diameter.

No more than six may be burnt simultaneously at the same location.

Candles are now limited to 60 centimetres in length, and only two can be burned at a time.

Joss sticks and candles may not be burned within 30 metres of any building.

Offenders can be fined up to S$2,000.

Ethnic Chinese make up about 77 per cent of Singapore's population of three million.

There are about half a million Taoists, according to official statistics.

The practice of using massive joss sticks is common only in Singapore and Malaysia - where the sticks are made - and not in mainland China, Taiwan or Hong Kong, the Straits Times said.

 Published in the South China Morning Post. Feb 17, 1998