a Buddhist tantric ritual, an assisting monk may swing a censer or thurible as he passes to 'purify' the room. This is a container usually made of metal that hangs from three chains. Inside it, powdered incense that has been put on a smoldering bit of charcoal burns slowly, and the smoke escapes through pierced openings in the closed lid. One tradition says that during one of the Buddha's sermons a monk heedlessly swatted a mosquito. The Tathagatha is said to have ordered that, in the future, incense ought to be lit in order to keep the flies away, so that people could more easily concentrate on Dharma teachings, but also to prevent the needless taking of lives. Censers are used in the Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, Old Catholic and Eastern Orthodox sects of the Christian religion during important rituals such as benedictions, processions and important masses. Early Jewish symbol of God In Genesis 15, a chapter of the Bible , God instructs Abraham to cut a heifer, a she goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon into halves. When it got dark, "a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces", and later God made a covenant with Abraham granting him and his heirs extensive lands between the River of Egypt (either the Nile or the Wadi el Arish in the Sinai) and the Euphrates. Texts from Mari in northern Mesopotamia from about the same period say that parties entering into a covenant would seal the agreement by cutting a donkey in half and then walking between the severed pieces. One interpretation of the ceremony described in Genesis 15 is that God made an unconditional covenant when God alone (symbolized by the fire pot, or the fire in it) passed between the two halves of the slaughtered animals. Japanese Kodo ceremony Kōdō (香道 - Way of Fragrance) is the Japanese art of appreciating incense, and involves using incense within a structure of codified conduct. Participants sit near one another and take turns smelling incense from a censer as they pass it around the group. Participants comment on and make observations about the incense, and play games to guess the incense material. Sakthi Karagam Sakthi Karagam is a dance performed in Tamil Nadu with a fire pot on the head in the Mariamman or Durga temple rituals. Today it is danced with a pot decorated with