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Turning incense ashes to beaded bracelets: This millennial duo is making religious rituals sustainable
They look like prayer beads worn to ward off negative energy and promote well-being. Except these are not made of gemstones, ceramic, or even wood or plastic. Instead, 10 to 20 per cent of each matte orb is ash; the very same gray powder you get after burning incense sticks. The rest? Traditional herbs such as Chinese angelica, fu ling and baiji, which would explain the discernible smell that you associate with Chinese medicinal halls. These Ben Yuan He Xiang beads are the latest brainchild of Base Genesis, a startup founded by Alex Teo, 37, and Chris Huang, 35, in 2023 to revitalise Chinese religious traditions. Like knowing how many incense sticks to hold or what paper offerings to burn during the Qingming Festival. Or what to buy for prayers at the temple or a funeral if your family is Taoist or Buddhist. Not only that, the duo is also making it their business to make religious practices such as burning incense sticks and paper offerings a little more eco-friendly. And the upcycled ash beads are just their latest offerings. 'ISN'T THIS A SUNSET INDUSTRY?' CNA Lifestyle met Teo and Huang in a Pandan Loop warehouse filled with bundles of colourful joss papers (or kim zua in Hokkien), shelves of heady incense sticks and lamp oils, and cardboard replicas of modern goods to satisfy a dearly departed's every afterlife need (yes, even the latest mobile phone model and skincare product). Teo, who is also the third-generation owner of Ban Kah Hiang Trading, a kim zua wholesale supply business that began as a humble shop in the 1950s by his grandfather, is no stranger to the scene. He'd help out in the family shop after school and on weekends and holidays. In 2016, he took over the reins and roped in Huang six years later. 'It's very difficult to find someone of my age to talk about this industry,' said Teo. 'For example, it was difficult to get my ex-colleagues to understand my ideas,' said the millennial father of four, who worked as a medical claims assessor for the Central Provident Fund Board for almost five years before his stint with Prudential Assurance. 'They'd say, isn't this a sunset industry? Still got people burn joss papers? Got customers meh?' Teo finally found a kindred mind in Huang, who is also now a millennial father, 15 years ago when they met at Zouk. 'We started to talk and have been talking till now!' said Teo, laughing. That initial friendship grew when Huang began ordering kim zua bundles from Teo for the fintech company he worked for. 'Alex would personally deliver my orders to me, so that was how the friendship deepened,' said Huang, who was a chief revenue officer then. 'The timing was just nice when he approached me to join him in 2022 because that was when the company I worked for got acquired.' MAKING BEADS OUT OF INCENSE ASH 'We liaised with a temple last year and discovered that it has difficulties handling the sheer volume of joss stick ashes generated,' said Huang. 'So I researched into how Singapore manages the ashes after burning the country's collective waste, and found out that we actually convert some of the ashes into bricks for construction.' That gave Huang the idea of making the Ben Yuan He Xiang beads with the temple's incense ashes. 'We sieve and mix the ashes with water to form a dough. Then, we press the dough into a mould to create the beads before drying them in the oven. It is all done by hand and the whole process takes about three days. I would say about 10g of ashes go into about 20 beads (they're each about 1cm wide) on every bracelet.' The ashes of burnt joss papers aren't included at the moment as 'we are still finding a way to eliminate the burnt odour', said Huang. As for the addition of herbs, he was inspired by the herb-filled fragrance pouches worn by the Chinese during the Song dynasty. 'It was like how we wear perfume now but better because of the healing and calming properties of the herbs, the Chinese version of aromatherapy,' he explained. The beads come in five colours – cream, grey, brown, pink and black – and are naturally derived from the herbs. 'Each bead colour represents one of the five elements: Metal, wood, water, fire and earth,' said Huang. 'We don't use artificial dyes at all, so you won't find vibrant colours like neon or Tiffany Blue.' He is also adamant about keeping other additives out – no fragrance to mask the medicinal smell of Chinese herbs, no plastic, no lacquer – which also means that while the beads are hardy, they can't be worn in the shower or sauna. But going by the response so far (Base Genesis sold 1,400 beads in the first week), Huang might be onto something. 'The bracelets are sold for S$108 each (regardless of the number of beads needed per bracelet) through livestream on TikTok,' he said. 'There are also customers who buy the beads to customise their own bracelets, necklaces and keychains.' The duo is exploring ways for more temples to be involved. 'We want to help more temples convert their ashes into beads, which they can then sell to their devotees as bracelets, necklaces or keychains,' said Teo. ECO-FRIENDLY HELL NOTES AND SMOKE-FREE JOSS STICKS The upcycled Ben Yuan He Xiang beads aren't Huang's and Teo's first foray into sustainability. Just last March, they created an ash-free and smoke-free eco hell note that you can burn for your ancestors during the Seventh Month Festival – the first of its kind in the world, according to Teo. The environmentally friendly hell notes take seconds to burn completely – way shorter than the duration you'd otherwise spend tossing pieces of traditional hell money into the burning bin at your HDB block – then spending even more time waiting for them to burn down completely to ensure 'delivery' to the netherworld. Another convenient feature of the hell note is you can burn it indoors. However, as the approval for such use in Singapore is pending with the Singapore Civil Defence Force, it is currently only sold to overseas customers. Nonetheless, Teo said that 'there is a lot of interest in environmentally friendly stuff', including the Ministry of National Development, which has sought feedback from Base Genesis in the redesign of the HDB burning bins through the Alliance Action on Norms for Joss Paper Burning. However, 'it is difficult to mass-produce the hell notes now because of the cost', said Huang. 'Ours is made in Singapore. We're working with China to see if we can find a more economic substitute for the paper.' The other hurdle is, the majority of customers isn't ready to spend more on the environmentally friendly version. 'Let's say we sell each piece of eco hell note at a cost price of S$20,' said Teo. 'But a regular 10-piece pack of traditional hell money only costs consumers S$3.' That aside, 'we also have to take into consideration the merchants', Teo continued. 'If everybody adopted the eco hell notes, who will buy these merchants' traditional goods?' For now, you can buy smoke-free and fragrance-free incense sticks from them. 'There are some charcoal components in them to make them smokeless,' explained Teo. Despite costing double the price of regular incense sticks (the regular ones go for S$4 per bundle), 'they are popular because most of our customers live in HDB flats and they don't want to smoke up their homes. They're also suitable for air-conditioned offices'. MAINTAINING TIME-HONOURED PRACTICES Teo and Huang maintained that their stance is not to disrupt time-honoured religious traditions and practices. Rather, they are looking into making them sustainable in the least disruptive and most respectful way. 'We're not here to change the practices or people's mentality,' said Teo. 'We still burn incense sticks but they don't create smoke. We still do all those traditional things but we're offering alternatives.' Will we eventually move away from burning joss sticks and papers? 'I think so,' said Teo after some thoughts. 'For now, burning eco hell notes is still more realistic than 'burning' virtual joss papers or incense on a mobile app.' Huang added: 'It matters to us that there's still a call to action, a meaning to it'.
