Difference between revisions of "Aloeswood"

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Revision as of 12:10, 22 December 2015

Eaglewood, also known as agarwood or aloeswood, is perhaps the most expensive variety of wood in the world today. An aromatic wood native to tropical regions and used primarily for producing incense and perfumes, it was among the goods Tokugawa Ieyasu requested in trade in diplomatic communications with Southeast Asian courts in the early 1600s.[1]

Though a rarity, and surely a luxury item, eaglewood was traded across the region as early as the 14th century, if not earlier. The Korean kingdom of Goryeo (918-1392) is known to have imported eaglewood from Southeast Asia, along with sappanwood and other tropical products.[2]

References

  1. Cesare Polenghi, Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam. Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2009), 70n9.
  2. Geoffrey Gunn, History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800, Hong Kong University Press (2011), 217.