Agar & Attar

Step by step · ধাপে ধাপে

How attar is made in Sujanagar

• 1. রোপণ · Planting Agar (Aquilaria) saplings are planted around homes, along roads and on family land. They grow for five to six years before they are ready.
• 2. পেরেক মারা · Nailing Skilled workers hammer iron nails into the trunk, about an inch apart. The wounds make the tree produce resin to protect itself.
• 3. অপেক্ষা · Waiting Over the following years, resin builds up around each nail and turns the wood dark and fragrant. From planting to harvest takes around seven to eight years.
• 4. কাটা ও বাছাই · Felling and sorting The tree is felled and cut into strips, and every nail is pulled out by hand. The dark resinous wood is separated from the pale wood and graded.
• 5. টুকরো করা · Chipping Men and women, often working together at home, cut the wood into small chips. The finest pieces are kept aside to be sold as agarwood.
• 6. ভেজানো · Soaking The chips are soaked in drums of water for 15 days to a month, which softens the wood and helps release the oil.
• 7. পাতন · Distillation The soaked chips are boiled continuously in steel pots (degchi), usually over gas fires. Steam carries the oil through pipes, where it cools and drips into collecting pots.
• 8. আতর সংগ্রহ · Collecting the attar The attar rises to the top of the water and is carefully separated, then stored in glass bottles. It is sold by the tola (about 11.66 grams) or by the litre for export.