The practitioners would use the incense to burn some parts of their bodies after accepting Buddhist precepts, as an offering to the Buddha and bodhisattvas. The scars left on their bodies after burning are called ordination scars, and they become nuns and monks after going through this burning ordination. The mental state of the ones who accepted the ordination scar burning precepts is what the photographer concerned about. The red-hot incense is a testament to their determination to be initiated into monkhood or nunhood, and it is the official declaration for them to depart from the common world, and its affliction and karma.
