Incense in China "Xiangbang" (香棒, with "stick; club") means "incense stick; joss stick". Two "incense" synonyms specifying religious offerings to ancestors or deities are "gāoxiāng" (高香, ""high incense"") and "gōngxiāng" (供香, ""offering incense""). The Sunni Muslim Hui Gedimu and the Yihewani burned incense during worship. This was viewed as Daoist or Buddhist influence. The Hui, also known as "White-capped HuiHui", used incense during worship, while the Salar, also known as "black-capped HuiHui" considered this to be a heathen ritual and denounced it. The Chinese developed a sophisticated art form with incense burning like with tea and calligraphy called xiangdao (香道). It involves various
Deity for human beings who gain merit through an ethical life, where they become guardian deities and live blissfully in heaven, but are also subject to death when their merit is lost. The English language word "deity" derives from Old French "deité," the Latin "deitatem" or "divine nature", coined by Augustine of Hippo from "deus" ("god"). Deus is related through a common Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin to "*deiwos". This root yields the ancient Indian word "Deva" meaning "to gleam, a shining one", from *div- "to shine", as well as Greek "dios" "divine" and Zeus; and Latin "deus" "god" (Old Latin "deivos"). Deva