Thess beautiful, hand made glazed ceramic bowl-shaped incense burner's are expertly crafted by a highly skilled ceramic artisan in the United States. It is traditionally designed with 3 legs for beauty, balance and proper distribution of heat. It is perfect for various styles of incense burning, such as finely ground powder (Makko), charcoal (Soradaki), regular incense sticks (Senko), cones, wood chips or coil. Traditionally, you would fill the bowl with Ceremonial White Ash, about 3/4 full or more, packing it fairly tightly so it can properly hold the incense sticks. If you don't have any ash, you can use rice or sand. Then light your incense, and place it in the burner. If using sticks, place them into the ash, rice or sand, so they are held in place. If using chips, cones, etc., place them on the ash, rice or sand. If you fill your burner with the Ceremonial White Ash, be sure to pack it down pretty well. If you don't, and it is left loosely in your burner, your incense stick will have to be placed deeper into the ash in order to be held in place, and you will not enjoy the burning of the entire stick. By packing it more tightly, you won't lose as much of the stick when it is placed in the ash. Also, you can partially fill your burner with rice or sand, and then fill the rest of it with the white ash.