From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Dhupo Dosro—The Second Breath (Bhaktapur Olfactory LARP, 2021–ongoing)
This work stages Leif's doubled vision through Newar incense and scent-memory traditions.
Related: The cycle and recurrence (central motif); The Three Breaths—A Synesthetic LARP in Kolkata (2021–ongoing) (sister work in West Bengal).
Dhupo Dosro—The Second Breath is a monthly participatory LARP staged in the ancient pottery city of Bhaktapur, grounded in Newar incense-making traditions and Leif's doubled vision—the ten layered versions bleeding through when the radio igloo corrects his sight.
Participants gather in a darkened room without visual reference. Facilitators—trained Newar incense artisans—guide each participant through the blind blending and rolling of two nearly identical incenses: sandalwood and cardamom combined with jasmine, then the same formula with a deliberately wrong compliment (clove where jasmine was, for instance). Participants burn both sticks simultaneously and must narrate which is the "original" and which the "error"—or acknowledge the impossibility of the distinction.
The work progresses through stages: Act 2 introduces other materials (juniper, birch-bark ash, marigold), layering more "second breaths" until participants are breathing a palimpsest of contradictory scents. By Act 3, collective silence; the breath itself becomes the only medium. Participants report persistent olfactory hallucination for days after, unable to smell incense singly again.
The ritual is timed to lunar cycles; winter sessions are reportedly "sharper" (scents more distinct); summer sessions "smoother" (distinctions collapse faster). [citation needed]