High quality organic rose oil being developed in Valley of the Roses, Bulgaria
by Global Good News staff writer

Global Good News    Translate This Article
13 June 2014

Near the geographical centre of Bulgaria, nestled between two mountain ranges at an elevation of 300 - 700 metres (1,000 - 2,300 feet), lies the famed Valley of the Roses where the climate is ideal for oil-bearing plants, especially roses. Bulgaria's tradition of producing essential oils dates back to the 17th century, and has long been a source of national pride.

Eighty-five per cent of the world's rose oil comes from the region, because of the perfect climatic growing conditions.

A unique Bulgarian technology for rose cultivation, called kesme, in addition to being less labor intensive, produces superior roses while preserving the character and quality of the rose and the oil. The method has been successfully used, almost unchanged, for over three centuries. Today the Bulgarian oil-bearing rose is recognized to have different properties than roses cultivated elsewhere, and its oil is widely considered the finest in the world.

Dr Donka Hodjeva, director of the Transcendental Meditation programme in Bulgaria, and her husband Ivan, an engineer, have 20 hectares of roses in the valley in organic cultivation of Rosa alba, which grows very well there, said Dr Peter Warburton, an International Director of the Global Country of World Peace,* Netherlands, and administrator for several countries including Bulgaria. Alluding to research showing the immediate effect of smells in the brain (a property made use of in aromatherapy, using particular essential oils to support health and well-being), Dr Warburton commented that the scent of Rosa alba produces an extraordinarily soothing effect, along with great refinement and inner calm in the mind and emotions.

Mr Hodjeva is general manager of the farm, and has become an expert in the distillation process. In order to guarantee the purity of the entire process, he designed and has built the distillery they will use to produce rosewater and rose oil.

At just the right time local people are employed to pick the roses. Although there is a window of up to 12 hours, ideally the roses are picked and distilled within about two hours. Rapid processing is essential in order to preserve the balance in the aromatic oils.

This year Mr Hodjeva will distil 20 tonnes of petals in the large vats. Throughout the process he will take care of the numerous detailed procedures to purify and clean the vats, in order to maintain the high government-imposed requirements for the best-standard organic certification and purity.

One of the small towns in the Valley of the Roses is called Turiya. Dr Warburton also commented on this, because in the Vedic literature Turiya is defined as the fourth state of consciousness, transcendental consciousness—a state of complete inner silence and peace in mind and body. He suggested that perhaps it is not by accident the town bears this name, for there is an 'almost perfect overlap' between the ancient language of Bulgaria and the ancient Vedic Sanskrit language.

Near Turiya, where Maharishi Vedaroma rose oil is being developed, are fields where that specific variety of roses are growing that produce the highest quality of rose oil. In Maharishi Ayur-Veda** natural health care, rose oil is known to balance all the energies (Doshas) in the body, thus re-establishing calmness and peace—the qualities of Turiya—within.

* The Global Country of World Peace was founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as a consortium of educational organizations in more than 100 countries working to create a new era of peace, progress, and prosperity in our world family. It is a 'nation without borders', a home for peace-loving people everywhere.

** Ayurveda is the world's oldest, most comprehensive system of natural medicine, which originated in the Vedic civilization of ancient India and is officially recognized by the World Health Organization. Maharishi Ayur-Veda represents the modern restoration by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of the complete and authentic practice of Ayurveda as recorded in the Vedic texts.

See related article: Bulgaria: 'Valley of Roses' a beautiful setting for training Russian-speaking teachers of Transcendental Meditation

Copyright © 2014 Global Good News Service



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish