A spiritual vocation provides material benefits for an incense making village.
Burning incense is a part of daily life in many cultures. In Vietnam, people burn incense on the first and 15th day of every lunar month, death anniversaries, Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, wedding days, and whenever they go to a pagoda to pray. Each house has at least one altar with a minimum of three incense burners. Some families own even five altars to worship the Buddha, ancestors and deities.
While incense can be bought from random shos and markets, pagodas and street vendors, it is usually made in shops and households that have maintained the trade of making and selling incense for generation. People believe that the trade of making and selling incense has close association with the spiritual world.
Making incense is a long standing traditional vocation in Yen Phu village of Hanoi, dating back to many hundreds of years. Yen Phu has acquired a name for itself - for making incense that releases a delicate and sweet fragrance.
Village residents say the job does not allow them to make fake, low quality products. Incense must be carefully tested to see whether and how they burn, whether it releases the right fragrance and whether it has the right appearance.
The process of making incense can be described as simple, but it requires considerable skill. The main material is taken from bark of the cinnamomun argenteun tree, bought from the northern Yen Bai or Quang Ninh and some southern areas. The material is powdered and mixed with many kinds of plant-based materials like cinnamon and a kind of fragrance wood. In the past, it took more than 30 kinds of plants with medicinal values to make incense, old timers say.
Depending on the way the materials are mixed, which is usually a secret handed down from generation to generation, the incenses release different fragrances. The manufacturing process, from mixing the materials to pressing, is mostly done by hand. The task requires high concentration. After being pressed, the incense sticks are exposed to the sun on a bamboo wattle for one to three say, depending on the weather. Breezy, sunny days are the best to make fragrant incense sticks with beautiful colors. Exposing them to fire-based heat will rob them of their fragrance.
The peak season for making incense is two months ahead of Tet. Every resident of Yen Phu village, from the youngest the oldest, seems capable of doing the job. The heady mixture of different fragrances and a distinct increase in incense making activity indicate that Tet is around the corner.
In Vietnam, this is probably one of the few traditional vocations that have not been threatened by modernization. Residents at Yen Phu village are confident they can preserve their skills and trade secrets for many more years to come.
Provided by Vietnam Heritage Travel
For further information, visit vietnamheritagetravel.com
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