Yen Phu Incense Village

In regard to Thang Long - Dông Dô - Hanoi, a place is well known for the thousand years of capital city. A lovely crowded city is taken by the center of trade villages and trade apartments that are the unforgettably traditional villages. It has been experienced the changes of history, so far, there was many traditional trade villages in oblivion such as Ngoc Hà, Ngu Xa, An Thái...but Yên Phu, making incense, seems to exist with time.

In the Yên Phu city gate, over Thanh Niên - Cô Ngu slope to village, a place is located on the edge of the mysterious west lake in Tây Hô district (Ba Dình in the past). Besides the ornamental fish breeding, Inhabitants have done incense for long time.

According to the some documentation and the village elders, Chinese handed down the work of making incense since the 13th century. The Buddhism and the custom of burning incense was developed here and many other places. In the 20th century, making incense developed strongly and not only attracts people in this village but also in the other villages like An Duong, Nghi Tam with a large of people.

In the early time of 1980, there was the sign of oblivion as many families changed their job. But this career is recovered and developed until now.

Even though the incense business is not a cushy job and high income, inhabitants still take their job because of the traditional career. They are used to living on it and find the other suitable job difficult. Thus, this is the hard job; It spends a lot of work stage. Everybody in a work family has to work hard for each pision labor in the task from normal to complex. The young and old often does the normal job as sharpening stick, drying and collection, parking goods. The most complex stage is the mixture of spice incense between the sawdust and spice materials. This work is carried out by the experienced worker because it affects on the quality of incense.

Everyday, there are lots means of transport bring materials to village and merchants come here to take incense to the districts all the country. The incense village is more crowded in Tet holiday and the late time of year because the demand of incense is high.

Besides the family live on producing incense, some families carry on business relating to incense like materials, agency, so they live on incense too.   

Source VietnamTravelGuide