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The Hindu
The Hindu
Lifestyle
The Hindu Bureau

Watch | Vietnam's incense village

Quang Phu Cau village or the (Source: AFP)

The Quang Phu Cau village in Ung Hoa district of Vietnam is known as the "incense village".

According to local elders, families in this village have been making incense for more than a century.

January is the busiest time of the year here. Workers are busy preparing fragrant incense sticks for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Traditional handicraft villages like the "incense village" have started to resume operations after more than two months.

A slew of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus in Vietnam stalled work for a lot of the industries here. But incense-makers are hopeful of better prospects in the upcoming new year.

The incense sticks, made from bamboo, are split into thin sticks and dipped in pink dye.

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They are then put to dry outdoors, covering the whole village in a sea of pink with hundreds of brightly coloured incense-stick bunches standing on the roadsides in the sun.

An aromatic incense paste is made from the sticky bark powder of the locally available o duoc tree, and a mix of herbs.

The paste is then rolled around the dried pink sticks, by hand or by using machines, after which they are dried under the sun again.

Incense-making is the most popular occupation in households of the village. The incense sticks made here are not only sold locally but also exported to foreign markets around the world.

Voiceover & Production | K Rajashree Das

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