First stop on my tour today was at Làng làm hu’o’ng do. It is a traditional village where they make incense about a half hour south of Hanoi city center.
First we were invited into what I will call their photo garden. It was a large paved, fenced in area where they arranged colored incense to look like flowers and then put ladders and pathways for people to pose.
It was weird for the first 10 minutes when it was not apparent there was any further depth to the attraction.
Eventually, after donning pointy hats and smiling we were taken through the process, or at least the old school process of making incense.
Each family in the village has a different task to make the final product. For example one family is in charge of gathering bark from fragrant woods like agarwood, sandalwood, cinnamon bark and such. Then they grind the wood bark into powder.
Another family gathers bamboo; soaks it; strips it into thin strips; then puts it through several machines (as of about 30 years ago) to make the sticks used for the incense.
A different family develops the dye used to color the ends of the sticks and applies the dye, and yet another family mixes and adds the wood bark powders and applies them to the sticks.
All these families work together in these villages and pass their art down to the next generation, and have done so for tens of generations, helping the village thrive as a community instead of individuals. Talk about a family business.
I will not go into a complete history of the art, but I will link to some of the videos I took of the process.
Having come off carrying my luggage around airports, and knowing I will need to reduce my load for my next flight, and this was day one, I did not buy any of the finished product. I should have. For the amount of effort it takes to make these things, they charge maybe $1 for a pack of 10. That is minus zero profit margin, so I felt guilt not partaking. Also felt good about myself that I’m not buying up anything that interests me. That is a huge step on my hoarder weight loss journey.
