Hung Yen: Preserving the traditional features of Cao village's incense making village

Known as the cradle of incense making since the 18th century and one of the famous craft village tourist destinations, the incense making profession here has become an indispensable part of the spiritual life of local people and those who love the beauty of traditional handicraft products.

According to the elders of Cao village, around the 18th century, Mrs. Dao Thi Khuong, a talented and beautiful daughter of the village, married a man who had gone abroad and learned the craft of making incense. Later, she passed the craft on to the villagers, and since then, generations of Cao villagers have continued the traditional craft, for nearly 300 years now.

To commemorate her merits, the people of Cao village took the 22nd day of the 8th lunar month as the anniversary of the profession's founder. The villagers gathered at the church to burn incense in memory of the ancestor who had contributed to bringing prosperity and happiness to the villagers.

Cao village attracts many tourists to visit and experience the profession.

Despite many years of experience, the people of the incense village still preserve traditional secrets, ensuring the quality of the incense is increasingly good, creating a unique fragrance.

Continuing the generations of fathers and sons, each clan or family making incense here has its own herbal medicine such as: Cinnamon, sandalwood, star anise, incense leaves, cloves, licorice..., creating its own unique scent, creating the "soul" of each brand, contributing to preserving and transmitting the cultural values ​​imbued with the traditional flavors of the nation.

For the craft village to survive and develop, it requires the incense production processes in Cao village to be carried out very delicately, meticulously, and in detail in each stage of mixing, rolling, dipping, drying and stirring incense, and packaging.

In order to meet the increasing demands of consumers, people here constantly improve designs, apply scientific and technological advances in production, improve product quality, and widely promote products.

Therefore, the incense here has a beautiful form, many designs such as incense coils, incense sticks..., has a light, elegant scent, burns evenly and leaves ashes, so it is popular and exported to the provinces and some countries.

Mr. Nguyen Nhu Khanh, Chairman of the Cao Village Incense Craft Association, shared that today, the incense making profession in Cao village is increasingly developing, producing products serving the spiritual life of local people and the whole country. Incense products of Cao village craft have contributed to creating cultural beauty in the spiritual life of the people.

Mr. Khanh also said that the incense making profession in Cao village has been around for hundreds of years. Incense makers in Cao village follow the tradition of their fathers and grandfathers, generation after generation. Children are taught the profession and also need to learn from their parents from a young age to be able to make incense products that ensure quality, appearance and design.

In Cao village, everyone is aware of the responsibility to preserve and develop the traditional incense making profession.

“There are groups of tourists who come here to visit, buy products at the source, and experience the stages of making incense such as rolling incense sticks, rolling incense coils… They all jokingly say that perhaps drying incense is the stage they can learn the easiest,” said Mr. Khanh.

Faced with social changes, the incense making profession has not been lost but has been increasingly expanded and developed.

Mr. Khanh also added that the incense making profession brings stable jobs and income, so today, many young people in Cao village are interested in preserving and developing the incense production profession.

Currently, the whole commune has about 180 households doing incense-related work, creating jobs for about 500 workers. The number of workers working in the craft village before the traditional Lunar New Year is about 1,000-1,200 workers.

According to Mr. Khanh, every profession has its difficulties. Huong has years when sales are good, and years when the market is slow. However, thanks to the love for the profession and solidarity, the whole village always tries to overcome.

“Cao villagers make a living from this profession, so everyone has the responsibility to preserve and develop the traditional incense making profession,” Mr. Khanh said.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/hung-yen-giu-gin-net-truyen-thong-cua-lang-nghe-huong-xa-thon-cao-post870864.html