Finding the origin of Quy Chau incense making

(Baonghean) -In January, the drizzle was blowing, the sweet scent of incense led us to Quy Chau district to learn more about the long-famous incense making profession...

From the source

Block 2 of Tan Lac town (Quy Chau district) was recognized by Nghe An province as a traditional incense village since March 2010, and now has 36 households specializing in incense rolling. Meeting Mr. Vo Minh Chau, son of Mr. Vo Le Hai (the first person to find and bring agarwood roots to make incense in Quy Chau), we heard many stories about the existence and development of agarwood in Phu Quy.

Mr. Vo Le Hai was born in 1898 in a poor farming family in Dien Ngoc commune (Dien Chau district). During his lifetime, he had to carry salt to sell in the western region of Nghe An but still lacked food and clothing. Seeing the vast Quy Chau mountainous area with a sparse population, he decided to stay here to make a living and married Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh.

Every day, the couple went into the forest to work in the fields, sowing corn and planting corn. One morning, after clearing the fields, the old man burned a pile of weeds and suddenly smelled a strange, sweet, gentle fragrance. After investigating, he found that the fragrance came from the roots of a soft-stemmed plant with a cluster of roots. He called it the incense root tree. He thought to himself that if this root was crushed, dried, and rolled into an incense stick, it would be very fragrant, so he brought the roots home and day and night tried to find a way to mix it. He added other ingredients such as cinnamon, dried sugarcane pulp, and used Chinese writing paper and dried tree trunks to roll the incense, making the sweet fragrance even stronger. From then on, he devoted himself to rolling incense for his own use and to selling to the people in the village. Many cadres from the lowlands heard about it and came to look for it, having to queue up and sometimes not being able to buy it.

In 1937, when King Bao Dai visited the scenic spot Tham Bua, he found the sweet and seductive scent of agarwood so he brought it back to the ancient capital of Hue for use. From here, Quy Chau agarwood began its path of development and brand affirmation.

To the craft village

In 1985, Mr. Vo Le Hai passed away, and his family also made less incense. This was also the time when Quy Chau incense was counterfeited, greatly affecting its reputation. Many people were no longer interested in this traditional craft, causing the incense craft here to fade away.

Making incense. Photo: Dan Tri

Around 2000, when the demand for incense of the people increased, the incense making profession in Quy Chau began to be restored. Many families boldly invested heavily to buy machines for splitting bamboo, splitting bamboo, pounding powder... to make the incense rolling process much faster. In 2007, the incense making village was recognized by the People's Committee of Quy Chau district as a village with a profession. From here, the incense making movement began to develop rapidly and more and more families considered incense making as a main occupation for economic development.

In 2010, after being recognized as a craft village, the incense craft village block 2 - Tan Lac town produced 677,450 incense sticks, each incense stick was sold for 4,000 VND, the total income of the incense village reached nearly 3 billion VND. Many families like Mr. Dau Cong Ha's family earned hundreds of millions of VND/year.

The production of incense really “enters season” from the ninth lunar month, but the raw materials must be prepared throughout the year. From splitting the incense, soaking it, buying the incense roots, to grinding the powder and other additives such as sugarcane bagasse, cinnamon, etc. Sometimes the raw materials must be purchased from the northern mountainous provinces. If the incense has a sweet scent of sugar, the sugarcane powder must be pounded whole.

Mr. Vo Minh Chau shared: “By September, the average price for each incense-rolling worker was 4 million VND/month, but we still could not hire anyone. The atmosphere of incense-rolling was bustling throughout the village, and members of every family had to take advantage of their time to roll incense…”.

Quy Chau incense now has a real brand and is firmly established in the market, bringing in a good income and creating jobs for many workers. Many young people have turned to the incense profession to start a business, and passing on the profession to the younger generation is not difficult. However, what makes incense makers in Quy Chau worried is the source of raw materials. Incense roots here have not been focused on growing, so they have to buy from the lowlands at high prices but the quality is not guaranteed, affecting the characteristic sweet aroma of Phu Quy incense. Besides, Quy Chau incense really needs to have its own brand logo to prevent counterfeiting in the market, ensuring the sustainable development of Quy Chau incense. However, up to now, no agency, organization or individual has stood up to build it.

Bien Luan