Quynh village agarwood

(Baonghean) - Some people say that you have to keep your mind calm to enjoy the scent of agarwood. Some people also say that enjoying agarwood from Quynh village helps them calm their mind? But the reality is that agarwood here and its values ​​have been and are present in the lives of many people.

Incense production at Mr. Ho Quoc Viet's facility (Quynh Doi, Quynh Luu).

As soon as January ends, people from Quynh village go to Que Phong, Quy Chau... to buy bamboo, buy bamboo, soak it in a tank for about 2 to 3 months, then take it out to dry. After that, the bamboo and bamboo will be split into small, even sticks. "To have a finished product that burns evenly, the incense stick must be exposed to enough sunlight, the best time to dry it is when the weather is sunny in the south. The incense stick burns easily but no longer retains the natural scent of the plants, so avoid exposing the incense stick to rainwater" - he shared.

The incense stick is carefully dried and then dyed with two basic colors: red or pink. The people of Quynh village still prefer lotus-colored incense sticks. After dyeing, the stick is dried again in the sun for many more days. At that time, the preparation of the incense stick - an important step in making agarwood - is completed.

Around April every year, Quynh villagers travel to craft villages in the North such as Hanoi, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh... to buy traditional paper. Mr. Viet said that this is a type of paper produced entirely by hand, very smooth and easy to burn, but does not burn when burned. Once the traditional paper is available, the incense maker meticulously cuts the paper into frames, dyes the edges pink, then dries and stores.

Around July and August, villagers go to great lengths to find the roots of the incense tree. This is the main raw material for making incense, and is readily available in the mountainous area of ​​Quynh Thang (Quynh Luu). Next is sugarcane: “In general, all types of sugarcane can be used as raw materials for making incense, but the best quality is still the purple sugarcane of Thanh Hoa,” Mr. Viet revealed. With sugarcane, Quynh villagers also carefully use wet towels to clean the skin before using a machine to cut into thin slices. Like the roots of the incense tree, the sliced ​​sugarcane is then dried thoroughly and then pounded into powder. Sugarcane powder and incense powder must also be dried in the sun for a long time. “Everything must be clean, from the drying yard, the rake, the powder-crushing tray. We even have to wash our hands thoroughly before making incense, because it is a spiritual product,” Mr. Viet confided.

Quynh village agarwood is also the crystallization of many precious herbs such as star anise, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, asarum root, rehmannia glutinosa, rehmannia glutinosa... "The value of the finished agarwood product is determined by the ratio of these herbs", affirmed Mr. Ho Quoc Viet, Head of Quynh Doi agarwood village.

To make agarwood powder, you have to use all ten fingers to mix all the powders together thoroughly. Once mixed, the powder will be packaged and stored carefully to preserve the scent.

The ninth lunar month is the time to enter the incense making season. At this time, people just need to spread a layer of incense powder along the pre-cut paper frame, then start rolling the thin white paper strip so that the edges are tightly sealed, creating a fixed shell of incense powder hugging the incense body. Finally, the incense is made into buds, each small bud has ten sticks, each large bud has 10 small buds... After that, the incense follows the footsteps up and down all over the countryside.

In the market mechanism, Quynh villagers have had unstable days. Short agarwood is sold at wholesale prices, only fluctuating from 5,500 to 6,000 VND/bud, medium agarwood is 12,000 VND/bud. Earning a profit from an agarwood stick is not easy! Mr. Viet's Quynh agarwood production facility has more than 10 workers working at full capacity, the highest number of agarwood sticks produced can reach 12,000 agarwood sticks. But the capital cost to make agarwood is quite large, some years up to 400 million VND, the cost of labor alone is nearly 70 million VND, the cost of raw materials is about 300 million VND. Yet even in a smooth year, the profit is only 15 to 20% of the capital invested!

However, Mr. Viet and those who are passionate about making incense in Quynh village still silently and quietly cherish every drop of the essence of the earth, sky, and plants to preserve the soul of incense. They make incense as an offering to their ancestors, so that the sincere heart towards the origin can be peaceful and complete...

Nguyen Hoe