One of traditional craft villages of Thang Long citadel, right at the center of Hanoi, on the West river side in Tay Ho district, Yen Phu village has existed for a long time, gone ups and downs with the thousand – year history of the capital. The village has been well – known for incense making.
According to some historical documents and artisans in the village, the incense trade was established by a Chinese man in the 13th century. Because of Buddhism had been developed and the customs of burning incense expanded in this village, Yen Phu Incense Village developed vigorously and attracted a large number people from nearby villages. Up to now, many families have still maintained this trade and preserved traditional values of the career.
Making incense is a hard work which requires a lot of stages including whittling sticks, drying incense, collecting and packaging the finished products. The most difficult and complicated stage which is mixing incense sawdust with some other materials like anise, cinnamon and etc will be charged by skillful and experienced artisans.
