A trip to the incense village of Quang Phu Cau
A villager lays out the freshly dyed bamboo sticks to dry in the midday sun.
Hanoi in the morning. Rush hour, continuous tidal wave of motorbikes accompanied by the endless symphony of beeping. My cousin and I had planned to visit Quang Phu Cau - a village roughly 35km south of Hanoi, famous for its production of incense. We had found a quiet shop to consume some noodle soup to fuel us for the day ahead.
We started our drive south, zipping in and out of the busy city traffic until the roads gradually widened and buildings had become more and more sparse. Instead of driving through the corridors of skyscrapers, we had now found a wide, quiet and picturesque road squiggling through endless rice paddies and duck farms. We had opted for a less conventional route to the village. Bumping our way along muddy dirt and gravel tracks rather than the busier truck filled highways. Along the way, we had stopped to look around one of the area’s many duck farms. Some locals had noticed us with our cameras and were happy for us to photograph them.
Two local construction workers erecting a wall at a duck farm.
Once we had arrived at the village, we were immediately met with endless bindings of bamboo being laid out in the sun, reminiscent of anti-tank defences found on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. However, this bamboo was at an early stage of the incense-making process. After exploring the village and investigating its small and winding alleyways, we had found what we had hoped for. An array of colour and beauty, a scene that could easily become a postcard for Vietnam. At first, we took a moment to appreciate the beauty of what lay in front of us, however, we had quickly realised that we had every photographers dream playground right at our fingertips. We hastily took out our cameras and started snapping away, whilst exploring the workshops to admire and learn more about the process that this village has been practising for generations. Rather than babbling on, I will let the following photographs tell the story.
A villager brings in the freshly dyed incense ready to be laid out to dry.
Covered from head to toe. Local workers avoid the sun.
Avoiding self entrapment.
The backlog of cut and measured bamboo.
The dyeing man.
Adding the dye to give the sticks their signature colour.
Wet and red.
The final stacks ready to be laid out.
Whilst exploring the village we were invited into another workshop by a friendly local to look around and capture photographs.
Workers using special machinery to add the flavourful coating to the sticks, giving them their iconic smell.
The final product laid to bathe in the sunshine before being packaged and shipped out.
