In a small village in northern Vietnam, Dang Thi Hoa bundles up a bundle of freshly dried incense before the Lunar New Year and watches a line of tourists waiting to pose for photos. Three generations of Dang Thi Hoa’s family have been coloring incense sticks red or magenta pink before the New Year celebration – known as Tet in Vietnam. But Hoa, and many other families who live and work in the “sunshine village” of Quang Phu Cau, now also produce yellow, blue and green sticks for visitors eager to take photos for Instagram.
In front of a village temple, hundreds of bundles of multicolored sticks were laid out to dry in the sun – arranged in the form of a giant Vietnamese map. “Our village has become a center of attraction for tourists,” said Hoa, 45, who has been making incense sticks for three decades. Villagers earn a good amount from selfie snappers. For 50,000 VND ($2), tourists can spend as long as they want taking photos with the workshop’s sticks – which cost just 50 cents for a pack of 20.
In a nearby house, a metal ladder has been erected to allow photographs to be taken from above. Nguyen Huu Long told AFP he was extremely busy, with orders coming in ahead of Tet, when worshipers gather at temples to burn incense or burn wood on ancestral altars at home. But even in the peak season of his workshop, he makes sure there is someone available to look after the visitors.
“I employ one or two people to help visitors find the best angles for photos – and to make sure they don’t mess up the drying sticks,” Long, 58, told AFP. Tourists seem appreciative. “This place is very nice, very colorful and it’s really an Instagram-worthy place,” said Katherine Caro from the Philippines.
Quảng Phu Cau, on the outskirts of Hanoi, is one of several villages in Vietnam involved in the ancient incense trade, with many families living in its small streets harvesting, drying or cutting bamboo bark. Are.
The entire work sequence involves cutting the bamboo branches and putting them in the whittling machine, dipping the thin strips in buckets of colored dye, leaving the sticks on the street like vases to fan out in the air to dry. “I am proud of my family’s traditional craftsmanship…and also happy because our village has become more famous,” Hoa said. “I am also earning more,” she said happily.
