If you are a lover of pure cultural values and peaceful Northern countryside scenery, come to Cao Thôn (Hung Yen) musk village once to find out about peaceful and peaceful feelings.
Introduction to Cao Yen village
Cao Thôn musk village, about 40km from Hanoi, is located in Bao Khe commune, Hung Yen, right next to the left dyke of the Red River with a fresh and peaceful natural landscape. This is the cradle of long-standing incense production in the North in general and in Vietnam in particular. According to the village elders, this profession was initiated by Mrs. Dao Thi Khuong and passed on to the villagers. 
Cao Thôn musk village is located in Hung Yen province 
This is the largest incense making village in the North
Currently, the incense making profession in Cao Thôn operates during four seasons, creating permanent jobs for about 600 workers. The craft of incense making does not require high human resources, so it can take advantage of the idle labors. Most of them can be trained if they are trained. The experienced elderly will pass the job on to their descendants, so the profession is always passed on from generation to generation. It seems that in the mind of each people, the place of making the homeland is not only a profession but also a responsibility to preserve the pure beauty of the homeland. 
The incense making job has created jobs for hundreds of workers
Cao Thôn musk village has over 200 families in which 170 households have maintained a long tradition of incense production. The annual incense production of Cao Thôn village is estimated at about 10 million compressed / year. With the increasing demand of the market, people have improved the design and quality to help the product be sold more and more. Today the market for incense is much more extensive. 
Huong in the village is improving more and more design and quality
Quality of incense in Cao Thôn musk village
Huong in Cao Yen village, Hung Yen village, is always famous for its quality and special scent which has been enthusiastically received by the market and exported to some countries. The special fragrance that does not mix with any region is thanks to the heirloom production know-how. I don’t know what’s outstanding about that secret, only that the incense powder is made from herbs and herbs. When burning the scent, it will emit a pleasant, refreshing smell to help the human spirit become more at ease and relax. 
Perfume in Cao Thôn has a special fragrance
Each household in Cao Thôn village has its own herbal secret so the scent is diverse. In each family you can find yourself different scents depending on your needs. Cao Thôn musk village produces 3 main types of incense, compressed incense and round incense. In addition, there is also black flavor, cinnamon flavor … All kinds of people are carefully and skillfully made by people’s hands and produce quality products. 
Incense ring
Thanks to its beautiful appearance, good quality and pleasant aroma, the market is increasingly welcoming and expanding to many places. Consumers not only stop at the village, in the province but also export to some countries from Thailand, India, Cambodia, France, Germany, … This is also a great result for efforts to preserve and protect the traditional incense making profession of the villagers of Cao Thôn. 
The market for incense is expanding day by day
When lit up, each incense stick shows the sacredness and gratitude of the next generation to the fortunes, grandparents as well as the devotion offered at temples, pagodas, … That is why people in the village always keep. To preserve and develop the craft of making incense in order to preserve the long-standing pure cultural values and at the same time, to teach their children and grandchildren to know their direction towards their homeland and their origins. 
The incense making profession is still being preserved and developed
The process of making incense in Cao Thôn musk village
Although the incense compresses are quite simple and rustic, the stages from mixing powder, astringent, dipping, drying, turning are done in detail, in which the enthusiasm and pure mind of the people. 
The incense making process is quite meticulous and detailed
After carefully selecting herbs, weighing enough quantity to ensure the best taste, it will be ground into a fine powder. Continue to mix with the adhesive wire to bond the dough. From the sticky incense powder, it is necessary to have a scent. According to the experience left behind by many experienced craftsmen in Cao Thôn musk village , the scent must be carefully selected from the crayon cork. This work will help the fragrance to have toughness and curvature. 
The workers in the village are making incense sticks
The length of a toothpick is about 35-40cm. To use a toothpick, you must split, soak, dry and then dye your feet. The red dyeing not only makes the fragrance beautiful, but also marks the portion of the powder used on the compression. Most of the above stages are done by hand. 
The stages are mostly hand-made
After the incense is finished, the worker will bring it to dry. This stage also needs a lot of effort because the weather is quite an important factor. Often people will bring incense to dry when it is dim morning to catch up with the sun. If it is sunny, just exposure from morning to afternoon. On warm wet days, the scent is easy to be moldy so people will have to work quite hard to dry the fragrance properly, it takes about 4-5 days to complete. 
Incense drying stage
This period depends a lot on the weather conditions
| >> See more: The peaceful beauty of Hung Yen village |
To develop tourism for Cao Thôn musk craft village
In recent years, Cao Thôn musk village has become a prominent address in Hung Yen’s tourist itinerary. Coming to Cao Thôn, you will be immersed in the brilliant red and yellow colors of the “bouquets” with a gentle scent. That feeling is more peaceful when standing in the midst of a quiet, rustic village. Going to any corner, any village, tourists can see in the front yard, each family spreads the dried incense sticks. 
Cao Thôn musk village is becoming a prominent tourist destination 
The image of scent flowers is placed in front of the home yard
In addition, when you come to Cao Thon Hung Yen, you can also experience many fascinating things such as learning about the production process, making incense sticks by yourself and bringing products back. 
You can see the process of making an incense stick
Although the Cao Yen village of Hung Yen has undergone many ups and downs, today it still exists strongly, contributing to promoting economic and quiet rural tourism to go up.
Photo: Internet