Thuy Xuan Incense Village

Cinnamon and agarwood scent the air at the foot of Vọng Cảnh Hill. Agarwood is a fragrant, resinous wood used for incense and perfume.

Thủy Xuân keeps its story in the work itself, in an old trade and a way of life that has come through many seasons.

The village lies in the city of Hue. Its name is a small one on the map. Yet it has something that larger places may not: a real fragrance that rises from early morning until the sun goes down.

The people here have made incense for a very long time. They once supplied it to the court of the Nguyễn dynasty. The Nguyễn dynasty was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945. So any stick of incense burned in the old royal palace could have started in the hands of makers in this small village.

What sets Thủy Xuân apart is not a building or a monument. It is the sight of bundles of incense sticks fanned out wide, drying in the Hue sun at the foot of the hill. Red, yellow, purple and green, thousands of sticks fan out like giant flowers in bloom. It is not an easy sight to forget.

Along the village lane, the air is already heavy with that scent. On both sides of the lane, bundles stand upright and open into circles of strong color. A maker sits with great patience, twisting each stick, dipping it in color, setting it out to dry in the sun. The work is quiet, as if it were only the ordinary breathing of the day.

This is the place where these families live and work, and it is not a set built for show. So what can be seen here is real, and it has been real through many generations.

Hue has its royal tombs, its Perfume River, its Thiên Mụ Pagoda. But Hue also has a village where people still sit twisting incense every morning. They still dry bundles of bright color in the sun, and still keep a trade that once reached the royal palace. That village is Thủy Xuân, and the scent of its agarwood needs no sign to be recognized.