In the last months of year, when people talk about the preparation for Tet, I immediately think of my going shopping for New Year with my mother. I claim her to buy many things as cracker, toy figurine and a few other things….


On those times, before we go to the market, the grandmother usually reminds my mother to buy some frankincense. She always says: “We can lack anything on Tet holidays but not Chung Cake and frankincense. They are important and necessary for worshipping the ancestors.” My grandmother has passed away and I have also left to Hanoi. But each time I come back home, especially on ancestor’s death anniversary or Tet, I always buy frankincense besides other stuff. I light up some incense sticks and gratefully put them on the ancestral altar. I feel like the frankincense spreads out a deep scent like a line connects the living people and the deaths. It is just like this old folk:


“Vẫn còn đây những lời ru
Vờn bay phảng phất cho dù tháng năm
Tổ tiên một nén nhang trầm
Nối dòng máu đỏ âm thầm thiết tha”.


Like much other stuff which is tiny but irreplaceable in our live, frankincense plays an important part on the spiritual live of Vietnamese people wherever they are, at home or live away from their country.

Frankincense is something that every household use in their ancestor’s death anniversary, Tet or festivals or the first and the fifteenth day of a lunar month. It is irreplaceable. But I guess that few of us are interested in learning about the origin of this frankincense. Where and when did it appear? How is it made? What is it made with? So let’s us discover about this tiny frankincense.


One of the few famous frankincense makers in Hanoi now is Mr Duc Ngoc at the Dong Tien frankincense store at no 10 Hang Khoai Street. Mr Duc Ngoc is quite old now but he is still healthy and fast. He told us that he is the 7th generation of a traditional frankincense-making family in Cao Thon village, Bao Khe Commune, Kim Dong, Hung Yen Province. This village was used to called Dong Lo village. From Mr Duc Ngoc and some information, we know that the career of making frankincense was started in our country 2000 years ago, from the Hai Ba Trung time. But in that time, there was just black frankincense. Black frankincense was made from a kind of plastic called “Tram” plastic in the mountain area of the North Vietnam as Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen, etc. “Tram” plastic was mixes with coal powder and then grinded smoothly into an elastic and black power. Before worshipping, they took a little bit of this powder and put it on the top of a stick. This black frankincense has a deep scent. Its origin is Xa Kieu commune, Ung Hoa, Ha Tay Province.


The incense stick or the round incense which is used nowadays was originated from Cao Thon commune, Bao Khe, Kim Dong, Hung Yen Province. Mr Duc Ngoc old us that: In this village, there was a woman named Dao Thi Khuong who married to a Chinese man in Phuc Kien, China. She followed her husband to China. After her husband died, she returned to Vietnam. Witnessed the poor of the relatives here who only had farming as career; she taught them how to make frankincense. Since then, the frankincense has appeared in Vietnam. And also the living of the people in her village was improved and became richer. To memorize her – the goddess of the frankincense maker – the people here annually hold a ceremony on the 21st August according to lunar calendar.

The frankincense looks simple but to make it is not an easy task. It requires many technique and skills. The gentle and light scent of frankincense which makes people feel peaceful and grateful is made from many different flavors, but mostly from medicinal herbs. The work seems to be simple and some people think that it only requires a little sawdust to make the frankincense; but to deal with all the process is not easy. Almost 60 ingredients to make frankincense, mostly medicinal herbs such as: “tung”, “trac”. “quy dau”, “bach chi”. “que huong”. “cam thao” and many others. All these ingredients are grinded into small pieces and then mixed following different recipes. Mr Duc Ngoc said that this career is a career which accumulates happiness for the younger generations of the family. Therefore, his whole life wish is to maintain this career and past it to his daughter – Ms Tu and his daughter-in-law – Ms nguyen Kim Thuy. Ms Tu is now the owner of the Dong Tien frankincense store at no 10 Hang Khoai and Ms Thuy is now the owner of the Tien Thanh frankincense store at 146 Tran Nhat Duat, Hanoi.


Ms Kim Thuy – the owner of Tien Thanh store has fulfilled her parents-in-law’s wish. In recent years, her store as well as Dong Tien store of Ms Tu has become famous in Hanoi and many other provinces for their frankincense and incense sticks.


According to Ms Thuy, te work of making incense is very complicated and sophisticated. If one cannot be patient and passionate about their job then they cannot make it. To have a good incense stick, the ingredients have to be chosen carefully with the exact amount and proportion; then they are grinded smoothly. Take me to the factory where the frankincense is made, she said: “Even in the process of mixing, the amount of water has to be perfect.” After the incense powder is mixed in the pottery, it becomes incense stick under the skillful hands of the workers. The last step is to roll the incense stick with a kind of powder called “xoa” powder.


After all those steps, the incense sticks will not stick to each other and they will be dried. The incense sticks are putting on the yard looking beautiful in its color of yellow. Then they are tied into big bunch and put under the sunlight. They look like pretty yellow daisy. The round incense requires many more complex steps. I asked her why she didn’t put machines intro production, she answered frankincense made by machines cost much more time and its quality is worse with more smoke. Frankincense made by machines is only use to prevent from the mosquito.


Along with the development of the frankincense making career, Ms Thuy’s family has created many jobs for young labors at rural area or disabled children. This job has helped hem a lot to improve their living.


However, in today’s economy, many imported frankincense from other countries with chemical fragrance or fake frankincense have been sold widely? To maintain the trust of the customers, the traditional career of the family and to praise the beauty of this cultural activity, Mr Duc Ngoc said: “People who make frankincense have to love their job, and more important, they have to make frankincense with their hearts”. The customers can buy frankincense from every where but once they buy at Dong Tien or Tien Thanh, they will never forget the gentle, light and pretty scent of the frankincense here. They know that while they light up these incense sticks they are showing their gratefulness and pure souls to the ancestors.


He also informed that all his frankincense is made completely from medicinal herbs; therefore, the scent is natural and pure. Other frankincense which made from chemicals, the scent is harmful for environment and is not pure.


The incense stick is the symbol for the soul and heart of the living people to the deaths. It symbolizes the gratefulness of the young generations to the old ones. The incense stick is the line connects to the spiritual world. The scent of the frankincense spreads gently and slightly but behind it is the hard-working, the passion, the devoting, and the heart of the frankincense makers. Among them, Mr Duc Ngoc family is the typical one with Dong Tien store of Ms Tu and Tien Thanh store of Ms Thuy.