Learn to incense at Cao’s career village in Bao Khe commune, Hung Yen city= Tìm hiểu nghề làm hương xạ Cao Thôn, xã Bảo khê, Thành phố Hưng Yên

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES ---***--- NGUYEN HAI HAU LEARN TO INCENSE AT CAO THON VILLAGE IN BAO KHE COMMUNE, HUNG YEN

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

-*** -

NGUYEN HAI HAU

LEARN TO INCENSE AT CAO THON VILLAGE

IN BAO KHE COMMUNE, HUNG YEN CITY

MASTER’S THESIS Major: Vietnamese studies

Ha Noi - 2013

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

-*** -

NGUYEN HAI HAU

LEARN TO INCENSE AT CAO THON VILLAGE

IN BAO KHE COMMUNE, HUNG YEN CITY

Master thesis specified in : Vietnamese studies Code: 60.22.01.13

Supervisor: Ph.D Associate professor Vu Van Quan

Ha Noi - 2014

COMMITMENT

from establishment The material source of thesis consists of secondary material and primary material The primary materials are quoted with clear note ensuring the objective characters of material and copyright of authors This thesis is not coincident with any studies about Cao village before Mentioned Scientific theoretical points and conclusions and collected materials in the thesis ensuring the true and objective characters I want to reflect the research object truly and objectively

Learner

Nguyen Hai Hau

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

research It is the result of learning process at Vietnam studies Institute Development and Science under the direction of teachers, and the help of Bach khoa íntitute where I work I would like to thank to highly valuable help

I would like to thank Ph.D Associate professor Vu Van Quan whose instruction and guidance help me complete this thesis I would like to thank Bao Khe commune, Cao hamlet that helped me have material source Especially, the people of Cao village, artisans Dao Duc Co helped me in survey process to complete the thesis I would like to express gratitude to your sincere guidance

THESIS

THESIS 1

INTRODUCTION 4

1 Reasons for selecting topics 4

2 Research objectives 7

3 Object and scope of research 7

4 Research methodology 7

5 Scientific and practicalsignificance of problems 8

5.1 Scientific significance 8

5.2 Practical significance 8

6 Structure of the thesis 8

Chapter 1: OVERVIEW 10

1.1 Research about villages 10

1.1.1 General research 10

1.1.2 Concept of village 12

1.1.3 Concept of incense 17

1.1.4 Trends of traditional villages in the process of industrialization and modernization 17

1.2 Overview of Cao Thon village 19

1.2.1 Geographical location 19

1.2.2 History of the development village 21

1.2.3 Economic-Social 22

1.2.4 Family, clan 24

1.2.5 Culture 26

1.3 Direction of the thesis 28

Chapter 2: CAO THON’S CAREER VILLAGE 29

2.1 Background and career incense in Cao Thon 29

2.2 Process of producing and techniques 31

2.2.1 Materials 31

2.2.3 Process to make a product 42

2.2.4 Division of labor in the process making career 48

2.3 Psychology and personality of workers 49

2.3.1 Requirements for workers 49

2.3.2 Relationship between workers 51

CHAPTER 3 REALITIES AND SOLUTIONS TO DEVELOP CAREER MAKING INCENSE CURRENTLY IN CAO THON VILLAGE 54

3.1 Development 54

3.1.1 Development in the economic aspect 54

3.1.2 Development in the society aspect 57

3.1.3 Development in the environmental aspect 58

3.2 Factors affected the development of the career village 59

3.2.1 Feature of the product 59

3.2.2 Introduction and sales product 61

3.2.3 Capital and raw material resource 62

3.2.4 Production premises 63

3.3 Overall assessment 64

3.3.1 Advantages 64

3.3.2 Shortcomings 64

3.3.3 Reasons 65

3.4 Vvillage development policies 65

3.4.1 Policies of the state 65

3.4.2 Policies of the local 67

3.4.3 Development viewpoints and orientations 68

3.5 Solutions to implement sustainable development the career incense in Cao Thon village 69

3.5.1 Solutions about products market 69

3.5.2 Solutions about capital 70

3.5.3 Solutions about providing material 70

3.5.4 Solutions about human resource 71

3.5.5 Solutions about area to product 72

3.5.6 Solutions about conservating the artisans and the secrets of career 72

OUTCOMES CHAPTER 3 77

CONCLUSION 78

LIST OF REFERENCES 80

INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for selecting topics

From ancient times until now, the ritual worship of ancestral spirits of the Eastern countries have custom of burning incense sticks The different religions, peoples, regions worship different gods The specific rituals processes are various, but the basic rules are the same

To make the incenses is not only the secret of raw materials, preparation, cure but also the spirit, the mind and the hard work of the craftsmen And that Vietnamese people see how people burn incense on the altar of the ancestors is a traditional cultural indispensable belief and existed for a long time during the death anniversaries, holidays The incense is like a bridge between the spiritual life of each person with spiritual realms of heaven and earth It can be said that the incense has crept into the bottom corner of the life and has an important role

in the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people in particular and Easterners in general

Lighting the incense on the altar to ancestors or visiting at temples, shrines and pagodas has become a beauty in the spiritual and cultural life of Vietnamese people The incense is like a bridge between people of the two worlds So incense is not merely commodity which has become a spiritual product, with important implications in the spiritual life of man The incense has become the traditional work of many traditional career village s over the country include the career incense in Cao Thon Village, Bao Khe Commune, Hung Yen City, it is a long traditional career village as well as respected about highly qualified incense to consumers

Hung Yen citizens are always proud of their land - a country with the special cultural tradition It is also a place to keep the historical culture, “the spiritual land of heroes" has fostered many cultural, national heroes As the

birthplace and preserve types culture, unique folk arts like cheo singing, hat sam, trong quan went deep into the consciousness of the people in Hung Yen They are also proud of Pho Hien, one of the famous bustling trade port in Vietnam in the 17th century, where trade and exchange of population in many regions of the country and the foreign traders, "first is Capital, second is Pho Hien "

Hung Yen, vibrant era with 85 traditional career villages, of which there are well-developed villages, the villages are in danger of disappearing from the list of villages, there are many career reviving now about 60 villages are acting

Making incense isnot appeared from early, basing on the available reports about incense existed from 19th century and was introduced from abroad to Viet Nam Before 2000, most of people in Cao Thon village lived on agriculture, their income came from rice but making incense was only exited in some households The level of production was small individual not a commodity product and brough as a sideline but after 2000 some passionate families who sincery of his father career started to take care how to develop their elder career Since then the living standard of Cao Thon village have changed better than before

Making incense have been living for hundred years in Cao Thon village In 2004 Cao Thon village had recorgnized as a traditional village by Hung Yen High Commission In 2007 Cao Thon village also had recorgnized as a traditional career village with separate brands And recently the craff village club has hold the first meeting of the direction for the development of the traditional career village.The congress set the stage direction that is trying to achieve growth rate of 16 to 20 percent Upcoming business producers focus to help reduce environmental pollution This is the premise toward planned industrial village park, promoting development and improving the quality of traditional products

Good news came to the people in Cao Thon village, recently business association in Hung Yen province have given out the individual logo for the

traditional career then step by step set up and advertise the brands to all people in Hung Yen and also all people in Vietnam So the making incense village still retains prospects and stable development

Incense of Cao Thon village is a traditional product which has become familiar to consumers in Hung Yen and neighboring provinces Villager had spent almost two hundred years to live and go along with incense Through many ups and downs, incense of Cao Thon village has a special quality that few other villages can compare from the flavor such as aromantic, starting the fire and form The incense at Cao Thon village of Hung yen city has also become a target of servey and researchers to many scientist, writers in Vietnam.There have been many books of researchers, scientists in and outside the province written about making incense village as in the book: Hung Yen Press Geographical Balance in 1934 which written by Trinh Nhu Tau and „‟Hai Hung‟s traditional career “which written by the Department of culture and Information and „‟Hai Hung‟s traditional career” whih written by the Department

of science and technolodgy and environment in 1995 and book “Hung Yen area alluvial culture “ witten by Nguyen Phuc Lai” the preservation and promotion of cultural values intangible Cao Thon incense career village prepared by Mr Hoang Manh Thang Most of the material was made and only focuses on the research of history of the village, the geographical location of the village, the legend of the training, village‟s tools, production process and method of consumption , but stop at the level of a brief introduction and owverview of the general context of the traditional career village of Hung Yen province The documents do not analise the technical stages of step to make incense in deeply The transformation of native village in the context of industrialization and modernization of the country, not only provide the solution to specific public conversation and resolve the difficulties to go into the sustainable development

There can generalize the reason that the author choose the topic “LEARN

TO INCENSE AT CAO THON VILLAGE IN BAO KHE COMMUNE, HUNG YEN CITY‟‟ as following

First, Separate to others traditional villages, career incense produces not only commodities but also religious production Each incense stick brings the physical structure and contains special spiritual values

Second, for students in researching area, Cao Thon village‟s problem is a good condition to research

Third, the problem of making incense village in Cao Thon is the common problem of many others in the processing of industrialization and modernization,

so to solve this problem effectively of this career village will be the lesson to solve the problem for other career villages

2 Research objectives

Through researching the target, we would like to present a systematic way about Cao Thon village Bao Khe commune Hung Yen city from the past to present , in the overall development of the series of career villages in Hung Yen province

Major part in this thesis we are devoted to the production processes on incense with two production techniques are handmade and machine Along with the presentation of actual production we would like to find out the cause that makes the economy up and gives out the developing solution in the future

3 Object and scope of research

The career incens in Cao Thon village of Bao Khe commune in Hung Yen city is the major object of the research

There are many problems but we are special focused on the production process and the development of the village in the period of industrialization and modernization

4 Research methodology

- Interdisciplinary research,

- Statistical

- Find out the relationship

- Synthesis

- Compare and contrast

5 Scientific and practical significance of problems

5.2 Practical significance

First, the thesis addressed honestly the problem is set in the village of incense Cao village, if the solution is given back to the application adequately address the problems in the village

Monday, but the results, lessons learned from the research process can be applied to the research of other villages in the context of modernization

6 Structure of the thesis

The thesis is composed of three chapters :

Chapter 1 : Overview

Chapter 2 : Career incense in Cao Thon Village

Chapter 3 : Status and solutions to develop the career incense in Cao Thon currently

XV century

The book "The farmers of the Northern Delta" spent an important content to mention this issue With the knowledge of a human geologist, Pierre Gourou had condition to survey career villagecomprehensively, went on most types of industrial village, reviewed the factors that make up the distribution about Crafts village Especially, he analyzed the nature of industrial villages that

is Family industry, which affected aspects of production such as division of labor, organization of production and development of all handicrafts.Those analysis are very important After the work of Pierre Gourou for many years, in Vietnam, many authors investigated for career village s did not mention the nature of this, so they did not review the economic village However, the survey

of Pierre Gourou was not completely full , with a large space, he missed some career villages, this will be clearly mentioned in our next chapter And with research spanning all aspects related to farmers of the Red River delta, handicareer villageissue is mentioned less satisfactory In 1957, two books written about the craft were in turn published "Draft about industry history of Vietnam" by Pham Gia Ben [ 1 ] The work of Phan Gia should be evaluated as a

first book written about the value of traditional handicrafts of Vietnam after the August Revolution in the North In presenting the history of the craft, the author focused on the French stage This work outlined the history of the industry in thousands of years, and the material on the craft under the French was really made sense to the researchers behind this However, studies of Phan Gia about the career village s break its back side, where the craft was born and survived Therefore, his book was considered as a stop point of research works on the history of craft After a long time, the problem about the trade of village was not concerned, there was not the great work on this issue To 1986, a new works really left his mark in the research of village is a doctoral thesis "a number of trade villages in northern in the century XVIII - XIX" by Nguyen Quang Ngoc [

37 ] Based on the research of a number of villages in the central business Delta

as Da Nguu, Bao Dap, Phu Luu authors had shown the appearance of commercial village in Vietnam before the twentieth century, this historical work can be considered as a research about first -class career village s in the North

In recent years, the development of traditional crafts and traditional career villages in the rural areas are increasingly concerned There have been many articles and some research on this issue in these aspects and different ranges Scientific topics of Ministry level "Building the development model about traditional village and Vietnam light industry" by the Ministry Industry (1996 ) have made comments about the role, strengths and limitations of the career villages system in our rural areas, building models of producting organization and management can be applied in the traditional village of light industry Vietnam [2] The contribution of this work is only stopped at the production problems of the village Many books written about the village was born Do Thi Hao and Tran Quoc Vuong (1996) with the book "Traditional Handicrafts Vietnam and the ancestors" a brief introduction about the traditional craft of Vietnam and the emphasis on the profession ancestors and offer a some

major problems in preserving and developing traditional handicrafts [22] The

book "village, Thang Long-Hanoi City craft" of Tran Quoc Vuong is the

in-depth research of villages within Ha Noi ( not extended ) Author Mai The Hon

in his book "Developing traditional villages in the process of industrialization

and modernization" (2003) gave an overview of the situation of villages in the

Red River Delta , the trend of growing traditional villages in the current age [30]

In 2004, thesis "Development career village in the process of industrialization

and modernization "of protected Tran Minh Yen [55] This work also provides

research problem with Mai The Hon of more but more broadly Two additional

works have some problems about theory career village, lessons learned from a

number of countries, the actual situation as well as the direction and

development of career village s in the period of industrialization - modernization

However, two limitations of this process studied through extensive view,

focused on theory without application If you go deeper into a specific of career

villages, the work can be the value deeper

The villages making incense Cao Thon, Bao Khe, Hung Yen city also

has many scientists, anthropologist in local and outside city to find out Some

books mentioned this village in Cao Thon as "geographical Hung Yen" Trinh

Nhu Tau in 1934 [43]; the book "Hai Hung traditional profession "of cultural

information department [28, tr.163 - 176 ]; book "Hai Hung traditional

profession" of science technology and environment department in 1995 the book

"Hung Yen cultural alluvial area" of Nguyen Phuc Lai [34, p 112-116 ] the

village making incense written in the documents with very modest amount, just

stop at 5 to 10 pages of the book Contents are sketchy, merely is an overview of

the craft of a local tradition, and written by descriptions

1.1.2 Concept of village

So far, Vietnam has dozens of theses, dissertations, and this work, the

author did not want to bring new concept only summarize these views before to provide a theoretical basis for their research

Professor Tran Quoc Vuong has the definition about villages as follows: Village (such as Bat Trang, Tho Ha, Phu Lang, Huong Canh Grapefruit village, Vo, He Nom, Thieu Ly, Phuoc Kieu, Phuoc Kieu , the paper village in Grapefruit, Duong O , Canh Dien iron village, Phu Du, Da Hoi ), although the village grow under smallholder and raise small livestock (pigs, chickens ) there are also some other occupations (knitting, soyal, soyal bean ) but it has some prominent traditional craft, fine craft class with a professional or semi- professional, (organizational structure), with bosses, and some workers and small craftsmen, have diligence, have certain technological processes "alive for art, die for art", "The most refined technology, the most honored relatives" living primarily in the craft and produce handcrafted items, the items were with the fine arts, have become commodity products and marketing relationship with the market and surrounding areas with urban markets, capital (Ke Cho, Hue, Saigon ) and proceed to expand to all country and even to export abroad The village was known more or less long (hundred thousand years ago) the people know the country names, the village names, into history, into folk become folklore heritage [54, p 21] According to Bui Van Vuong, the "traditional village is traditional crafts village Here it is not necessarily for the villagers to produce handicrafts The craftsmen are also farming (farmers ) But the highly specialized requirements have created workers to product specialized production

at the traditional village " [53, Tr.13]

Overall, at present, there are three concepts of the village:

The first concept: The village is place most people in the village do activities for that craft and use it as a profession to live But with such a concept, the village is now not so much For example, only pottery village of Phu Lang (

Bac Ninh ), Bat Trang (Hanoi) That is the village without farming, and almost they work in the fields as well as professional Here, the industry craft for them

is only the occupations increases income Even in Bat Trang, pottery specialist, but not all villagers are doing this career, some people do pottery only 50% of the population, while 50% of the population are doing other careers such as sales, masonry, carpentry, sewing

The second concept: village is a traditional career village, here it is not necessary for all the villagers producing crafts Many people are craftsmen as well

as farmers Due to the highly specialized requirements have created specialized workers produce traditional crafts at the career villageor other village The concept

of villages is not enough Not all of the villages have any blacksmith or a few carpenterry are career village s To determine which village is the career village

or not, we need to see the proportion of workers employed or the number of households compared to the entire labor and households in the village, or the proportion of income from trades to the total income of the village

The third concept is the center of craft production, where brings together artisans and households specialized in manufacturing, selling style of products, the type system of small and medium businesses, and have the same ancestor, it

is a business entity existence and long development in history, is an economic unit for handicrafts and have enormous effects on economic life - cultural - social in a positive way

From the approach above we can see the concept of the village relate with the specific craft The name of Village associated with the name of the craft such as pottery, bronze casting, pearl, jewelry, textile, paper, silk, Previously, the concept about village only covered craft career Today, the trade services in rural areas are also covered into the career village Thus, there will have village which only has one type of craft and village has many career villages,

depending on the number of trades and service industries predominate in the village The village with one craft is a unique appearance village and survival craft and profession absolute, the other craft in some households are negligible The village appeared more professional and existed many professional occupations have dominated almost equal In the rural, villages of Vietnam before had a professional appeared and existed primarily, but recently many career village s appear and trend to develop strongly

So the village is a cluster of residents in a village, with a career or some careers separated from agriculture to produce independent business Income from careers has the high proportion in the total value of all products of the village Criteria to be considered for a particular village is:

- Number of households do one or more specialized craft about 40-50 % - Income from craft about over 50 % ;

- The value of accounted products over 50 % of the total output of the village

However, these criteria are not absolute, they have relative significance

in quantitative terms Because, in each village there is the difference in the scale

of production, process technology, and the nature of the products and the number

of workers involved in the production process Therefore, the development and movements of the village are usually different in each period

Today, the challenges of the market economy, and science and technology with the division of labor has developed in a higher level, it is not confined to the village which only product profession craft This can be understood in two angles: First, the production technology is not entirely manual

as before, many villages have adopted the technology of mechanical engineering Second, in the village, while producing develops at higher level will rise the development of many other career to serve it So many people provide the

service and consumption materials for household and production facilities, thus forming and developing the village with the model combined many career

Besides the concept about village, there has the concept about traditional village In this concept, there have also three different views

The first concept: a traditional village is a resident community, lives in a locality in rural areas apart from agriculture, and has one or many craft with a long tradition, to produce one or variety of products to sell in the market for profit This concept expresses the factor of the ancient tradition, but the new villages following the factor of the tradition of zones or areas is not mentioned

The second concept : traditional village is the village does the craft with

a long tradition, often for generations This concept is incompleted Because when speaking to traditional villages we not only pay attention to the individual , but also pay attention to many aspects of space and time , that is interested in the systematic , comprehensive feature of the village, in which, the deciding factor is the artists, products, manufacturing techniques, and the art methods

The third concept: Traditional villages are villages with absolute majority population do the traditional career It was formed , existed and developed in a long history, was followed from generation to generation follow the type of hereditary or at least existed for decades In the village, production is centralized, with many talented artists and a group of skilled people to develop nuclear profession At the same time,the products are made following the typical nature unique, sophisticated, and national culture The value of the production and the income, handicraft of villages is 50 % of the total value of production and income in year in the village

From the concept of traditional villages there are many different ways to learn But to clarify the concept of traditional villages should have the following criteria:

- The number of households and the number of workers employed in

traditional villages reaches 50% or more compared to the total number of households and the labor of the village

- The value of production and income from traditional industry in the village is over 50 % of the total value of production and income in year in the village

- Products made with fine art bringing up the nature of cultural and national factors Vietnam

- Production has certain technological processes, are transmitted from generation to generation

From approaches and research can be defined:

Traditional villages are those villages have one or more of the traditional craft separated from agriculture to business and bringing up the main income for the year The craftsmanship that has been passed down from generation to generation, usually several generations Along with the challenges of the time, the career villagehas become dominant, a number of traditional craft, with a class

of professional craftsmen or dedicated professional craftsmen focus on producting, with certain technological processes and living mainly on that Products made with the fine arts and has become a commodity in the market

1.1.3 Concept of incense

Incense is a kind of material (as grasses, trees such as yarrow, sandalwood) will be burned after a scent Burning is effective in cleaning the air, the spirit that is refreshing Whenever the invoking spirits, ancestors who so often burning incense is more functional hyphen between humans and the divine, between ancestors and descendants

At first people used the herbalist is available in natural gas burners, was later made into products today

1.1.4 Trends of traditional villages in the process of industrialization and

modernization

With the trend of market to the economy, globalization and the world economic integration and regions gave the condition for traditional village development towards more favorable From then, traditional villages will move from the industrial to the small and medium industries

Because of the open policy, foreign goods entering the country has created competition, a part of handicareer village s can meet risk or even can not compete in the domestic market Especially in some traditional items with national culture had not focused on modernization, so they lost the domestic market as well as international market, such as lacquer painted, embroidery, folk painting,

However, traditional villages also changed following the demand of market In the process of industrialization and modernization of the traditional, villages are always competed by new technologies, such as village casting bronze (pots, trays, brass) was lost when replacing by aluminum, villages producing bamboo knitting was replaced by plastic recently, Dong Ho folk painting village (Bac Ninh) is replaced by the modern technologies Cao Thon is one of the career villages producting incense, is being affected by market and influenced by the process of industrialization and modernization in rural areas When these products about modern incense are prevailing, market of the traditional insece is being narrowed, just like the career villageabove, Cao Thon can not be no industrialized and modernized in order to survive

Moreover, in condition about economic recently, many traditional villages have restored and developed, have the tends to innovate profession to meet the needs of industries such as outsourcing stone changed to exploit building stone, making hats in Phu Tien (Hung Yen) moved to produce the sea buoy at the same time , many new villages appear and spread out on the basis of traditional villages that is building village Noi Due, transport village Trung Kenh (Bac

Ninh), village producing building materials Da Ton, Xuan Quang (Ha Noi), village food processing Cat Que, La Phu (Ha Tay)

In many traditional career villages have tended to replace a part of manual labor such as carpentry using saws, planers, universal furniture, making noodles, pancakes, sausages were made by machine

Thus, in the process of industrialization and modernization and international integration, traditional villages still exist and develop, but have modified according to the needs of the market Currently there are over 50 villages of the Red River Delta have been transformed by modernization trend, Cao Thon village is one of them

Thus, we have clarified some concepts of villages and career villages, the features and the changes of career villagevaried in the context of industrialization and modernization and given the result that villages making incense Cao Thon village is one of the career villages, but there have been tremendous changes in the context of industrialization and modernization

1.2 Overview of Cao Thon village

1.2.1 Geographical location

Cao Thon village lies far from Hung Yen center city 5km to the north, on Highway 39A, located in Bao Khe Commune, Hung Yen city The village is known for its name Dong Lo According to the book "The names of villages in Vietnam at the beginning of the nineteenth century, ''Dong Lo is one of the six villages under Tong Tien Cau, Kim Dong district, Khoai Chau, Hung Yen Through the process of formation and development, dense populatation , Dong

Lu was separated into different villages According to the document "Places and reserved document about village in the northern", Dong Lo has three villages: Cao Thon, Tien Thon, Thuong Thon under Tong Tien Cau (Tong Tien Cau includes communes: Tien Cau, Dong Lo (Cao Thon, Tien Thon, Thuong Thon), Tra Lam, Suoi Khe, Luong Xa, Bao Khe

Cao Thon is in the middle of Bao Khe commune with a total area of 44

177 ha, including 250 households with more than 800 people To the north is the large lotus pond bordered with Doan Thuong village, to the south is the Cao Thon Temple rural village bordered with Trieu Tien village, to the west is near the high way 39A, with pagoda village and the Red River dikes running parallel

to the village, to the east is the fields of the village

With position is parallel highway 39A, has created many favorable conditions for local to develop economic and social, especially in traditional crafts On the highway 39A has one part of the road connecting to Highway 5 at Pho Noi, is an arterial road of the economic centrals in Red River Delta, Hanoi, Hai Duong, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh It is also the cultural center, especially for the spiritual culture The other end of this road goes straight to Hung Yen city, then splits into two directions, one is to Trieu Duong bridge to the Thai Binh, another is to Yen Lenh bridge, through highway 1 to Ha Nam and goes into the south of country This is the road which can deliver products of village development in the country

Cao Thon village today is located in Hung Yen City, located 5km from the city center Hung Yen City today is the ancient land Pho Hien, one of the busiest shopping centers in our country in the sixteenth century, the seventeenth Currently, Hung Yen City has two appearance: tradition with the quiet streets, solemn and ancient monuments and one busy Hung Yen with the process industrialization and modernization of the country That is also condition to develop the professional making incense

Being a provinces has a systems historical cultural stand the No 2 in the country, including the famous monuments, such as ChuongTemple, MauTemple, Xich Dang Temple ( Hung Yen City ); Nom Temple, Thai Lac pagoda (Van Lam), Da Hoa Temple, Da Trach (Khoai Chau ) with the spirit of cultural activities held regularly during the year is a relatively large market for incense

Cao Thon consumpting their unique products

Hung Yen in general, Cao Thon in particular located in the central of the

northern delta, the terrain is relatively stable, flat, no hills The front of village is

Red River running crossing, barrier people with alluvial rivers like night and day

and as it want to far down the land The alluvial has made the moving the river

changed direction This has impacted to changes the economic of Cao Thon

This is a gateway for people in Cao Thon to trade and exchange ancient boats,

which traces remain now is the old station, according to the elder in the village,

that is the temple with three roofs, lying on river bank, flowing through Cao

Thon village

1.2.2 History of the development village

Dong Lo village under Tong Tien Cau, Kim Dong now handed a story

about the formation of 3 villages

Three villages: Tien, Thuong, Cao were the former of Dong Lo village

before, then splited into three villages But the villages wanted their name on or in

front of the other villages, it had lost a lot of money to bribe local authorities

Local authorities skillfully used the meaning of the language equivalent to please

everyone, named for the village: Tien is Tien Thon, now changes into Tien Thang,

Thuong now changes into Doan Thuong and Cao nowdoes not still change

This story circulated outside the local In our opinion, it only appeared in

the late 19th century after breaking Hoang Xa dike in 1890, it impacted the

geographic of this local population However, before the three villages always

intimated relationships sticking closely, associated with water activities, Cao

Thon traded boats

After the August Revolution, Dong Lo called Bao Khe In the war against

French changed in to Hiep Cuong, in 1955 changed into Tu Do Since 1970

known as Bao Khe Bao Khe includes 5 villages: Tieu Tien, Tien Thang, Doan

Thuong, Van Tuong, Cao Thon

On the 8th of January, thousands of boats were up to nearly 100 boats anchoring down the river for the festival of traditions boats According to the village elders retold the festival also existed to the 1940s of the twentieth century

Agricultural Economy: The people here still keep fields After years of trading and floating on the river, some households saved a little money, they bought farm to work and life of people has been gradually stable These fields are still called "hau hien khai co", so this field in 1959 went into a cooperative is known as "Field of Mr nam, Mr Hung" Currently, most of the people here have changed career into making incense, the number of households in the villages still farm the fields about 20 % However, after the state split the field in 1993, there were 1.2 for each family

Career making incense: According to legend in the late 20th century, the

village Cao Thon learned the career from initially, there were only a few families but gradually they realized the effective and economical benefits, so many families learned and developed around the villages People unceasingly promote and expand the Career incense in Cao Thon, until now, there are 90% households over the total of 250 households making incense beside many families migrated to the city to live on making incense such as Quang Thai, Van Hoa , Hoang Phat ( Ha Noi ), Phat Dong ( Ha Dong ), Hong Phuc ( Hue , Dong

An My( Hai Duong ), Dong An Xuong (Saigon)

Career incense in Cao Thon were in the fair in 1936 in Ha Dong, Hanoi, Vietnam and won the honourable name Viet product “cuu pham van giai”, Mai Xuan Nga with the band Dong An My

In 1942, the product of Cao Thon were in the fair of Hue capital, won the honourable name of Vietnamese products Mai Xuan Thai- hang Bo with the brand of Quang Thai By making incense from the 1930 to 1942 Cao Thon village began the change Located between Northern Delta beside the green bamboo there are many spacious house growing up, it reflects a countryside which is the richest and most civilized in HungYen southern

Today, 100 % households in Cao Thon have stable houses , there are no longer poor and near-poor households in the whole village

The system of education is growing, there are no dropout children because

of economic conditions, the entire village has universal secondary education

Career incense has been into the religious life, in the cultural life of the people Every year, from the date of 15-17/3 (lunar) People hold festival in pagodas and temples This is the festival of Tan La temple, in Doan Thuong village - is the festival of the whole village On these days, people offer products

to the temples such as agricultural commodities with the incense of family Every year, on 22/8 (lunar), the family prepared incense offerings the ancestors who handed the career of making incense This is the festival of the whole village The village opens the festival for many occupations in Cao Thon with

children everywhere to participate in the anniversary of incense trade On these days, village holds a lot of traditional games such as catching duck, making incense competition then the whole village have a party together happily

People talk together, share experiences about making incense and educate children to remember the profession, conserve and develop profession and Characteristic of this festival is the place for the big families bring the branded products to take part in the fair and for people watch and learn as well as to introduce for everyone about their products

Over the past years, the state invested fund for scientists to research the economics of the villages and found that the economy here was not wealth or poverty To develop their products must have the support of the state for science and technology to expand the market The conclusion of the research we find relevant, we have to understand and try more when there is the policy "open door” of the State and priority the support to develop the economic of the traditional villages in order to attract local labor and implement policy about modernization - industrialization in rural areas

1.2.4 Family, clan

In Vietnam, most of the village communities, the family and the clan are two very important factors The family is the cell of society, the basic elements making up the community Families in Cao Thon as well as the villages in the Red River Delta is the nuclear family Due to expanding career so after married many couple soon separated from family to organize separated producing For the production of crafts, men take the hard work hard such as mixing, grinding medicine, stand to control machine and shoot line women take the stage like aroma, dry The labor of men could be replaced with improved tools but mixing medication, dispensing can not be replaced So, although the form of family here is the patriarchal family that the men have the main role but women also have a very important role in the economy led to their voices in family are

no less weight than their husbands When changing the tools into machine, the

man started to take a leading role in the production They undertake to install the product lines and control the production, the women undertaken the input material scale the material and classify Besides, they also worry about the financial problems of the business Previously, while producing crafts, children often helped their parents such as drying incense, sorting materials, but when it comes to small and medium industries, children have more free time to focus on education, unless they quit school, they will join in the producing process

Clan is a collection of people with the same blood in the Vietnamese village, in the northern midlands, along with the collection of neighborly relations The role of the clan for people in the village, there are two different opinions A kind of views finds that the clan does not have a big role in people's lives in the village though the people in Vietnamese Delta consider it as a more important role

in practice Typically for this point is Tran Tu Another view appreciates the role linking the same blood relations in the village rather than neighborly relations, said that the family plays a very important role in cohesion in Vietnamese village Typical of this view is Professor Phan Dai Doan He says: "We may see the village community at first is the gathering of the clan" [9, pg.11] According to this view, Cao Thon is the collection of 16 clans currently

Like many villages in northern Vietnam, relative relationships are considered very important here, especially the ethnic relations In the context of the village, and this relationship is also known as the business relationship if someone in the clan opens the producting facilities, there will have others families to participate in this network of production facilities, such as the brand producing incense The Hung of the family Dao Duc Co artisan People in the clan are employed in priority for important positions of the business, but every family in the village wants to strive to open their own factory and manage it themselves Economic conditions are increasingly well-off due to production, people have conditions to pay more attention to the problem of the clan They actively participate in the activities of the clan as the death anniversaries,

building ancestor tomb, temple and encouraging research movements The picture of the clan in Cao Thon village is evident in the death anniversaries Although busy with work at the factory as well as other business relationships, Cao Thon people especially the man often are in their death anniversaries In recent years, the business has expanded, the economic ties and relatives ties are formed so the number of guests for the death anniversaries are also expanding Here, the death anniversaries are usually held in the afternoon but for rich families held these days for several days

The funds are also divided between the clans There are small clans , the number of men are a few and have less economic, the contributed amount is distributed according to each occasion and each per man The clans with the richfamily, the funds are mainly from individuals, families have generous contribution

Many brands in village by two brothers or many people in the clan work together, for example, Duc Huy brand has two sisters with the same brand but producing and investing independently, Duc Tho and Duc Thu, Huong Thai Canh and Duc Hung

1.2.5 Culture

We already know Cao Thon people had trading boats from late 19th century but early 20th century, they have the crafts making incense, they go across the river and stop in some ports and trade there Accessing to many cultures of all regions, distilling essence to create one feature for Cao Thon, eliminate bad practices (ancient), and get the civilizations that is consider personalities more than money, love each other, good leaves protect torn leaves Although travelled to live outside soon but people did not do the bad things, dishonest, theft or prostitution, they like singing by drum or Kieu, there are some elders to memorized even read backwards the poem of Kieu as Nguyen Thi Suc

Because of trading from along time,people considered the education Knowing the important of educaion, they invited a teacher Khoa To to open class

in the early 20th century, married with the girl in village and formed into Giai

Te Industrial Economics, later the national language, there was a teacher Doan Danh Teo, now he is still alive, 96 years old

Located in the Red River downstream, Cao Thon village had a rich history

of culture, and still maintained a lot of cultural value Typically Tan La temple,

in Doan Thuong, Bat Nan temple, Vu Thi Thuc female general (general of Hai

Ba Trung) According to legend, the general Vu Thi Thuc in Bat Nan area had troops against invading Ma Vien(in 43) The battle 7th (in 8 battles) against Ma Vien held here, before she returned to Tien La - Doan Hung – Thai Binh Temple is ranked the national monument in 1982 by the Ministry of Culture and Information

Over 100 years, the main career is to produce incense, the fragrance ingrained in the cultural life of the people here and then sublimated into poetry, into music:

Such as The place you sit as Khong Minh watch book Hand use ticks as Trieu Tu dance sword The place you sit the light as star

With glue as dragon dance

the making incense you are the first

Being a playboy is the same as other Hand played all of chess

The poem, the career is not less than anyone Last martial least one post office in the world Shoes zone you have some pairs

Ky long, Gia dinh have enough talent

It is hot, wearing Luongsa coat

It is cold, wearing Cam Chau

Or : " Afternoon in the country someone sings the dating

To make passionate love Afternoon yellow sun embraces green bamboo

Oh, how the song lyrics it memories Hats tipp with eyes still covered "

Due to the growing business, a number of traders the open the press, have conditions to expose with the intellectual class of society, including patriotic intellectuals Early 20th century formed a layer of people influenced by the movement of the patriotic, many people have joined the revolution from the beginning to glory the village in particular, to Hung Yen in general as:

General Hoang Minh Thao (Ta Thai An) - Professor, People's Teacher, Principal of Military Academy senior, awards Ho Chi Minh, Medal Ho Chi Minh

Artist Hoang Kieu - Fighter of Regiment protecting capital, then as director of the Cheo Theatre, Member of Vietnam artists

And many people assume the responsibility of other agencies of the Party and State have retired now are still the positive factor of local to develop the movement

1.3 Direction of the thesis

Through the process of analyzing and summarizing the research on the village and scareer village, in this thesis, we follow the trend to research region then consider the subjects is a unit of area, apply the research methods about area These studies especially focused on a problem: Researching the processes

of producing incense to clarify the transformation of the career villageCao Thon

in the period of industrialization and modernization, the reasons cause the development stronger than other villages producing incense in area, the existence and solutions to develop in the next years This is a new problem has not been studied, or not studied thoroughly

Chapter 2: CAREER INCENSE IN CAO THON VILLAGE

2.1 Background and career incense in Cao Thon

The incense associated with the life, the culture of Vietnamese people for

a long time, especially in the spiritual beliefs, the incense was burned on the alta

on the anniversary, New Year's Day, the ancestral graves, the dead people day

The way to use incense was thousands of years ago in our country In the ancient tomb was a pottery incense burner about 16 -17 centuries ago On the tombstone of Ly, Tran aslo mentioned to use the incense on the festivals In the book "Van Dai loai ngu" of scholar Ly Quy Don in eighteenth-century, the part

of vocabulary,from item 1, 2, 3 mentioned, described the use of incense in the worship through some work from a long time [18, tr.183 - 184]

It can be said that using of incense has a long process to develop From

burning firewood, burning fat goat, fragrant grass to the eighteenth century,

incense created until now and considered as a symbol to convey the spirit toward the other world, the supernatural world

According to the village artisans in the village of Cao Thon, the career incense started over a hundred years ago Incense made in Cao Thon called huong xa to distinguish black incense ( incense made mostly of tram and coal ) Black incense is still made in Trai Trang commune, Yen My district now During the development process, career incense was up and down Before the August Revolution, career incense developed relatively, products sold widely

in the region, especially in Doc la markets People from many places went to exchange, purchase and mainly products were incense According to work " Hung Yen Du dia chi" of Trinh Nhu Tau wrote in 1934, Doc la Market (in Bao Khe) every month had 6 fairs After the August Revolution, career incense was reduced by the war and the viewpoint of authorities about the religious activities

In 1970 career incense started recovering in the cooperative In 1986 the

cooperative dissoled, incense was made in the household In recent years, career incense gradually recovered, market expanded however many traditional products have lost due to lacking of rare materials, and the elder artisans have more experience died

but who started the career here? To know the problem is not easy because so far there hasnot found in any text The legends told that person handed career to the villagers in the late nineteenth century was a girl with surname Dao, named Khuong When she was small, she was with her family on the boat traveled around When she was 15-16 year old she went to Hanoi and worked for a Chinese brand, trading incense from China to Vietnam A visitors from China to our country and found her fast, gentle and beautiful and took her to China as the daughter-in-law, in there she learned career incense

She had two sons named Thai Lon and Thai be Because missing country, when she was old, she returned home, and she stayed again with her relative Mr Dao Duc Xi, making incense and handing career Then Mr Dao didn‟t have a son, so handing career to his daughter Dao Thi Khuong to look after and develop Then Mr Nguyen Nhu Tua, then is Mr Nguyen Nhu Sung She died on 22/08 lunar Currently her grave is unknown There is also the theory that she returned to China and died there

Career incense in Cao Thon was over a hundred years ago, Ms Dao Thi Khuong is considered as a person handing career for villagers With the mind, drink the water remember the sources, as well as other careers, the ancestors in Cao Thon at that time (about 1920 to 1928) were taken the date on 21st and 22nd August lunar as a day to worship the ancestors of career

all expressed the attachment between workers and owners in neighbourhood,

which is the cradle of democracy formed in the mind of Cao Thon villagers [5]

In addition, the people in career incense in Cao Thon held on 22/8 lunar as

a worship day (according to legend this is the anniversary of Nhien Dang Phat To) This is the common anniversary of the career incense village, not just Cao Thon

Another theory about incense career in Huong Cao Thon village said that the doctor Tac went to hai Phong and worked for a shop selling incense, for a period of learning by doing, knew how to make incense, he left Hai Phong returned country and making incense, and villagers gradually learned to follow career The elderly people in the village said that when they grew up they found all village making incense but didn‟t know who was the first person to do it

The problem about the ancestor of incense in Cao Thon, based on the available documents, I believe that Ms Dao Thi Khuong was the career ancestor here because there are many reasonable grounds.Although there are many stories about the ancestor Dao Thi Khuong in the legend but the culturers, historical researchers have not had any specifically works to explain this phenomenon

There are two basic reasons to assert that Ms Dao Thi Khuong is the ancestor of incense career in Cao Thon

First, career incense appeared in Cao thon over a century ago, so the source of documents is still high accuracy though oral

Second, the ingredients are mostly Chinese drugs (not Vietnamese drugs), Chinese drugs with ingredients have about 30 tastes, often the artists do a prescription of incense with 19th different tastes, not include other additives This confirmed that Ms.Khuong went to China to learn career incense then returned and developed it in hometown, it created its own brand of incense today

2.2 Process of producing and techniques

2.2.1 Materials

Materials include many components, even in each component has its own stages Normally making an incense stick, people prepared many different

materials such as toothpick, glue stick, prescription and Chinese drugs

by machine following the requesting of each family Incense toothpicks are made

by Cau Bau village- Ung Hoa – Thuong Tin - ha Tay and brought to Cao Thon However, to make a bundle of toothpicks, people need a lot of different stages

First choosing and splitting the bamboo: According to Mr.Dao Duc Co

-70 years old, Nguyen Thi Hong - 50 years old Dao DucVien -58 years old, to do the following: choose the tree (not too old or too young because the old is easy

to break, or young is easy to meet woodworm), long, thick body, usually the trees are 5 - 7m long, diameter 5 - 10cm or more Use a saw (small tongue, thick tooth, cut tree sharp ) cut tree into sections according to the size of incense, compressed incense are 34 - 36 - 38cm, mixed incense from 40 - 45cm Using the body of bamboo, droping the head, using knife to cut bamboo into 3 - 4cm thick bars, bunching a bundle, dipping down the pond 40 days then picking up the water, cutting the outside and inside Using a kind of knife which is light, thin blade, sharp, knife handle is 30 - 40cm long, blade is 20cm and square) the right hand put knife handle on the ribs or put on your thigh (while sitting circle), when chopping bamboo into lath, then using teeth to cut the head to split into smaller lath Bamboo lath must be square, not touched, holding the lath with touched then casting off to leave the touched lath The standard bamboo toothpicks is tied into bundles, 5000 toothpicks/bundle, dry in the cool place The toothpicks of mixed incense is bigger and longer than compressed incense

At present, Incense in Cao Thon is made by machine so the toothpick is also splited by machine The sizes of toothpicks are usually round, smooth due to

splited by the machine, labor productivity is higher The diameter of this toothpick is usually from 1.1 mm to 3.5 mm

Toothpicks for rolled incense and dripped incense don‟t need high technical, these toothpicks are often rough, soft, the price is low but the quality isnot as good as toothpicks made bymachine

In the past, toothpick was made with bamboo but now when using technology, toothpick is made by luong tree (called lo o tree)

Then, dyed the toothpick legs depend on requirements, but toothpick legs often have two colors as red and lotus pink Dyed leg is to decorate as well

as to size for making incense, Dyed leg often is a third of incense stick The incense is long, dyed the toothpick is shorter than the rolled drugs with the normal rate

Boiled water then put the coloring in, measure the level of water is enough for toothpicks to dye, before dying people must try the color, when dying people always keep the temparature of hot water Dipping the bundle of incense about 5-10 minutes then lift them slightly and drop water, then dry in the sun when drying need to put the dyeing section above Noting that tools to dye as barrel, the bottom is flat to keep color water on the toothpick equal when rolling incens

2.2.1.2 Glue

Glue is a material to unite the drugs and stick in the incense stick The glue got from the cover a plant called re rot This plant grew in the mountains of Quang Ninh, Yen Bai Before glues were dropped by borrowing the water power( water power flows from the mountains down and drop the dried cover into small flour) but now this dried cover is dropped by machine Now the villager in Cao Thon uses two types of glue such as glue and dipping glue

- Se Glue is used to make compressed incense and mixed incense

- Saigon Glue has feature as tough, this is the best glue,

- Quang Ninh Glue has feature as hard, when used must add glue Saigon,

Yen Bai,

- Yen Bai Glue has feature as tough

- Glue Day has features as solid when used must add glue Saigon and glue Yen Bai

Before using the glue for making incense must exam the quality of each type of glue, then prepare with certain ratio: take the flour mixed with water then

to see the toughness Normally the households in Cao Thon prepare glue in the following rate:

- Glue Saigon mixing the ratio 1-10 with flavoring

- Quang Ninh Glue mixed the ratio1-4 with flavoring

- Yen Bai Glue mixed the ratio1-10 with flavoring

- Day Glue, Son La mixed the ratio 1-4 with flavoring

- Dung Glue is a glue used to make the round incense, now this glue is in Quang Ninh, Ha Bac, Dung Glue mixed the ratio 5-3 with Se Glue This glue is mixed the ratio 5-5 or 5-6 with flavoring

2.2.1.3 The anti- adhesive and increase fire

The anti-adhesive commonly used for making the pole incense When rolled incense into the toothpick need to use the anti- adhesive on the outside, so the incense sticks just rolled not stick wet to each other Before the anti- adhesive was made of pulp paper Gio, tough and soft This tree was taken in the mountains of Quang Ninh, The local people cut trees and put on the wet soil for worm into the rotten then place in a mortar into flour Currently, Gio paper is less used and replaced by wood pulp of Bo de tree Wood of BoDe tree was crushed into flour or sawdust of some enterprises produced matches After bought, it is crushed again into small before using to make incense Wood Bo De has feature as easy to fire, steady fire, incense stick will burn steady In the process of making compressed incense, mixed incense, it will be removed the surface of incense stick a thin layer of wood pulp

2.2.1.4 Flavors

What makes a brand for Cao Thon is the flavoring which is taken entirely from Chinese drugs People exploited all parts of the plant as raw material, depending on the pharmaceutical feature of that plant For example, Hoang Dan take thewood, Houng bai take the root, hac huong take the leaves, Hoe, Ngau take flowers, Thao qua, bo ket take fruit Making incense needs many flavors adding together and make the incense easy to fire, create fragrant, smoldering, burning as long as possible, no stop in the middle of fire and no flame The most important secret of career incense Cao Thon is the way to prepare flavoring To have fragnant, incense needs to combine of many flavors following to the separate formula for each of household, it is called a traditional secret However, the price is vey high, according to the villagers, in the past, a person in the family had responsibility for preparing the flavors (this person handed the secrets

by the older generation to keep the career) Currently the flavors prepared following the prescription Chinese drugs to sell for people who make incense The reason is called Chinese drugs because they have the following spices: Dinh huong, thao qua, moc huong, ba kich, xuyen khung, te tan, sa nhan, long xuyen huong, mai hoa, Dia lien, la hac huong, Dai hoang, hoa ngau, bach diep, bach chi, luc dau quy, tieu hoi, thien nien kien, Doan binh, Doc hoat, xuong truat, khung, cam thao

Each family when preparing flavors often selects a certain dominated flavor then mixe with the other flavors, so incense of each household when lit will have different fragrant Even the more remarkable is the flavor of each season with different fragrant such as spring, summer, autumn and winter, customers can not buy incense of Cao Thon village once and spend for the whole year, so that customers haven‟t known all the values of incense in Cao Thon Burning incense in winter, incense scents deep warm, in spring scents light, in summer scents cool, in autumn scents mild

Besides the main flavoring there are other additives such as sawdust, charcoal (if they want to make black incense) hoa ngau, nhua tram

Now there are 3 types of Chinese drugs used for incense :

- Type of high quality

- Type of pretty

- Type of medium

The productor based on the demand in the market and tastes of the consumers to select the drug and additives appropriately Each family often use three types of drugs for incense, and will sell them to the market according to the demand of buyers However, with these high quality flavors, the price is expensive to produce so they produce less or produce following the orders, while the ordinary ones, the price is common, they are mass-produced (this kind is called incense market)

There are some expensive drugs like dai hoang, tieu hoi, sam, te tan with the price input is VND 270,000/kg, dinh huong 370,000 VND/kg The most expensive is hoang dan, they must use the wood, because the kind of trees are exhausted, so the workers only get phone bao, scrap wood of this tree from the workshop in Ha Tay with the price 570.000d/kg