Drying Incense Editorial Photo

Vietnamese workers sits surrounded by thousands of incense sticks in Quang Phu Cau, a village in Hanoi, Vietnam, where the sticks have been traditionally made for hundreds of years. Incense plays an important role in the spiritual lives of Vietnamese people. People use incense in all worship activities. The bamboo bundles are arranged on the ground on sunny days so as to dry them. To make the incense sticks the bamboo is first split in two, cleaned and dusted and then a third of the stick is coloured red, purple or yellow. To dry them the sticks are laid out on the ground or road-side for about one day. After they have dried, the sticks are collected and put into bunches of about ten and these are fastened together. They are then sold around the provinces.