Incense has had a role in a wide range of daily activities in Chinese culture for centuries. In addition to playing a key part in religious ceremonies, it was used to measure time, for instance, and served as medicine since it is made from ingredients that are found in the traditional Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia. In the past, high demand for the handmade product meant that making incense was a lucrative trade. Many of the larger producers needed to deliver thousands of kilograms of incense a month.
Since the early 1990s, however, handmade incense has lost much of its market share to machine-made imports because of the high production costs associated with the traditional manufacturing process, including manpower and ingredients. Although a hardworking skilled craftsperson can make about 50 or 60 kilograms of incense a day, a machine can make tons. And while handmade incense is made from natural ingredients—adhesives crafted from certain types of tree bark to glue the powder onto the stick, for example—machine-made incense is produced using chemical replacements.
Lin Leng-yuan (林稜淵), who runs the Laoyifong Incense Shop in central Taiwan’s Changhua County, is among the few practitioners who are still making incense by hand. Lin has been in the trade for three decades since he was 15. Unlike many other craftspeople in the industry who turned to more modern methods when faced with growing competition, Lin continues to make incense using traditional techniques and natural ingredients. He is on a mission, not just to make a living, but to keep the ancient practice alive.
Write to Jim Hwang at cyhuang03@mofa.gov.tw
Lin proportions incense powder in his workshop. Individual manufacturers have their own formulas for creating their aromatic products. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Lin Leng-yuan’s incense is made from ingredients that are often utilized in traditional Chinese herbal medicine. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Adhering powder evenly onto each of the sticks is a key technique in incense production. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Lin carries semi-finished products to his yard so they can dry in the sun. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
After the powder on the sticks dries, the exposed bamboo is dyed red. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
A skilled craftsperson can produce 50 to 60 kilograms of incense a day. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Some of the Laoyifong Incense Shop’s handmade incense (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)