Incense brings sweet smell of success

Five members of Chamba's family, including his father, are engaged in the incense trade.

According to Tasang, a staff member of the culture and tourism center in the village, the villagers have been relying on incense as their man source of income for more than 1,300 years.

"Today, many villagers have become rich by engaging in the incense trade. Many villagers have become owners of trucks, and some have expensive automobiles, and some villagers own big, fancy houses, all thanks to incense," said Tasang.

Tasang said that with tourism and transportation development, the village's situation has improved, since villagers can sell their products in their home as well as through the cooperative, now that the village has become a tourism destination.

A few successful businessmen in the village lead the whole village in the business. Villagers from impoverished families get jobs in incense production and sell incense to local incense companies.

They also have been trying to turn their business into a global venture.

Gyatso, who was born in the village and is a fourth-generation incense producer, is owner of one of the village's two incense companies. He has been engaged in incense production for more than 35 years, and was employed by the county government as a production guide for the county's incense training program between 1994 and 1998.

Gyatso learned the skills of incense production, which he said involves around 30 procedures, as a child from his father, became an outstanding incense maker, and is skilled at finding new herbs to use as incense ingredients.

"Unlike most villagers who produce one or two kinds of incense based on traditional methods, I have found six new herbs as newly discovered incense elements, and altogether, I produce six different incense products," said Gyatso.

In 2008, he established his company, which has provided job opportunities for impoverished families in the village.

"Now my company has 28 employees from the village, six of whom are from impoverished families," said Gyatso. "Establishing a company is not only for my own interests - it is also for all the villagers."