Yongchun Bamboo Incense

Yongchun Bamboo Incense

Yongchun bamboo incense is a protected geographical indication product.

　　Yongchun bamboo incense, also known as divine incense or sanitary incense, is a premium aromatic material made by blending high-quality fragrant plants and traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, designed to be burned. It was introduced and developed in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties by descendants of the Pu family, an Arab family that had migrated to Quanzhou, Fujian Province during the Tang and Song dynasties. With a long history, Yongchun bamboo incense is well-known across southern Fujian and Southeast Asia, becoming one of the main export products of Yongchun County. The Pu family in Yongchun produces a wide variety of incense, including Jiangzhen incense, agarwood, sandalwood, orchid-scented incense, agarwood of rare quality, and seasonal incense. Based on form, it is mainly divided into three types: stick incense, bamboo-incense, and pouch incense. Stick incense is made by mixing aromatic materials with a binding agent and forming them into straight sticks or coils. Bamboo-incense uses thin bamboo sticks as a core; the aromatic powder is applied to the bamboo stick after brushing it with a binding agent. Typically, two-thirds of the bamboo stick is coated with the aromatic mixture, while the remaining one-third is left uncoated and decorated with colors such as purple, green, or red. Bamboo-incense is usually one foot long, though one-foot-six and two-foot lengths are also common, with the longest reaching up to three feet. Pouch incense is made by filling fabric or silk bags with aromatic materials. In addition, there are other varieties such as incense beads, incense bells, incense snakes, and incense burners. By the 1940s, the Pu family in Yongchun had even opened a “Pu Qinglan” incense workshop in Wulijie, Yongchun County, specializing in mass-producing bamboo incense for sale in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other regions. Today, the “Pu Qinglan Incense Workshop” in Wulijie, Yongchun, still preserves several generations of ancestral tools for making incense, such as incense pots and grinding troughs.

　　The protected geographical indication area for Yongchun bamboo incense is defined according to the scope proposed in the “Request for Defining the Protected Geographical Indication Area of Yongchun Bamboo Incense” (Yong Zheng Wen [2006] No. 108) issued by Yongchun County, Fujian Province, covering the current administrative region of Dapu Town, Yongchun County, Fujian Province.