Cultural features of Khanh Hoa agarwood

Agarwood Tower on Nha Trang beach. (Photo by NGUYEN PHUONG)

Coming to the coastal city of Nha Trang, many people immediately go to the Agarwood Tower, located close to the sea, next to the windy April 2 Square. As a beautiful architectural work, the Agarwood Tower is not only a unique cultural symbol of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa but also a sacred spiritual destination, a place to worship the heroic martyrs. Every day, people and tourists come to offer flowers, incense, and pray respectfully.

It is not by chance that when writing a book about the land and people of Khanh Hoa, writer Quach Tan titled it "Agarwood Land". Particularly about agarwood products, he wrote very meticulously and in detail about the characteristics, uses and images of agarwood in people's lives. He concluded that agarwood is a special product that makes Khanh Hoa famous domestically and internationally. And, when talking about agarwood, we are talking about Khanh Hoa; when talking about Khanh Hoa, we are talking about agarwood.

Agarwood is crystallized from the wounds of the Aquilaria tree - like a sea oyster hiding its pain inside to accumulate into a precious gem. For generations, the scent of agarwood has been present in the most solemn moments of Vietnamese life, when people want to dialogue with their roots, with their ancestors and with the deep, pure part of themselves. For writers and literati, agarwood is a soul mate; for the people of Khanh Hoa, it is a scent associated with worshiping ceremonies, with aspirations and wishes. Those who travel far away only need to smell the scent of their hometown agarwood to feel strangely warm in the cold wind - because in that scent there is homeland, family, Vietnamese consciousness - quiet but deep and lasting.

Folk songs still sing: Agarwood in Van Gia, the fragrance spreads to the mountains and forests... In order to promote the values of agarwood, the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province has decided to recognize the agarwood-making craft village of Phu Hoi 1, Van Thang commune, Van Ninh district (old) as meeting the province's craft village standards; recognized Phu Hoi 1 craft village as a place with potential for community tourism development; at the same time, supported 4 billion VND to build a display house and a processing house. Here, there have been many products exported to many foreign markets such as China, Japan, India, the United States...

In the cultural flow, the art of crafting and enjoying agarwood of Khanh Hoa people has reached its peak, sophistication and elegance. Besides exploiting natural agarwood, Khanh Hoa people now actively plant Aquilaria trees to create agarwood. Scientific and technical advances in exploitation, production and crafting have created increasingly high-quality and sophisticated agarwood products, affirming the brand and sustainable value of Khanh Hoa agarwood.

On June 3, 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued Decision No. 1651/QD-BVHTTDL recognizing "Knowledge of exploiting and processing Khanh Hoa agarwood" as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Dr. Nguyen Duy Thai, Institute of Culture and Development, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, in his monograph Vietnamese Agarwood Culture mentioned the concept of "Soft Power". In reality, to enhance the "soft power" of agarwood culture, it is necessary to thoroughly research issues of agarwood culture in the overall Vietnamese culture; identify Vietnamese agarwood culture; the role of agarwood culture in cultural development...

Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa also has an attractive address for those who love agarwood and ky nam - that is Khanh Hoa Agarwood Museum, built by Khanh Hoa Agarwood Company, currently displaying about 5,000 documents, images, and artifacts. In 2019, Khanh Hoa Agarwood Museum was awarded the Record by the Vietnam Guinness Organization for the first private museum in Vietnam.

According to Chairman of Khanh Hoa Agarwood Company Nguyen Van Tuong, agarwood is the “messenger” of the Vietnamese soul, a place where pure cultural and spiritual values converge. “I want to change the community’s perception of agarwood, not only as a scent to enjoy, but also as the spirit of Vietnamese culture - a place where spiritual values, medicine, health and depth of consciousness blend,” he emphasized.

From that aspiration, all aim to build Khanh Hoa agarwood industry to become a symbol of indigenous culture, contributing to the homeland and country with sustainable, noble and sacred values.

He is concerned about building the Nha Trang Peace and Creativity Village with the center being the culture and art of meditation, preserving endemic plants, combined with the development of cinema. Khanh Hoa agarwood has become a national cultural heritage and is gradually connecting Vietnam with the world. Unfortunately, due to many objective reasons, the implementation is still slow.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuong suggested: "The State needs to research and properly evaluate the economic and cultural potential of agarwood to build a systematic, scientific macro policy for sustainable development of the Vietnamese agarwood industry."

Today, Agarwood is joining Khanh Hoa in a new journey - the journey of creating cultural values to integrate with the world with confidence and intelligence. Recently, in the discussion between General Secretary To Lam and the Boston Global Forum (BGF) held in the UK, the vision of building Khanh Hoa-Nha Trang into a global center for Cultural and Artistic Creation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence was also reported by BGF.

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