Protecting Vietnamese"s Rural Spirit

We meet a photographer in Bac Giang with a passion for collecting old mortars and limestone pots

Welcoming us at the Vinh Hoa Studio on Quang Trung Street in Bac Giang’s.Tran Phu District, Mr. Manh is part tour guide and part storyteller. His stories begin in 1964 when his family evacuated to Trai Rung Hamlet, Lang Son Commune, Yen Dung District, formerly in Ha Bac Province (now Ngoc Lam Hamet, Lang Son Commune, Yen Dung District. He spent his childhood among farmers who fished, tended flocks and flew kites.

During a trip to his father’s homeland in Bac Ninh Mr. Manh visited the memo­rial house of former General Secretary Nguyen Van Cu. There, he saw rural items such as thatched walls, bamboo couches, a weaving loom and bamboo pallets. This humble collection gave him the idea to collect farmers’ daily implements.

To Mr. Manh, a woman who mills and pounds paddy and grinds flour for cakes to dedicate to the deities and ances­tors is the epitome of a fine Vietnamese woman. Each time he finds a mortar and pestle, Mr. Manh imagines the people who made and used these tools. These tools remind him of his mother who dili­gently pounded rice to feed her children. Speaking about this admirable woman, Mr. Manh is choked with emotion.

Mr. Manh finds simple happiness examining his old farm tools. At first, his family members opposed this hobby. Ig­noring their complaints, Mr. Manh con­tinued to amass old tools. He now has more than 100 stone mortars and lime­ stone pots dating back several centuries.

Mr. Manh always investigates the ori­gins of the items he finds. He will never forget the moment he spotted an old mor­tar near a bamboo bush. He asked the owners if they would sell it, since they did not use it. The astonished owners refused and Mr. Manh went home, disheartened. Later, he learned that the mortar’s owners had smashed it to pieces, believing that it must contain gold. After learning about Mr. Manh’s strange collection, they regret­ted their actions.

The stone mortars in Mr. Manh’s col­lection vary in shape, style and size. Some are tiny while others weigh hundreds of kilograms. Some are meant for grinding and others for pounding. Despite being cracked and rough, they are priceless spir­itual treasures in the eyes of Mr. Manh. Showing us a bamboo rice mortar he ob­tained in Tan Yen, Mr. Manh said: “Mak­ing this bamboo mortar took a lot of work. Bamboo used to knit the mortar is chopped down in November or December. Its teeth were made of oak wood or ground wood and reinforced by carefully pounding it with termite nest soil. People also applied buffalo feces into the mortar’s holes to prevent rice from leaking out”.

Mr. Manh sees rice mortars as mate­rial symbols of Vietnamese culture and wet rice cultivation. Pounding tools in­clude a mortar and a pestle that represent the harmony of yin and yang.

For more than 30 years he has roamed rural lanes and villages to preserve old items for later generations. His collection draws visitors from both Vietnam and overseas, many of whom share his passion for antiques. He has made new friends, who sometimes meet in his house to sip tea and admire these old implements. Mr. Manns greatest wish is to found a proper private museum devoted to the lives and values of Vietnam’s farmers.

Protecting Vietnamese"s Rural Spirit
First post at: Vietnam Culture