In the old days, stone mortar was an integral thing in every Vietnamese house. For many years, a man named Huynh Huu Loc in Ngoc Hoi Hamlet, Vinh Ngoc Commune, Nha Trang, have traveled to many places to collect thousands of stone mortars to remind an old culture...
In the old days, stone mortar was an integral thing in every Vietnamese house. For many years, a man named Huynh Huu Loc in Ngoc Hoi Hamlet, Vinh Ngoc Commune, Nha Trang, have traveled to many places to collect thousands of stone mortars to remind an old culture. In the time to come, an old mortar village will be set up for tourism.
From hobby of collecting stone mortars…
Explaining about his hobby, Loc said, “In my childhood, every time when I visited my grandmother in Hue, she milled flour in a stone mortar to make cakes for me. Now, no body pounds rice or mills flour by mortar but the image of my grandmother by her stone mortar was still in my mind. It has become my hobby of collecting mortars.”
He collected the first mortar on a trip to Binh Dinh Province in 2008. From then to now, he has found 3,500 mortars. To have the large number of stone mortars, Loc has traveled to many places. The mortars are not expensive but the collection costs him a lot of effort, time and money.
Stone mortars are very heavy. A small one weighs 40 – 50 kilograms while a bigger one may be 100 kilograms heavy. However, Loc carried all of them home by motorbike. “The most beautiful featuring a mortar is its stamp of time, marking a traditional utensil in living of every Vietnamese family over years”, Loc said.
 |
| Loc and 150-year-old stone mortar |
…to “Old Mortar Village” for tourism
A number of locals and tourists have come to watch this collection of stone mortars with curiosity. With a desire to make visitors retrace a part of the old life, the owner of the collection is setting up “Old Mortar Village” which is a cultural space in old Vietnamese rural villages with main activities related to stone mortars.
Accordingly, in his one-hectare garden, Loc plans to build 18 ancient houses bought from many places, a lotus lake, gold apple plants, banian trees and stone mortar to be placed along roads in the space. The “Old Mortar Village” also features craftsmen weaving mats, making pottery and carving wood and a restaurant in an old style.
The unique village is expected to be opened in June.
 |
| Watering mortars everyday to keep their real color |
T.T
