VietNamNet Bridge – She has three villas, but they are not the property that architect Nguyen Thi Minh Hieu, in Vinh Ngoc commune, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, considers most valuable. For her, the 1,200 stone mortars she has collected over the past 12 years are her treasure.




The day Hieu married, her grandmother asked: "what did you like as your wedding gift?" Hieu said immediately: "Your millstone."

Of course the grandmother was very surprised at the suggestion of her niece, but then she understood. Hieu is the girl with strong personality. When she was a little girl, Hieu loved stone mortars of her family. She used to stand on them, to see herself taller than others.

The stone mortar of her grandmother is just a small corner of memories so Hieu took it as a wedding gift. But to become a passion later, the stone mortars in Dien Lac village, Dien Khanh district really obsessed her. The "hardness" of millstones when they make rice into cakes, noodles is what makes Hieu thought of the hardship of rural mothers.

The childhood of Hieu was associated with the millstones of her grandmother and mother, so that later when she had opportunity to travel along the country, the image of women standing for hours to mill flour by mortars appeared in her mind.

When science and technology began to exist in the houses of the farmers, it was the time when the mortar has completed its historical mission and quietly stood in the corner of the garden. Hieu did not want to let the stone mortars be buried with time and forgotten by the world, she began collecting them.

Of the 1,200 mortar that Hieu collected during the past 12 years, each of which was tied to the fate of the ups and downs of its owner.

The 35-year-old architect once heard that a family on the bank of the An Cuu River in the ancient capital city of Hue had a millstone. She asked to buy it but the owner said: "It is worth nothing to sell! But I see it as a witness of the 1968 Spring Uprising. That year, our family evacuated. When we returned, only the mortar was left, challenging bombs and bullets. The family wanted to keep the millstone as a reminder of their children of the most intense period of the war.”

There was a millstone in the southern province of Long An that Hieu heard belonged to a rich family in a village for nearly hundred years ago. She traveled to Long An to buy it. "I thought that the millstone is an heirloom so they would not sell it, but the great-grandchild sold it to me immediately. They did not want several hundreds of thousand dong, but perhaps they did not want to see the evidence of a period of prosperity," she said.

Stepping into the garden of Minh Hieu is entering the world of rock, with millstones being arranged in rows. But no matter what kind of arrangement, the mortars with two pieces must go together. "One piece is the symbol of man, the other piece is the symbol of women. Men are strong, women always endure, they may discord in some aspects but they must cooperate to make rice into powder," Hieu explained.

Hieu said she would rearrange her kingdom of millstones in a different way. However, there is a millstone that she would not move. That is the millstone her grandmother gave him on her wedding day. "I place it under my bed, so whenever I feel tired, I can lean on it to see my grandmother again," she explained.

Dan Viet