Farmer collects ancient stone mills to preserve rural Vietnamese life
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Le Van Dung, a 54-year-old farmer in Ca Mau Province, Vietnam, has spent the last decade collecting hundreds of centuries-old stone mills.
He began after inheriting two mills from his grandfather, remembering the difficult work required to prepare food in the past. Dung travels across provinces to find the abandoned tools, sometimes spending weeks persuading owners to sell them, and pays between $11 and $76 per mill.
He displays the mills alongside other traditional farming tools outside his home, creating a small museum for visitors interested in rural life. Dung believes the mills connect people to the hardships faced by previous generations and teach appreciation for modern conveniences. Some mills in his collection are over 200 years old, each holding stories he shares with those who come to see them. Duong Quoc Hung, a local resident, describes Dung’s work as creating a “living archive” of rural history.
Dung intends to continue expanding his collection and eventually build a fence from the stone mills, hoping to educate future generations about the lives of their ancestors when electric grinders were not common in Vietnam.
