Unique agricultural tool museum
This is a fish basket (Cho-dak-ray) when patting the ditch, slapping the pond; a fish basket with a lid (chuol) and this is a fabric frame ( Kay-dom-bal)... not yet finished being surprised by the artifact that is both strange in name and body, Venerable Chau Son Hy shocked me when he said that his collection also included an ancient "supercar".
This is a vehicle that uses cows to pull to go to pagodas, or important parties, in Khmer called Ro-teh-lon, the monk added.
Usually, only tycoon families have the conditions to set aside for craftsmen and only go a few times a year, so even contemporaries have few conditions to know. Therefore, it is considered a rare, hard-to-find artifact, and more valuablely, it is over 130 years old.
The car of Ta Him (Mr. Him) born in 1940 in Sa - Lon hamlet was donated. This is a family tree built by his grandfather, Chau Chuol, in 1894 with carpentry wood and passed on. It can be seen that this is the oldest known Ro-teh-lon in An Giang. Because apart from the one given by Venerable Chau Son Hy to the An Giang Museum, it is only about 80 years old and until now, no older one has been discovered.
Among the hundreds of artifacts that the Venerable collected, there are almost all the tools that the Khmer people used in their daily lives and work, but the majority of them are still artifacts related to agricultural production.
Spreading the fire of good living
Like many Khmer people in That Son An Giang area, the Khmer people in the Sa-Lon pagoda area mainly grow rice. However, with the special conditions of the semi-painted land, previously cultivated by manual and traditional methods, there were many unique features compared to the land in the province and the Mekong Delta region. This has created very specific agricultural tools that extend the entire life cycle of rice plants from sowing to harvesting and processing into rice.
Just by planting the soil, there are 2 types of plowers used for the soil in the lower field and the soil in the upper field. And in each type, there is a clear distinction between parts. The type of plow is Nong-koal, while the club of this type is called Phal. During harvest, there are also agricultural tools that adapt to the growing terrain. In particular, the rice processing tools here are very diverse, from rice grinding using hand-pushed needles (Thbal-kel) to rice directly pounding using fish (Kbal-dyl) ...
Each tool is a work that is complete in function and beautiful in form, summarized by many generations, drawing experience through practical labor. Therefore, it is both an achievement of "old technology" and a permeation of sweat, blood and tears of our ancestors.
However, in the face of the wave of Mechanization, many farming tools are gradually standing on the edge of the apricot tree. Understanding this risk, Venerable Chau Son Hy worked hard to collect, but not to do it for himself. Take advantage of the warehouse in the pagoda grounds for display, even open all the time so that everyone has the opportunity to visit.
"I hope to preserve items related to sweat and the efforts of the previous generation to inspire today's generation and future generations to live well, live responsibly with themselves. From there, I live responsibly with my family and society - despite expectations.
Although it is just a spontaneous way of doing things, the actions of the monk who just passed the age of 63 (born in 1962) remind us of many useful life lessons for life.
