Tradition
Ox-cart racing
ប្រណាំងរទេះសាឡីគោលឿន
Ox-cart racing (ប្រណាំងរទេះសាឡីគោលឿន) is a Khmer village race in which drivers run wooden carts pulled by pairs of oxen around a dirt track.[1][2] A yearly race in Kampong Speu province marks the end of the rice harvest and welcomes the Khmer New Year in mid-April.[2] Its organizers say they hold it because ox-carts are falling out of use.[2][3]
Origins
The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts says ox-carts once carried dowries and elderly relatives to weddings and other festivals, and that villagers later began racing them in their villages to mark the New Year.[4][3] Culture officials call the tradition hundreds of years old.[2] Sun Meanchey, director of the Kampong Speu Provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts, says it may be hundreds or even thousands of years old.[4][3]
Many Cambodian farmers still plow their rice fields with oxen, and ox-carts were once widely used for transport.[2]
The Kampong Speu race
The race is held in a field in Snor 1 village, Chbar Mon town, west of Phnom Penh.[4][3] Each cart is pulled by two oxen, and the track is about one kilometer long.[2][3] In 2024 some carts flew Cambodian flags, and the oxen wore colorful masks or headgear. Hundreds of people came to watch.[2]
The number of entries has grown, by the figures given each year: 46 pairs of oxen in 2024,[2] 67 in 2025[4] and 80 in 2026, when the race was held on April 5.[3]
Keeping the tradition
Organizers race the carts because farmers are turning to cars, trucks, tractors and motorized rickshaws, and the ox-cart is on the brink of disappearing.[4][2] Khat Sokhay, head of the Kampong Speu Provincial Oxen Association, called the race "our version of Formula 1" in 2024.[2] In 2026 he said it also creates a joyful atmosphere before the New Year.[3] One driver told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that while other places race cars, villagers race ox-carts "so that the legacy of our ancestors won't disappear".[2]
In 2024 Sun Meanchey warned that homes and factories were taking over the fields where the races are held.[2]
References
- ↑ Fresh News, Notice: ox-cart race in Kampong Speu to be held on April 5 (March 10, 2026; in Khmer)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Cambodianess (AFP), "Our version of Formula 1": Cambodian villagers race oxcarts (April 7, 2024)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Xinhua, Cambodian villagers hold traditional ox-cart racing to celebrate Khmer Lunar New Year (April 5, 2026)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cambodianess (Xinhua), Cambodian villagers race traditional ox-carts to celebrate upcoming Lunar New Year (April 7, 2025)