Tradition
Royal Ploughing Ceremony
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony (ព្រះរាជពិធីច្រត់ព្រះនង្គ័ល) is the royal rite that opens the rice-planting season in Cambodia and foretells the coming harvest.[1] It is held each May, on the fourth waning-moon day of the sixth lunar month, and is a public holiday.[2]
History
The rite has Brahmanic and Hindu roots.[1] In Cambodia it is traced to the Funan period, and an early statue of Balarama holding a plough, found at Angkor Borei, is taken as the oldest physical evidence of it.[2] A royal ploughing appears in the Reamker (រាមកេរ្តិ៍), the Khmer version of the Ramayana.[2] Similar ceremonies are held in Thailand and Sri Lanka.[2]
The ceremony
The king or a representative presides, usually on sacred ground near the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, such as Veal Preah Meru, and in some years in a province.[1] Two royal oxen, decorated with flowers, pull a plough around a ceremonial field while rice seed is sown.[1]
The oxen are then offered seven bowls: rice, corn, beans, sesame, grass, water and rice wine.[1] Brahmin priests and royal astrologers read their choices as omens: rice or corn for a good harvest, beans or sesame for good secondary crops, water for ample rain, and wine for possible drought or hardship.[1] Smaller ceremonies are held in rural areas.[1]
See also
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