The Results Are In...

Today's edition of the Phnom Penh Post has helped me to make sense of yesterday's Royal Ploughing Ceremony. The chap being carried on the golden litter in the first video I posted yesterday was Supreme Court President Dith Munty. It seems as though the role of driving the oxen and sowing the seed is rotated amongst the great and the good of Cambodia, this year it was the Supreme Court President's turn to drive the oxen as the sdech neak, and his wife performed the mae hua role sowing the seed behing him. The king, meanwhile, presided over the whole ceremony (I understand the Prime Minister Hun Sen has performed this function in some previous years). The Phnom Phen Post has a good shot below of the oxen tucking into their favoured snack. This year, the Royal Oxen chose Soya Beans, Green Beans and Corn, and the Royal Astrologer Kang Ken interpreted this in the ceremony as being a good year for beans and corn but not so good for rice. Interestingly, he back-tracked on this later when talking to the press and said the rice yield would be up 30%. Em was talking to a work colleague yesterday who said he didn't believe in any of the predictions, but reading the article below it seems as though there are a significant number of farmers who hold a lot of stock in what the Soothsayers predict. If the predictions affect the behaviour of farmers, I guess this is potentially political dynamite for a government which is trying to increase rice yields year on year. Oh, and I have one correction to make to yesterday's piece, apparently the 7th bowl contains wine (not whisky). Drinking the water or wine, indicates flood or war respectively so really this years prediction has to be a good result I think.