A Pint and a Cupcake: Royal Ploughing Ceremony

With the imminent arrival of the monsoon, the rice growing season is here. Rice is an incredibly important crop in Cambodia and this morning I got up early to go and see the annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony which was a real spectacle. The ceremony involves sacred oxen pulling a plough, followed by court Brahmins who sow rice seed. After the ploughing, the oxen are offered plates of various food - rice, corn, green beans, sesame, fresh-cut grass, water and rice whisky. Court soothsayers make a prediction on the coming growing season based on what the oxen choose to eat, apparently the oxen have a good nose for predicting the harvest.

The ceremony was held just outside the National Museum next to the Royal Palace and the entrance was lined with school-children waving pictures of the King. Just before the King's arrival an MP told me to take my hat off. They really love and respect the royal family here. There was an honour guard toting ceremonial AK-47's and a brass band. Before the ploughing started there was a lot of chanting (presumably prayer), and one of the priests got on all fours and crawled around the food which was to be offered to the oxen. I'm not sure why, the oxen were nowhere to be seen at this point so it wasn't a demonstration to make sure they understood their role. The ploughing ensued with lots of music and drums, and the oxen did quite a few laps of the square pulling their ploughs. After watching three laps, the lack of coffee was taking it's toll and I headed home to watch the rest on TV. I'm really not sure what the outcome of the ceremony was (whether the season will be bountiful, and whether the oxen preferred whisky or rice), i'll try to pick it up in the newspaper tomorrow and report back. Meanwhile, here are a few photo's of the ceremony...