The Royal Ploughing Ceremony or “Preah Reach Pithi Bonn Chrot Preah Neangkol” is one of the most significant ceremonies in Cambodia.
The ritual is an ancient royal rite traditionally held in Pisak (the month of May), which marks the beginning of the rice-growing season.
It is a time of the year when the dry season is over and the rainy season begins; therefore, Cambodian people start preparing their farming activities during the period.
The annual Royal Ploughing Festival is Cambodians way of predicting the future.
Through traditional rituals that are often ceremoniously celebrated nationwide, Cambodians are warned of calamities, assured of a good harvest, and so forth.
The designated king plough the rice field by using royal oxen and the assigned queen sowed seeds on the furrow as the symbol of planting.
After three rounds of ploughing across the field, the oxen are offered seven plates of food: rice, corn, green bean, sesame, water, fresh-cut grass, and wine.
Customarily, if the oxen eat a lot of agricultural items, it is believed that agricultural crops will give good output in the year, but if they eat little, it is thought that yields will below.
If the oxen eat grass and wine, it will be predicted that cattle will be plagued by epidemics, and if they drink a lot of water, floods will be expected.
