Cambodia To Celebrate the Royal Plowing Ceremony This Week in Battambang Province

Cambodia will mark this year’s Royal Plowing ceremony on May 6 at the Royal Field in Battambang province, some 290 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh Capital City.

His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, will preside over the ceremony, which marks the beginning of the crop planting season in Cambodia.

The annual ceremony, which will be followed by an agricultural fair and a photo exhibition, will be attended by high-ranking officials and foreign diplomats accredited to Cambodia.

According to the National Committee for Organizing National and International Festivals, H.E. Chan Sophal, Governor of Battambang province, will play the role of “King Meak” by guiding the royal oxen and plough around the Royal Field, while his spouse will be “Queen Mehour” by walking behind scattering seeds in the furrowed earth.

The Royal Plowing ceremony is generally held at the open square of Veal Preah Mehru in front of the National Museum in Phnom Penh, but in 2014, it took place in Kandal province, and in 2013 in Kampong Cham province.

According to the tradition, the ceremony is annually celebrated to predict the upcoming distribution of rainfall, thus rice harvesting, in the country through the oxen’s appetite of paddy, corn, bean, grass, sesame, water, and wine.

sourced:akp.gov.kh