The Ploughing Ceremony

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony has been around since ancient times in Cambodian tradition. This ceremony is held on the 4th day of the Vesak month every year. In the Pali scriptures, it is called Vapmangkol, which means “Mongkol Sowing and Planting”, and is one of the most important royal ceremonies of the year.

The meaning of this royal ceremony is said by Cambodian cultural experts to be that the Ploughing Ceremony is a blessing for the people to sow and plant during the rainy season, with the King symbolizing his concern for the increase of crops. He prays for rain, peace, and freedom from disease, and to show the Brahmavihara Dharma and the Dashapitha Rajadharma to the people across the country.

This royal ceremony is held to predict local fortunes according to the predictions, mainly based on the character of “Ko Usapharaja”. In the ploughing ceremony, three oxen are prepared, one of which is called the royal ox, which is black in color, has horn-shaped horns or dragon horns. The other two oxen are for the back and are not very specific. The royal oxen are equipped with a face mask, horn mask, and a red cloth on their backs.

The three plows are painted black with red lines on the sides, and the plow for the king is special, in the form of a dragon with gold painted on its neck. After the ploughing, the Brahmin priest recites a prayer for the royal oxen to be released from the bull and gives them to drink and eat seven kinds of food that are set on large silver tables in front of the pavilion: one table of beans, one table of corn, one table of rice, one table of sesame, one table of fresh grass, one table of water, and one table of wine.

The Brahmin priest finished his sermon, sprinkled the two cows with a sacred water, and an official led the two royal cows to eat and drink the seven things that were prepared on the table. The cows wanted to eat or drink the seven foods, and no one could force them. When the royal cows ate or drank a little or a lot of something, the Brahmin predicted that the food they ate would yield a good harvest that year. Whether this prediction was right or wrong is not a problem, but what is important is that this ceremony is an important symbol in the Khmer agricultural sector.