The Royal Ploughing Ceremony is an ancient royal rite held in many Asian countries to mark the traditional beginning of the rice growing season. In the various versions of Ramayana, Sita, the heroine appears from the ploughed earth as a baby when Janaka, the king of Videha ploughs the field in the royal ceremony. This is the earliest historical account of this agricultural ritual Sita#Birth. Traditionally, the ceremony is performed in the month Pisak of the Khmer calendar (usually in May, after european calendar), but varies as it is determined by Hora, marking the beginning of the rainy season.
In the ceremony, two sacred oxen are hitched to a wooden plough and they plough a furrow in some ceremonial ground, while rice seed is sown by court Brahmins. After the ploughing, the oxen are offered plates of food, including rice, corn, green beans, sesame, fresh-cut grass, water and rice wine. Depending on what the oxen eat, Cambodians believe they can predict a range of events including epidemics, floods, good harvests and excessive rainfall. The ceremony is typically presided over by the monarch, or an appointee.
In 2019, the ceremony took place on May 22 at the Veal Preahmein Square, situated across the road from the northern perimeter of the Royal Palace. At the end of the symbolic procession before the king, the royal oxen were relieved of their harnesses and led to seven golden trays containing rice, corn, sesame seeds, beans, grass, water and wine to feed.
The oxen chose to eat out of only three trays and because their feast consisted of varying percentages of rice and corn while they largely ignored the trays of sesame seeds, grass, water and wine, prognostications were as follows: Farmers would enjoy a moderate output for their rice harvest but good yields in secondary crop production, especially corn and beans. Because the oxen only sniffed on the tray of water and turned away from the wine, the prediction was made that farmers would not suffer any serious floods.
About the stamp
The stamp, ASEAN Issue - National Costumes, was issued on August 9, 2019.
References
Royal Ploughing Ceremony - Wikipedia
Royal Ploughing Ceremony - Tourism of Cambodia
Sender: Pumipat
Sent from Pochentong International Airport (Phnom Penh / Cambodia), on 13.12.2019
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