Cambodia's king Norodom Sihamoni, rear right under the gold parasol, walks during the annual royal plowing ceremony near Bayon temple in Siem Reap province,about 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, May 2, 2010. Sihamoni on Sunday presided over the annual royal plowing ceremony in the famed Angkor complex. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Sisowath Weacharavuth, the grandson of Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk, second from left, uses the royal oxen to plow land during the annual royal plowing ceremony near Bayon temple in Siem Reap province, about 320 kilometers (199 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Sisowath Weacharavuth, the grandson of Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk is carried by royal palace officers to mark the annual royal plowing ceremony near Bayon temple in Siem Reap province, about 320 kilometers (199 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) 2nd May 2010
Xinhua Web Editor: Chu Daye
Cambodia on Sunday held the first Royal Plowing Ceremony at Lean Chul Damrei near Angkor Wat Temple in more than four decades.
Chea Kean, deputy secretary general of Committee for National and International Festivals said that such Royal Plowing Ceremony was held for the first time in 1967 under then King Norodom Sihanouk, and the ceremony held here on Sunday was the second.
The Royal Plowing Ceremony is held annually at Veal Meru near the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, but Chea Kean said this year the government decided to hold it in Siem Reap's province as a link to the first Buddhistic tourism event during Visakh Bochea Day that was held on April 27-29 in this Bayon Temple area.
Presiding over the ceremony was King Norodom Sihamoni, son of retired King Norodom Sihanouk, and participated by many government officials including Heng Samrin, president of the National Assembly, other senior officials and diplomats and at least 100, 000 holiday goers from various parts of the country including foreign tourists.
Prince Sisowath Vochiravuth, and Princess Norodom Rasmei Pornita were acting as the main plowers at the ceremony on Sunday and accompanied by Sou Phirin, governor of Siem Reap province.
The ceremony is to mark the start of rainy season that begins in May and to end in October.
As the procession of the ceremony began Sunday morning, seven trays with rice, sesame, water, corn, beans, grass, and rice wine are put ready for two royal oxen and an astrologer makes predictions based on what and how much amount of the foods and drink taken by the two oxen.
As two oxen ate only corn and bean, Korng Keng, chief of royal astrologers predicted for the year 2010 that Cambodian farmers will enjoy good harvests with corn and bean and as well with other crops.
Each of the seven foods and drink has different meaning and most of them have good sign as long as those two oxen had eaten or drunken, except rice wine and grass that signify bad prediction.
Rice wine means theft, and robbery and grass means insects will disrupt crops.
Cambodia is an agrarian country with rice and other crops as the main exporters to other countries.
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SIEM REAP, May 2, 2010 (Kyodo News International) -- A Cambodian royal astrologer predicted Sunday at one of the ancient temples in the Angkor Wat complex that Cambodia will have ''good'' agricultural crops this year.
Astrologer Korng Keng told a crowd of tens of thousands at Lean Chul Damrei Temple in Siem Reap Province that the country's crops, especially corn and beans, will be ''good.''
He made the prediction at a ceremony to mark the beginning of the rainy season in Cambodia, drawing his conclusions from the results of the Royal Plowing Ceremony.
The ceremony in Siem Reap is the first since 1967 when then Crown Prince, later King, Norodom Sihanouk presided over the plowing.
This year, Sihanouk's son King Norodom Sihamoni watched over the traditional welcome to the growing season along with thousands of government officials, diplomats, foreign visitors and Cambodians.
The ceremony is usually held annually near the royal palace in Phnom Penh at the start of the planting season.
But Thong Khon, minister of tourism, said the ceremony was in Siem Reap this year because the timing coincides with the first great Buddhist tourism event ''The Trail of Civilization and Art Performance'' at Angkor Wat in which more than 100,000 participants, including those from nine other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan, South Korea and India.
It is also being used to attract more tourists to Angkor Wat.
Tourism is Cambodia's second-largest income earner after the garment sector and Angkor Wat is the main target for foreign tourists in Cambodia.
According to government statistics, despite a decline in tourism worldwide because of the global economic crisis, Cambodia achieved an increase of 1.7 percent in foreign arrivals last year to 2,161,577.
And in the first three months of 2010, 683,692 international tourists visited Cambodia, an increase of 9.87 percent from the same three months last year.
In the Royal Plowing Ceremony, seven golden trays -- holding rice, corn, beans, sesame, grass, water or rice wine -- are laid out for a pair of royal oxen and predictions for the coming growing season are made from the choices made by the oxen when they reach the trays.
This year, the oxen ate most of the corn and beans, indicating Cambodian farmers will have ''good'' crops at least for these two products in 2010.
According to the royal astrologer, if the oxen eat the grass it means bad luck for farmers because insects may attack the crops.
If they drink the rice wine it means turmoil, fighting or robbery in the country.
But this year, the oxen ate no grass, rice or sesame and drank no water or rice wine.
Drinking water indicates lots of water for cropping, while eating sesame indicates a big harvest.
Last year, when the oxen ate all the corn and beans, Korng Keng predicted ''quite good crops'' for Cambodian farmers.
And Cambodia produced about 7.3 million tons of rice in 2009, leaving a surplus of nearly 3 million tons for export.
Chan Sarun, minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, recently said Cambodia is expected to become one of the world's major rice exporters when a long-term plan to increase land under rice cultivation to 3.5 million hectares from the current 2.6 million hectares is complete.
Rice production then is estimated to reach 12.25 million tons annually.
(Source: iStockAnalyst )
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