The Royal Plowing Ceremony
The Royal Plowing Ceremony
is an ancient royal rite
held in cambodia and Thailand to mark the
traditional beginning of the rice-growing
season. The royal ploughing ceremony, called Lehtun Mingalawas also
practiced in pre-colonial Burma until 1885 when the monarchy was
abolished.
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, g reen beans, sesame, fresh-cut grass, water and ricewhisky.
Depending on what the oxen eat,
court astrologer and brahmins make a
prediction on whether the coming growing season will be bountiful or not. The
ceremony is rooted in brahman belief,
and is held to ensure a good harvest. In the case of the Burmese royal
ploughing ceremony, it may also have Buddhist associations. In traditional
accounts of the Buddha's life, Prince siaahartha,
as an infant, performed his first miracle during a royal ploughing ceremony, by
meditating underneath a rose applr tree,
thus exemplifying his precocious nature.
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