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| Residents of Kompong Speu’s Kong Pisei district take part in an oxcart race to mark the end of the harvest season yesterday. (Siv Channa) |
February 18, 2013
By Mech Dara
The Cambodia Daily
An estimated 200 people turned out yesterday to watch the annual oxcart racing competition in Kompong Speu province to mark the end of the rice harvest season.
Meas Path, one of the organizers of the event, said it was tradition to hold the oxcart races after the rice harvest—which wrapped up at the end of January.
“We do this after every harvest and try to keep it for the younger generation so they can learn about our traditions,” he said, adding that the 30 oxcarts and their intrepid drivers had raced along a 1.5-km track.
There was no clear winner, as the races are just for fun, he said.
Sroy Samreth, 31, who said he takes part in the event every year, said he had been training for about a month ahead of the competition.
“I feel very proud to be one of the racers,” he said, but warned that the race track could be precarious.
“If you don’t train your oxen well, it can be dangerous,” he said.
“After harvesting our rice crops, we trained our oxen for about a month so that they are familiar with the track. If we hadn’t, they could run off the track and the carts could overturn,” he added.
Mok Theum, 66, said the races showed villagers still respected tradition despite modern changes to farming methods.
“We hold the festival to celebrate the end of the harvest and pay our respects to the earth and water spirits,” he said.
“Now, we use machines in harvesting but before, we used cows and buffalos,” he added.
4 comments:
Oxcart races not good for the oxcart that can be break easily because the oxcart are not made for the race (high speed or the gallop of the ox)
Shutta Hell up,don't be an expert while you don't know nothing about the oxcart racing! You seems like having the experty on everythings but,you know nothing....Stop criticize what you too dumb to know,Oxcart was racing ever since Cambodia called Nor kor kork thlork nothing is news,its safe no body get kill yet.
About 80% of farmers use iron buffalo ( either hire or own Kor yon ) . Perhaps ;
in next decade , the oxcart will disappear . There are not many farmers who raise
the cattle nowadays because they don't own as big farmlands as they used to do
before Khmer civil war , most farmlands are owned by either the Concessioned Companies or the rich landlords that won't let the farmers to feed their cattle in the private properties .
Please let Khmer enjoy little of what's left please - please - please? Thanks a million!!!
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