You Hockry To Lead Royal Plowing Ceremony

You Hockry, second vice president of Cambodia's National Assembly, second from right, holds plow handles as he lead an annual royal plowing ceremony in the capital Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, May 16, 2006. The ceremony was held to mark the start of rice-farming season. Cambodia will enjoy another high rice output from this year's farming season just like in the past year, a royal soothsayer made the prediction at the end of the ceremony. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

By Kuch Naren and Lor Chandara
The Cambodia Daily

Today's Royal Plowing Ceremony in Phnom Penh will be led by Funcinpec parliamentarian and National Assembly Second Vice President You Hockry. The ceremony, which marks the beginning of the crop planting season in Cambodia, was led last year by CPP Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng, said Chea Kean, deputy secretary-general for the Permanent Organizing Commission for National and International Ceremonies. Presided over by King Norodom Sihamoni, You Hockry will guide the royal oxen and plow around the Veal Men Park in front of the National Museum as his wife walks behind scattering seeds in the furrowed earth.