22.09.2006
Pravda (Russia)
Residents of a village near Cambodia's capital staged a "Formula 1" race Friday to mark the end of the annual honoring of deceased relatives. The contest wasn't between cars, but water buffaloes.
Each year, millions of Cambodians visit Buddhist temples across the country to honor deceased loved ones during a 15-day period commonly known as the Festival of the Dead.
But in Vihear Suor village, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh, citizens each year wrap up the festival with a water buffalo race to entertain visitors and honor a pledge made hundreds of years ago.
Pok Thiva, an organizer, said there was a time when many village cattle which provide rural Cambodians with muscle to plow their fields and transport agricultural products died from an unknown disease.
He said the villagers prayed to a spirit to help save their animals from the disease and promised to show their gratitude by holding a buffalo race each year on the last day of P'chum Ben the festival's name in Cambodian, reports AP.
"I've seen the real Formula 1, but this buffalo race is the Formula 1 we have in our village every year," Pok Thiva said.
"Car or motorcycle racing was never written into the village's history," he added jokingly.
The race drew some 1,000 spectators who saw 28 riders and their animals charge down the racing field, the racers bouncing up and down on the backs of their buffaloes, whose horns were draped with colorful cloths.
Each year, millions of Cambodians visit Buddhist temples across the country to honor deceased loved ones during a 15-day period commonly known as the Festival of the Dead.
But in Vihear Suor village, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh, citizens each year wrap up the festival with a water buffalo race to entertain visitors and honor a pledge made hundreds of years ago.
Pok Thiva, an organizer, said there was a time when many village cattle which provide rural Cambodians with muscle to plow their fields and transport agricultural products died from an unknown disease.
He said the villagers prayed to a spirit to help save their animals from the disease and promised to show their gratitude by holding a buffalo race each year on the last day of P'chum Ben the festival's name in Cambodian, reports AP.
"I've seen the real Formula 1, but this buffalo race is the Formula 1 we have in our village every year," Pok Thiva said.
"Car or motorcycle racing was never written into the village's history," he added jokingly.
The race drew some 1,000 spectators who saw 28 riders and their animals charge down the racing field, the racers bouncing up and down on the backs of their buffaloes, whose horns were draped with colorful cloths.
3 comments:
great! the leaders of Vihear Suor village deserve to be recognized.
every year, this little village organized these great events and made it all over the news. even big town PP can't beat that.
great job vihear sour village. i hope one day to see your great events.
THE LON NOL COUP OF 1970 WILL REPEAT SOON AGAIN
YUON XEN GETS READY TO ABOLISH THE KHMER MONARCHY.
PROCLAMATION OF STATE OF EMERGENCY
ON...........2006 AT..., THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HAS BEEN CONVENED AND HAS VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO REMOVE NORODOM SIHAMONI AS A KING OF CAMBODIA, ABOLISHING THE MONARCHY AND DECLARING CAMBODIA A REPUBLIC WITH YUON XEN, WHO IS CURRENTLY PRIME MINISTER, AS THE PRESIDENT FOR LIFE WITH GRANTED EMERGENCY POWERS..
From Government spokesman and
Information Minister KHIEU KANHARITH
KHMER PEOPLE IS IN WANT OF
A KHMER DEGAULLE
TO THE LIBERATION OF OUR COUNTRY
http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=510
Declaration of general de Gaulle published in France in the clandestine papers on, June 23rd 1942.
The last veils behind which the enemy and traitors plotted against France have now been torn down. The issue at stake in this war is plain to all Frenchmen : independence or slavery. It is the sacred duty of every man to contribute all he can to the liberation of our country through the invader's defeat. There can be no solution and no future for us except through victory.
Yet this gigantic ordeal has shown the nation that the danger threatening its existence does not come solely from outside, and that victory without courageous and thorough internal reconstruction would not be real victory.
One moral, social, political and economic régime, paralysed by corruption, has abdicated in defeat. Another, arising from a criminal capitulation, is drunk with personal power. Both are condemned by the French people who, even as they unite for victory, are massing for revolution.
In spite of the fetters and gags of slavery, a thousand tokens, coming from the very heart of the nation, allow us to glimpse her desires and hopes. In the name of France, we proclaim these, and affirm the war aims of the French people.
We want our country to recover everything that belongs to her. For us, the end of the war means the restoration of complete integrity to France, the Empire and the national heritage ; it means that the nation must once again exercise absolute sovereignty over its own destiny. Any usurpation, whether from inside or beyond our frontiers, must be destroyed and swept away. As we mean to make France once again sole mistress of her fate, we shall likewise see to it that the French people alone are masters of their destiny. At the same time as they are freed from enemy oppression, all their internal liberties must be restored. Once the enemy is driven from our land, all French men and women will elect a National Assembly, which, in the full exercise of its sovereignty, will determine the country's future.
We seek retribution for every blow which has been, or is now, aimed at the rights, interests and honour of the French nation, and intend all such dangers to be eliminated. This means, first and foremost, that enemy leaders violating the laws of war to the detriment of French persons and property must be punished, together with the traitors who co-operate with them. Next, it means that the totalitarian system which incited, armed and hurled our enemies against us, as well as the systematic coalition of private interests which, in France, has worked against the interests of the nation, must simultaneously and for all time be overthrown.
Post a Comment