Tradition
Bon Om Touk
បុណ្យអុំទូក
The Water Festival (បុណ្យអុំទូក, Bon Om Touk) is Cambodia's three-day festival of boat races, lanterns and moon worship at the end of the rainy season.[1] It falls in late October or November, when the Tonlé Sap River changes the direction of its flow.[1]
Practice
The festival's formal name lists its four parts: the royal boat races, the floating of lanterns, the eating of ambok and the worship of the moon.[1]
The Royal Boat Race opens the first day. Crews of about 40 to 80 paddlers drive long, decorated boats in time to the drum; many boats carry a naga-headed prow and painted eyes, with a dancer at the bow.[1][2] Provinces, military units, government ministries and other institutions send their own boats and crews.[1][2] In some places the boats are blessed before they enter the water, with prayers, dancing and the sprinkling of holy water.[3]
That evening the Bondet Bratib ceremony sets large illuminated boats and lanterns on the water. Lanterns representing national institutions are lit, and prayers are offered for peace and for the health of the rivers.[1] The festival also brings fireworks and concerts.[2]
The second night brings Og Ambok and the moon ceremony, held soon after midnight, when flattened rice is eaten with bananas and coconut juice.[1][2] In one Og Ambok game, players try to make one another laugh, and the loser eats ambok and bananas for the rest of the day.[1] A ribbon is cut at the close to end the races and the festival.[1]
Meaning and significance
In Khmer belief, Preah Mae Kongkea is the mother of the waters, protector of rivers, lakes, streams, fisheries and the water that feeds the fields. Prayers to her give thanks for water, for happiness and for a good catch.[1] Sampeah Preah Khae, the salute to the moon, gives thanks for the harvest and asks for a prosperous year.[4] The moon ceremony also recalls the Buddhist story of a bodhisattva rabbit, whose image is believed to remain on the face of the moon.[5] The ambok itself is rice fried in the husk, pounded flat and roasted with banana and coconut.[4]
History
Tradition ties the boat races to the reign of Jayavarman VII, whose Khmer navy is remembered for a victory over Champa on the Tonlé Sap.[1][2] A sixteenth-century account records that King Ang Chan I readied his fleet in 1528 to defend Preah Trapeang against Đại Việt forces, and links the yearly Bondet Bratib to his victory and to his thanksgiving to the goddess Ganga.[1]
French publications of the late nineteenth century pictured Cambodian racing boats, at a time when the festival was held in Phnom Penh only now and then.[1] The Phnom Penh celebration returned after the Second World War, in 1945, and again in 1953, after Cambodia's independence from France, and it grew in the 1960s.[1][2] It was suspended during the Cambodian Civil War, and in later years disasters, political events, low water and the COVID-19 pandemic have interrupted it again.[1][2]
Variations
The festival centers on Phnom Penh, where the races run along the riverfront of the Tonlé Sap and the Mekong, but towns across Cambodia hold celebrations at the same time. Boat designs, crews, lantern displays and the ceremonies around them vary from place to place.[1][2]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Wikipedia, Bon Om Touk
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Cambodia Kingdom, Water Festival
- ↑ Globaltimoto, Bon Om Touk (December 2021)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 ach.or.kr newsletter, Bon Om Touk
- ↑ Compass, Bon Om Touk (Royal Water Festival) celebration (November 2023)
Sources