Bon Chroat Preah Nongkoal (Royal Plowing Ceremony)
Bon Chroat Preah Nongkoal (Royal Plowing Ceremony)
The Royal Plowing Ceremony — Bon Chroat Preah Nongkoal — is one of Cambodia’s most sacred and ancient royal traditions, marking the official start of the rice planting season. Held at Veal Preah Meru beside the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, the ceremony brings together the monarchy, the Buddhist sangha, and Cambodia’s agricultural heritage in a single ritual that has been performed for centuries. Sacred oxen are harnessed to a ceremonial plough and led across the royal ground. They are then offered seven trays of food and drink — rice, corn, sesame, grass, beans, water, and rice wine. What the oxen choose to eat or drink is interpreted by royal Brahmin priests as an omen for the coming harvest and the year ahead. Choosing rice or corn bodes well for abundance; choosing water signals flooding; choosing rice wine, revelry.
The ceremony falls on the 4th day of the waning moon in the 6th Khmer lunar month — typically early May each year, though the precise Gregorian date is determined by royal announcement. In 2026, the ceremony took place on May 5. The 2027 date has not yet been confirmed — check the Royal Government of Cambodia’s official announcements closer to the date.
While the ceremony is held in Phnom Penh, it carries direct meaning for Siem Reap province. The province sits at the edge of the Tonle Sap lake — Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake and the heart of Cambodia’s rice bowl. The Tonle Sap’s flooding cycle governs when rice can be planted across the surrounding plains, and the Royal Plowing Ceremony officially sanctifies the start of that cycle. Farming communities throughout Siem Reap province observe the ceremony’s omens closely. Visitors in Siem Reap during early May should be aware that the ceremony is taking place in Phnom Penh and that it is a national public holiday — some businesses and services operate at reduced capacity.
