CAMBODIA RITE OF BOH BAY BEN, THROWING RICE BALLS

 Representative of the inextricable mixture of Buddhist practices and traditional Cambodian animist beliefs, the Boh Bay Ben rite is performed every evening from Pchum Ben to the pagoda, shortly before sunrise, around four in the morning.

In this period when Cambodians celebrate their dead, people who died in bad hospices come back to earth in the form of Pret, evil spirits with a very repulsive appearance to sow misfortune; these hungry creatures, each more hideous than the other having very small mouths, it is important to think about making small balls.

What the Prets look like: http://www.healthcambodia.com/p14708/

Rice balls and crocodile flags - Wat Toul Tom Poung, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
 
Sticky rice balls will be presented, accompanied by a little sesame, a few pieces of bananas and other dishes that everyone will see fit to prepare on small plates. Incense, candles and the "crocodile" flag will surmount the offerings, which can also be purchased on site, under the haunting lament of the singers of Smot broadcast over the pagoda's loudspeakers.

Each will then join the Sala Chan where the monks are gathered, reciting the sutras in the night and providing instruction to the Cambodians who have come to await the auspicious time for Boh Bay Ben.

Pchum Ben, in the Sala Chan, before Boh Bay Ben - Wat Toul Tom Poung, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The Sala Chan quietly fills up, some coming to make some offerings to Buddha, others nodding their heads, listening with more or less attentive ear to the powerful chants of the bonzes leading the prayer.

It is the Achar, who comes at the appointed time to invite everyone to go to the Vihear, the central and most sacred building of the pagoda. After a prayer for the deceased, instructions are given for Boh Bay Ben. This involves making several turns of the Vihear - two or three - and throwing the prepared rice balls out as far as possible. The hungry spirits will thus be kept away from the sacred precinct, and will be able to feast on the food thrown by the families.

In some pagodas, the dumplings are placed at specific points around the Vihear, at the gates of an invisible boundary that would protect the sacred space from the outside.

The procession ends at daybreak, at which time the Prets, frightened by the light, return to hell.