BON OM TOUK, THE FESTIVAL OF WATERS
Every year, in November, Cambodians from all provinces converge on the capital to participate in the most popular festival in the country.
The "touk", these long, very long wooden canoes, wake up from their sleep and leave the pagodas where they are closely guarded to sail towards the Tonle Sap, and will wait for the start of the races, adorned in their most beautiful colors, aligned on the quays facing the Royal Palace.
Cambodians gather on the docks to watch the Bon Om Touk boat races
For a few days, the capital will be transformed into a real court of miracles, the guest-houses being literally taken by storm and many guests from the provinces without a foothold in Phnom Penh will settle in the transformed pagodas. for the trouble in improvised camps ... which overflow onto the sidewalks of the city.
If you go to admire the proud and fine boats on the quays which will sometimes accommodate more than 60 people, in the streets of the heart of the city, it is in a real human tide in which you will be immersed.
All come to celebrate the change of season, which manifests itself in Cambodia by a rather spectacular natural phenomenon. Every year, the direction of the current between the Tonlé Sap and the Mekong is reversed, the Tonlé Sap which was filling up, will begin to empty ...
At the same time, we are witnessing another phenomenon of migration, expatriates trying to escape the festivities as much as possible ... towards the countryside.
RACES THAT WILL LAST THREE DAYS
Canoe races for the Water Festival in Phnom Penh
The canoe races take place throughout the three days of festivities. Nearly 500 canoes, each more beautiful than the other, have crews decked out in the colors of the village they represent. The names of the villages or pagodas from which they originate are often painted on the hull.
As you walk through the country villages, you will see that these canoes, very long and out of the water after all very cumbersome, are stored near the pagodas in hangars often specially designed for this purpose.
It seems in fact that these canoes contain, according to local beliefs having no link with Buddhist beliefs, an entity, half spirit, half ghost, which would push the fighting spirit of the team of rowers who will make it. glide on the water once a year. This is why you will see at each front canoes, offerings, intended to control the spirit and to attract its favors.
Offerings placed at the head of the canoes
Seen from the Sisowath quay, the battle rages on, the boats are fast and the races follow one another and give a completely astonishing spectacle. The crowd gathered on the banks of the river is also endearing. Street vendors pass by and sometimes fail to slip and overturn their goods in the waters of the river.
Street vendor on the Tonle Sap docks in Phnom Penh, on the occasion of the Water Festival
At the end of the day, the banks of the river are transformed into a real floating waste reception center, among which you will see some heads of children ragpickers protrude, taking advantage of the activity created to collect a few more plastic bottles than they can. go and sell a few riels a little further. This table, with its sometimes a little bitter taste, is however quickly blurred by the magic of the evening, when the day falls, and the colorful canoes give way to the magic of large illuminated boats.
Boats illuminated in the evening during the Fête des Eaux
Young and old alike watch a dozen illuminated boats scroll by, each representing the crest or the activities of the Cambodian Ministries. A soothing back-and-forth that allows you to end the day serenely, and to get ready to return to your home on foot for a well-deserved rest before plunging back into the bustle of the following day ...
ABOUT THE MAGICAL CHARACTER OF THE PIROGUES RACES,
EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK OF ANG CHOULÉAN,
SUPERNATURAL BEINGS IN THE KHMER POPULAR RELIGION
The canoes of these races always "held" by the brây (spirits of women who have died of malemort) Their particular use, namely the race, requires an additional energy: magical energy. But in this area, the brây is the only one able to give satisfaction. For this, she resides permanently in the boat, which is almost always the property of the village monastery and this is the reason why it is placed in a special hangar, within the enclosure of the sacred place, sometimes at side of the temple itself. Slanted cross-shaped stakes allow it to be raised so that it does not touch the ground. If it is not an object of a real cult here, it is in any case feared: we dare not touch it, e
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