The cycle of rice

- rice for the spirits ...  P’chum Ben is the most important religious festival in Cambodia.

Traditionally, over the progression of 15 days, the whole community gets involved in donating food and money to the monks and the nuns, at the pagoda, for them to distribute as they see fit, to the poor. Community supporters consist of various collaborators: government, ministry of commerce, private businesses, tourism, private individuals, and alike take turn, that take a day each, to donate to the poor.

In Mondolkiri, we saw local people outside the Watt (pagoda) waiting to receive bags of rice, other foodstuff, scarfs, money and basic needs for the community poor so that they too, can celebrate P’Chum Ben.    Outside Sen Monorom Town, the provincial governor also supported the people in the villages.

As well as providing the basic needs for the poor, during the Buddhist festival of P’Chum Ben celebration, the women in town delivered dishes of cooked rice and other foods in silver bowls ,to the monks to share with everyone at the pagoda to honour the spirits of the deceased.

“Such dead people cannot eat cooked rice and food properly by using a spoon, but they can eat rice properly by not using a spoon or eat cooked rice thrown on the land,” one of the locals said, referring to the practice of throwing balls of rice, or “ben,” onto the ground outside a pagoda’s main temple before dawn during the first 14 days of Pchum Ben to feed the famished spirits.

More later :)