Abundant Crops Expected In Thailand In 2007

[george]

Abundant crops expected in Thailand in 2007

BANGKOK: -- Setting the stage for a year of abundance and prosperity for the kingdom and its people, Thailand's royal soothsayer Thursday predicted a year of ample crops and rainfall in the Royal Ploughing Ceremony to herald the beginning of the rains and rice-growing season.

After ploughing a symbolic furrow around Sanam Luang, the royal parade ground in front of Bangkok's golden-spired Grand Palace, the team of oxen were offered seven kinds of food including rice, corn, green beans, sesame seeds, alcohol, water and grass.

The sacred oxen ate rice, corn and grass as the royal soothsayer predicted that Thailand would have a year of plentiful crops and sufficient water.

The ancient ceremony was presided over by Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. The ceremony, an ancient Brahman rite to ensure a good harvest due to abundant rain and an absence of pestilence and flooding, was revived by the government in 1960.

After the ceremony, thousands of farmers who attended the ceremony ran to the field amid heavy rain and collected rice seeds in the belieief that they would be blessed and ricefields would offer satisfactory yields.

Numbers of people queued to be photographed with the sacred oxen.

Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, is expected to export 8.5 million tonnes of rice this year.

--TNA 2007-05-10

[Mid]

any links to the background on these beliefs ??

[solent01]

What would it mean if the sacred oxen only drank the alcohol? apart from having pissed oxen of course.

[Ijustwannateach]

Considering the number of lower-class Thais who are abandoning their dead-end jobs and too-expensive schools in Bangkok, there should be plenty of field labour next year- so I think the prediction will turn out to be correct!!!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

This topic is heading downwards. Time to rest it methinks.