During the Bon Om Puk (Water Sending) Festival, dragon boats speed up and down the Mekong River. Water forms an essential part of the lives of Cambodians, who make their living from fishing. This annual festival shows their appreciation to heaven and the Water God for giving them the proper amount of rain.

The three-day festival starts in November when the moon is full. This is the end of the rainy season in Cambodia, after which the dry season starts and lasts for half a year. The festival is held to thank the Water God for bringing rain, and also to remind the deity not to forget to start raining again, in the right amount, in May the following year so that the farming may be carried out properly.

The first day of the festival coincides with the day before the full moon in November. Local newspapers estimate that 500,000 people pour in from the countryside to Phnom Penh. Many people come to the riverside park to watch fascinating events, such as the dragon boat races, fireworks and the Light Boats. The park is full of people and the crowds stretch for one kilometer along the riverbank.

The Cambodian government chose the riverside park near the Royal Palace because this is where the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap River merge. These two river systems, with their branches and tributaries, cut through every part of Cambodia, and during the annual rainy and dry seasons the ebb and flow of the rivers govern the rhythms of the people's lives. From daily drinking water and bathing to seasonal farming and fishing, the locals depend directly on these two rivers.

Irrigation ditches of all sizes surround the farms. Farmers fill the ditches with river water to irrigate the crops. The farmers are able to tell when the rivers are starting to flood and where the floods might stop. They are also able to figure out what kinds of crops they should plant according to the water level. For instance, it is common to see aquatic rice and hill rice planted in flooded areas, while fruit trees are planted in non-flooded areas.


Timely rain

The alluvium carried down by the Mekong River has settled here over the years and formed a very rich plain. No one in Cambodia uses fertilizer on their land, yet most crops grow very well. Local Chinese call the Cambodian farmers "farm emperors," meaning that once they have planted the seeds, the farmers simply have to wait to harvest the crops.

If the Water God brings water on time and distributes it evenly, abundant crops can be harvested. However, the farmers are all concerned by unusual weather patterns. If the Water God becomes angry, the weather will change all of a sudden and the water level will rise and destroy all the crops. We saw a group of frowning farmwives by the riverbank in Kampong Cham ready to plant again. There had been a rainstorm in the middle stream of the Mekong River, causing a sudden rise in the water level in the lower stream and wiping out the seedlings they had just planted. Rain affects the water level of the Mekong River and the water level affects people's lives. Thus, the Water Sending Festival is the most revered of all festivals in Cambodia.

The highlight of the festival is the three-day dragon boat race. Cambodia, currently rebuilding itself after the torments of political instability and war with Vietnam, has no nationwide sports competitions. Dragon boat racing is the most popular competition. Hundreds of teams take turns roaring down the river with all their might. The whole country focuses attention on the activities, and many people bet on the outcomes.

Because transportation is very poor, leaving or entering the city is difficult. Many people in the countryside come to pay their first visit to the "most advanced" city, Phnom Penh. Farm children come to the city with their fathers to see the shining Royal Palace for the first time in their lives, or to ride on the merry-go-round decorated with gaudy flashing lights. People also come to see brilliantly decorated Light Boats cruise down the river and fireworks which are held for three consecutive nights.


A frightening tale

Nevertheless, local people do not have the opportunity to see such a gala every year. Mr. Pinda, who owns a hotel near the park and who has been living in Phnom Penh for fifty-five years, said the government had actually started to hold the Water Sending Festival in the thirties, but decades of political turmoil and civil unrest interrupted it. The festival was never held between 1970 and 1990.

His words reminded me that while I was interviewing people in the countryside, I noticed that most farm cattle were white, so I told our guide that Taiwanese cattle were yellow. He replied that Cambodian cattle were originally yellow too, but the Mekong River turned red with the blood of more than two million people killed by the Pol Pot regime between 1975 and 1979, and the yellow cattle all turned white after drinking from the polluted river. I was completely speechless when I heard this. When I went to visit the Tuol Sleng Museum (a museum dedicated to the victims killed by Pol Pot and his soldiers) and the killing field at Choeung Ek, the horrifying images cut straight to my heart and I was able to see how burdened by history the local residents were.

Next I went to visit the ruins at Angkor Wat, where I felt a sudden sense of contradiction. The Angkor Wat ruins are so magnificent, but why is modern-day Cambodia so poor that the average annual income is less than US$600? Wasn't this country once affluent?

When artillery shells began to fall on this rich land, the dew bestowed by the Water God suddenly lost its magical power. Most "farm emperors" could hardly feed themselves. After Cambodia became independent from France during World War II, this land became socially and politically chaotic due to years of war. The irrigation system was completely destroyed. Homeless farmers were scattered and lost their ties with their Water God. The civil unrest continued until 1998, when the news of Pol Pot's death in northern Cambodia broke and the Khmer Rouge guerrillas finally surrendered themselves to the government.

When Mr. Pinda was banished to the countryside during the rule of the Khmer Rouge, his life was in constant danger and he survived on only two meals a day. He told us that there were landmines everywhere during that war-torn period, so Pol Pot's soldiers forced farmers to walk in single file to clear the land for farming with their flesh and blood. His father was killed when he stepped on a mine.

Pinda said to us cautiously, "Even now, many people still live under the shadow of the war and they come out at night only if it is necessary. But the Water Sending Festival is an exception-it's a special occasion." Upon hearing this, I realized why the delightful atmosphere emanating from the crowd was so significant.


Traditional life

Chinese like to pray for national stability and fair weather, and so do the Cambodians. During the festival period, Cambodians, the majority of whom are followers of Hinayana Buddhism, set up small offering tables at home with bananas, potatoes, coconuts and fried rice as the major offerings to the deities. On the second day of the festival, the day of the full moon, all Buddhist monks in Phnom Penh are summoned to the Royal Palace to chant scriptures and pray for national prosperity. Until eleven that night, people prepare to pray to the main character of the festival, the moon. Customarily every individual has to take a bite of the offerings. It is especially auspicious to have one bite of banana and one bite of fried rice, both of which represent perfection, and anyone who eats these will prosper in the next year.

The moon ritual represents the transition from the rainy season to the dry season and also the transition of people's activities, which are influenced by the rise and fall of the water level of the Mekong River. The major change occurs to farmers living along the banks of the river, because while they wait to harvest their crops they lay down their farming tools, pick up their fishing nets and start fishing along the river.

During the flood period, small ponds of water appear in the vicinity of the rice fields along the two riverbanks. Farmers catch fish, and sometimes whole families show up with large and small nets waving above the ponds. From afar it looks like some sort of family entertainment, but closer inspection reveals the serious expressions on their faces as they take this opportunity to catch the gifts sent by the Water God during the flood period.

The place in Cambodia most affected by the ebb and flow of the Mekong River is perhaps Tonle Sap Lake. During the dry season, the water is only one to three meters [3-10 ft] deep, but in the rainy season the Mekong River rises sharply and flows back to the lake. During this period, the lake can be more than ten meters [33 ft] deep.

We took a shuttle boat from Phnom Penh to Tonle Sap Lake, and along the way we saw grass and trees submerged by water. We could only see the tops of the trees. Those who live along the river either build their homes on tall stilts standing above the dikes, or they live on boats and make their living by fishing.

Fishermen are not as well off as farmers. Life on their boats is very simple. If they have an electric generator and a TV set, they are considered rich. Lumio, a forty-year-old fisherman, picked fish out of his fishing net while his wife and daughters cleaned them on another boat. Later, a woman came to buy the fish from them. Today he caught fifty kilograms [110 lb] of fish which he sold for US$10. This income is enough to maintain a basic standard of living for them.

Lumio told us that he only goes ashore once or twice a month to get his generator fixed or to buy new fishing nets. Their daily needs, such as vegetables and groceries, as well as hospitals, schools, and even barber shops are all available in this floating community. In reality, Lumio's income is only just enough for his family to maintain a basic living in this traditional community. The cities on shore are filled with Western commodities, which to him are like narcotics which can easily eat away his meager income.


Hope for peace

Lumio told us that the fish he catches in Tonle Sap Lake come from the Mekong River. During the Water Sending Festival, the water is at its highest level and fish are in abundance. Thus the fishing season traditionally starts after the festival and continues till March the next year.

Standing at the threshold between past and future, the Water Sending Festival has become the high point of life for Cambodians, something they look forward to each year.

Nevertheless, foreign environmental experts warn about the dangers that millions of people living near the river and the lake may face. Deforestation and mining have damaged the land and caused rocks and soil to be flushed into the lake, thus decreasing the lake's volume and reducing its ability to act as a reservoir for the Mekong River during the rainy season. This also means that flooding has become a much more serious problem around the lake, affecting crop growth and creating ecological imbalances.

Crop harvests have been reduced, so farmers along the river have to increase their fish catch to make a living. This decreases the number of fish swimming into the lake. To keep up with the situation, fishermen in the lake area are using finer nets to catch the same number of fish, but this limits the reproduction period of the fish. All sorts of elements increase this vicious cycle and stir up the ecological imbalance in the river and the lake. No animals, humans included, are immune from possible retribution in the future.

However, the Cambodians, who are only just beginning to breathe freely after the nightmare of war, display no resentment towards their beloved Water God on this sacred holiday. In the afternoon, when the festival is over, trucks of all sizes packed with people returning home jam the streets of Phnom Penh. Mischievous boys wait at street corners to soak people in the trucks with water balloons. The people in the trucks don't get angry when hit by the water balloons; instead they laugh together with the kids and sing a happy tune. I don't understand Cambodian, but the melody successfully conveyed the message of these people to me: "We hope to enjoy this peace forever, and there will be hope only when we have peace and stability. We may then rejoice in the blessings of the Water God..."