Naturally, it was noticed, in the Kingdom of Cambodia, that the Royal annual ceremony or the Royal twelve-month ceremony for the King held inside and outside the Royal Palace is absolutely relevant to the religion following the Brahmanism and Buddhism, and has also combined with the thousand-aged animism before the Induisation.
With regard to the recent discovery, it is revealed that most Khmer traditional ceremonies are combined nature, and they are performed from the ancient (pre-historic) period up to now. From those ceremonies, it proved that the water festival, the Moon Salutation (Sampeas Preahkhe), and Ork Ambok was performed at the same time, the ancestors’ cultural heritage. He added that we must have deeply emphasized its root meaning, a key factor to study the sources and roles of other major ceremonies, although it is connected to the Buddhism.
In addition, over the past thousand years before promoting the Indian culture located in the tropical region, Khmer people living along the Mekong River, Tonle Sap, or other lakes greatly benefited from these region for our ancestors had earned a living through farming and fishing.
Fig. 1-4 The Boat Drawings Carved On The Bronze Drum In The Prehistoric Period (French Reference)
More noticeably, the annual flood which conveyed the fertile delta giving priority to the agricultural field is the source of happiness, progress, and excellence to demonstrate the enjoyment and gratefulness to the natural gift. On top of this, the celebration is also the suitable opportunity not only to strengthen the relationship and solidarity but to be relevant to keep a human social lineage through the regatta, eating and drinking, dancing, courting, or making love.
The above illustration leads us to know Khmer ancestors paid homage to water since during ancient times, it was regarded as the root of lives, so that all their activities both physically and mentally are the originate causes. Because it is connected with our ancestors’ tendency conducting this ceremony, the water festival becoming the national traditional ceremony is the concrete testimony.
More to that, the ancient Khmer people believed that the celebration of water festival really brings high output and achievable wishes.
In conclusion, we could certify that it is under the natural influence, especially the monsoon, our ancestors have created and celebrated this traditional ceremony to show the main concepts, including delighting with the agricultural output given by the nature and similarly, being grateful to the sacred objects in the world such as the animism and the ancestors equal to the God supporting the positively growing output.
In reality, we were excited having watched the regatta once, the friendliness, fraternity, and solidarity between individuals were strengthened at once. It could be proved that the society and culture had played an important role in the water festival, the long existing tradition of the Cambodian culture and not coming from foreign or any other culture. One more thing which we should noticed here was the conscientious system between the Water God in Khmer word and the Kungkea God in Sanskrit which have the same meaning in the ancient Khmer philosophy.
It is added that the water element, Preah Neang Kungkea who was born from the water of the Shiva’s hair bouquet which has the great power in the Brahmanism, is promoted equally to the Indian God. Do we have any concrete documents relevant to the history of Khmer water festival which is regarded as paying the excellent homage to water? The Response to this question is based on the archaeological study, including specifically the sculptures of regatta on the bronze drum in the late Metal Age from 300 to 100 B.C discovered in Steung Treng province as well as in other pre-historic sites in the Indochina peninsula, Malaysia, Indonesia, and most recently in Prey Veng and Bantey Meanchey reveals that the regatta is really performed in the Southeast Asia by Mon-Khmer or Austro-Asiatic, our Khmer ancestors, since the pre-historic period.
In the first place, we compare the boat load in the pre-historic period to the one in the present day through the shape, the size, and the number of rowers in those boats. After that, we have observed the features of boats which Khmer people have used in the water festival presently, and the battle boat carved in Khmer temples’ wall so that we could conclude Khmer people have been able to row the boat over 2300 years ago.
More importantly, Khmer people still kept the original shape of Khmer boats even though the techniques and equipment are highly developed. The general agreement on the constructing techniques and the traditional eternity of regatta is so important for us to understand more the types of boats and the root of Khmer water festival now.
It is added that there is only Khmer race in the Southeast Asia, who has recognized and produced such these popular boats. Furthermore, we have hardly ever seen the other races having the ability and intelligence to build such boat, the cultural heritage in the pre-historic period, and if possible, it could be Thai and Lao people who have copied the rowing tradition and boat construction techniques following Khmer people after they have settled in the Khmer Kingdom since the 14th century.
In other words, although those newcomers conducted the Khmer-like water festival, it is not similar to the national ceremony. a deep meaning and glory as the Khmer water festival taken part by people from the various places, king, prime minister, and all level grassroots nationwide. The bronze drums in the pre-historic period in Cambodia presently, as well as the other regions in the former Khmer Kingdom or in the present-day south China are greatly beneficial. The drawings of racing boats and some musical instruments beaten are
the proof indirectly certifying the regatta even though they are in any wonderful context such as the death and rain-begging ceremony through beating the drum. These mean that those ancient sculptures are precisely involved with the historic events taking place in some communities, taking the existence agriculture and paying homage to the nature and the ancestors as the base of social mores, which is the root of the present Khmer water festival to be noticed.
In conclusion, we should not confuse the regatta in the water festival, the ritual, with the boat battle between Cham-Khmer naval forces in the reign of King Jayavaraman VII. Thus, they considered that the aspects of boat battle described in details on the stone temple’s sculptures in the Angkorean period, the root of the present Khmer water festival, is unreasonable. The celebration of water festival is one thing, but doing war with battle boat is another thing (M. Tranet).
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