Water Festival - 2014

Trepidation preceded this year's Water Festival (Bonn Om Teuk) in Phnom Penh.

The Water Festival is ordinarily an annual event in Cambodia and one of the most important holidays of the year along with Khmer New Year and Prachum Benh. The exact dates set by the lunar calendar, the Water Festival is held at the end of the monsoon season to celebrate the reversing to the current of the Tonle Sap River. Central to the festival are long-boat races on the river as well as a fair amount of partying around town. In 2010 tragedy befell the Water Festival in Phnom Penh when over 350 mostly young people were killed in a stampede on a narrow bridge during the after party - the Koh Pich or Diamond Bridge disaster.

Subsequent Water Festivals (2011, 2012 and 2013) were cancelled for a variety of stated reasons (i.e. flooding, death of Sihanouk), but the cancellations were unprecedented and each time it called the 2010 disaster back to the public mind. Some questioned whether the Water Festival would ever be held again. This year, just two month before the usual dates for the event, the government announced that there would be a Water Festival in 2014 (November 5, 6, 7) and that security would be improved to prevent a reoccurrence of the 2010 disaster.

Most welcomed the news, but again, the 2010 disaster and safety concerns came straight to mind for many, and that fear grew as the event pulled closer. Dark talk and rumors swirled, "don't go to Aeon Mall on Wednesday, maybe another Koh Pich... beware of the Palace area during the fireworks... too many people at the riverfront will cause another Koh Pich... gangs of pickpockets are coming to Phnom Penh... etc" Friends advised one another against going to the festival. Peaking people's fears, Coronation Day the week before was marred when a fireworks accident on the riverfront killed a bystander. A week before officials predicted crowds of as many as 1-2 million at the Water Festival, but others suggested public fears may pare the crowd to as little as 70,000.

Very thin crowds greeted the first day of Water Festival 2014. Midday, thousands of spectators lined the river's edge but the nearby streets remained almost empty and the atmosphere was comparatively subdued. I've seen near a dozen Water Festivals in Phnom Penh, and to my memory, that was the lightest crowd I've ever experienced.

Security was extremely heavy. Almost uncomfortably so. The authorities not only increased security presence but put on a show of it. Police of several sorts were posted in numbers throughout. Very heavily armed special units dotted corners and marched up and down the riverfront. Top brass and bristling entourage roamed the riverfront inspecting security. Given that people's concerns revolved primarily around proper crowd control, I have to wonder what if anything the presence of dozens of machine gun toting cops did to allay those fears.

On the positive side, initial reports and observations would indicate that the police did their jobs more efficiently and with less corruption than previous festivals. I witnessed incidents of police refusing street entry to 'lok thoms' (Mr. Bigs) and their cars because they didn't have a proper pass. Some vendors I spoke with also report less harassment by police this year. The government might have gone overboard with the show of force, but it also seems that security was in fact better.

Day 2 crowds grew a bit in both number and spirit. Attendance was still way down from past festivals, but up from the previous day. There were more people on the street midday and significantly more out after dark. Friday, the third and last day saw the trend continue. The enthusiasm of the crowd was up several notches - lots of cheering, more revelry and excitement. There were more people on the riverfront streets midday, maybe as much as twice as many as the first day, and even more people on the streets after dark, shoulder to shoulder in some places. Reflecting this trend, one street vendor selling canned drinks reported to me that on the first day of the festival she made only $28 in profit, the second day $51 and the last day over $150. (Though, overall, the vendors did much worse than previous festivals.)

This year's Water Festival ended last Friday evening without significant incident. The government reports less than 100,000 attended the first two days, but I haven't seen the number for the whole event yet. The Cambodia Daily reports that, based on total race times, the Srey Sos Kean Chrey Baromey Techo from Kompong Cham province won the races, the Chan Somsen Mongkul from Takeo province took second, and the Kiri Vong Sok Sen Chey, sponsored by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, took third place.

Watching the races from the Phnom Penh riverside.

Long-boat with the new Sokha Hotel in background.

View of the riverfront (Sisowath Quay) from the rooftop of the Amanjaya Hotel at Street 154, looking toward the Palace area, Friday, mid-afternoon.

Crash!

Phnom Penh riverfront park, first day.

Setting the pace.

Boat crew after party, collecting donations from the crowd.

Light Boat Parade floats await.

Royal Palace.

Float in Light Boat Parade along riverfront.

Bonn Om Tuk - Water Festival

Cambodia's annual Water Festival (Bonn Om Tuk) is coming up next week - November 5, 6, and 7. The Water Festival celebrates the reversing current of the Tonle Sap River, which, in a unique hydrological phenomenon, changes direction twice a year. This year the current actually reversed about a month ago, now flowing southeast toward the ocean. In Phnom Penh long-boat races are held on the Tonle Sap, colorful dug-out row boats competing for prizes and honors. Fireworks and a water-borne parade of lighted barges cap events in the early evenings.

This will be the first Water Festival held in Phnom Penh since 2010 which ended in the Koh Pich bridge disaster. After the 2010 disaster the festivals in 2011, 12 and 13 were cancelled for various reasons, some less genuine than others. This year the Water Festival returns. Workers are busy sprucing up the river front, boats and teams are arriving from the countryside, the light boat barges are being assembled. The festival has traditionally drawn huge crowds from the countryside, but people are still a bit jittery about the 2010 disaster and it's been 3 years without a festival, making attendance is a bit more difficult to predict this year. Adding to safety fears, during the evening fireworks display on Coronation Day last week, a bystander was killed by a malfunctioning firework shell. Ordinarily more than one million could be expected to attend the Water Festival.

The following are a few snapshots from Water Festivals in Phnom Penh in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

Riverfront crowd 2004

2005 - note the small buildings and earthen banks on the far side of the river before the development of the last few years. 

Riverfront crowd 2005 

King Sihamoni - 2005

Decorated barge in the Light Boat Parade on the river 

(for scale, note the people standing along the front.)

Bananas, Rumors and Fear

Rumors are rife. The city and the country are on edge as people struggle to come to grips with the tragedy on the Koh Pich Bridge two days ago. The mood in the city is dark and somber and the deaths of so many hang heavy in people's thoughts and conversations. On the streets today, in the markets and at the cafés it seemed all that people could talk about - death, the tragedy, its cause, its meaning, whether it represents some greater threat. A lot of theorizing going on, both pragmatic and spiritual. The streets of Phnom Penh this evening are unusually quiet, in part due to the mournful atmosphere and in part because people are uncomfortable, even in some sense afraid to leave their homes right now. There is a lingering stress and fear over the tragedy, providing fertile ground for rumor, superstition and even for those who would take advantage of the situation.

Yesterday a story spread that monks and mystics had instructed people to make special offerings to the spirits beyond the ordinary Buddhist practices and rituals surrounding respect and care for the dead. It was said that people needed to assemble offerings of bananas, rice, salt, water, incense and other ingredients to be placed at the front of their house. The reasons were not completely clear. Respect, to ease the passing of the dead, as protection for the house, the explanations varied depending who was doing the telling. It seemed that more than half the city quickly took to making these offerings. By evening yesterday bananas at the markets were in very short supply and the price of a small bunch had sky-rocketed from the normal 2500 riel (US60 cents) to as much as 30,000 riel (US$7.50) as gougers took advantage. People are still making these offerings today and this evening the smell of incense is thick in the air throughout the Phnom Penh.

Today the story of a bus crash on the road to Battambang swept the country. It was said that as many as 60 died in the accident. Some had details of a fiery smash up and others claimed to have spoken to eye-witnesses. Many said that this new tragedy was part of a pattern of ill-luck connected to the Koh Pich tragedy. But the rumor of a crash was patently false and seems to have been born of nothing. There was no bus accident let alone another massive loss of life. This evening TVs stations broadcast messages from the government informing people that the story was unfounded and asking the public to try to remain calm and not fall prey to hear-say and extraordinary claims. But the fear lingers and people are still trying to put meaning and understanding to the tragedy on Koh Pich Bridge. 

The following is a collection of non-empirical stories and explanations related to the tragedy that I have heard over the last two days. All amount to little more than rumor. Some are based in religion. Many in folk belief or just superstition. None have been fact checked. Most are of the sort that couldn't be fact checked anyway. Due to the use of metaphor and unusual concepts, some exceeded my ability to understand the Khmer and/or defy sensible translation. So I relate them below 'raw,' as they were told, without trying to force it to make sense. All were taken seriously by the teller and in my opinion represent mostly honest attempts to understand what happened, give it meaning and figure out how to protect against further such happenings.

• A comet was seen in the sky 2 or 3 months ago. It was a portent of disaster and some monks said so at the time. The tragedy at Koh Pich was the fulfillment of that prophesy.

• The bridge at Koh Pich was never properly blessed by monks after construction leaving it open to bad luck and mischievous spirits. The tragedy at Koh Pich is the result.

• There was an abnormally orange sky at the time of the tragedy, indicating some higher involvement.

• Monks warned the government 3 days before the Water Festival that there were supernatural signs of impending disaster. The government warned the people to be careful and be on the look-out. They thought that perhaps it would be a bomb or a terrorist attack. When a young boy drowned on the first day of the Water Festival, they thought this was the prophesied ill-event and let down their guard.

• Koh Pich means Diamond Island. The island is like a giant diamond. It is too big. Giants eat people. The deaths on the bridge were, in a metaphorical sense, this giant diamond eating people.

• Phnom Penh is now overwhelmed with spirits of the recent dead, wandering the edges of the city, many lost and unsure where to go. Children are in particular danger of possession by these spirits and should not be allowed outside after dark. In fact, due to these spirits, it is unwise for anybody to go out after dark.

• Koh Pich (Diamond Island) is a name like Koh Dach. Dach is close to the word and phrase 'dach dong heurm' which means 'to not breath' or 'to be unable to breath,' which is what happened to the people who died on the bridge.

• People must assemble special offerings to display in front of their house. The offering should include bananas, salt, rice, water, incense and other ingredients. Some say there must be 7 items in the collection. Some suggest there should be some sort of blood offering included, presumably to satiate the tiger. (This is the year of the tiger.)

• This is the year of the tiger in the eastern calendar. The tiger likes to eat blood. People have died in many strange ways in Phnom Penh this year including several senseless murders that occurred in the last few months. These events, including the tragedy on the Koh Pich bridge, is the tiger eating blood.

• This is the year of the tiger in the eastern calendar. 'Tiger' in Khmer is 'kla.' This word has a similar sound to the phrase 'ah kaw' which means to cut off the head. As above, the recent murders in Phnom Penh as well as the tragedy on Koh Pich Bridge are reflections of the 'cutting off of people's heads.'

(I began writing this at 10PM November 24 and posted it at 1:00AM, very early morning of November 25. When I refer to 'today' and 'this evening' I mean the 24th, 'yesterday' is the 23rd and 'tomorrow' is the 25th.)

Today's Frontpage

The Phnom Penh Post (English edition)

Rasmei Kampuchea Daily Newspaper

The Cambodia Daily

The Phnom Penh Post (Khmer edition)

Koh Santepheap Daily

Water Festival Tragedy

I wish I had something profound to say. I wish I had some great insight to offer. I wish I could say why all this happened. I wish I could blame the Cambodian police for failing to control the crowds beforehand, letting too many people on the bridge, taking bribes to let people through, for their incompetence, for firing shots and using water cannons contributing to the panic and rush. I wish I could blame shoddy workmanship for electrocuting people and starting the panic. I wish I could be as callous as KI Media, immediately taking political advantage, calling for resignations and blaming the 'Yuon.' I wish I could blame the Khmers for being gawkers and rubberneckers and running toward the panicking crowd to see what was happening. I wish I could blame some "big black guy with an American accent" for pushing people around rather than helping. I wish I could blame the endemic corruption and greed in this society for ill-conceived plans and poor design. I wish I could be angry at the government for praising and giving the police a pass just hours after the tragedy. I wish I could fault the Prime Minister for trying to write it off as "just an accident" before knowing what really happened. I wish I could blame the Bayon stage for continuing to blast music through the whole thing. I wish I could blame bad luck, karma or fate for turning this heartless way. I wish I could blame God for allowing this evil to happen. I wish I could rail against somebody or something. I wish I could put this all on somebody else. Somehow it would seem that might help alleviate the sorrow over this disaster, if only a bit. But at this point we don't know exactly what happened or why. And recriminations, though understandable from those directly affected, are for the rest of us at this point only self-serving and perhaps unfair and damaging. I can only feel for the people that have been killed and injured and their families and loved ones who are suffering horrible loss at this very moment. The dead women and children, the families destroyed. I am haunted by the image a man crying over his dead child, happiness only a moment before. I can only try to empathize with the grief and pain they must be feeling and offer my deepest most heartfelt sympathies. It's the only thing of which I am certain and all I have right now, as little and inadequate as it is.