Cambodian Villagers Hold Rare Oxcart Race, Seeking to Revive a Centuries-Old Tradition 

Cambodian villagers race their oxcarts at Romdoul village, Kampong Speu province, southwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP)
Cambodian villagers race their oxcarts at Romdoul village, Kampong Speu province, southwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP)
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Cambodian Villagers Hold Rare Oxcart Race, Seeking to Revive a Centuries-Old Tradition 

Cambodian villagers race their oxcarts at Romdoul village, Kampong Speu province, southwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP)
Cambodian villagers race their oxcarts at Romdoul village, Kampong Speu province, southwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, April 7, 2024. (AP)

Hundreds of Cambodian villagers held a rare oxcart race on Sunday, trying to revive a centuries-old tradition as they celebrated the arrival of the lunar new year.

Under a hot sun and amid clouds of dust, they gathered in Romduol village in Kampong Speu province, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital, Phnom Penh. The race marked Khmer Lunar New Year, celebrated from April 13 to 16, and the end of the rice harvest.

Participants rode an oxcart pulled by two oxen along a roughly 1-kilometer (0.62-mile) -long dirt track, as spectators lining the route cheered enthusiastically.

Fifty pairs of oxcarts competed in the race from four provinces: Kampong Speu, Kandal, Phnom Penh and Kampong Cham.

The oxcart has played a significant role in Cambodia for centuries, especially for farmers and for the transportation of agricultural goods and people in rural areas.

However, the oxcart today is on the brink of disappearance with tractors and motorized rickshaws increasingly replacing the older technology.

Sunday’s race was a first for Khem Rithy, 40, a teacher from Kampong Speu provincial high school who traveled with 150 students to watch the race.

“We have a lot of wonderful culture in Cambodia. I want Cambodians to know this culture,” Rithy said.



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.