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.



Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)

A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.

The Sado gold and silver mines, now a popular tourist attraction, are believed to have started operating as early as the 12th century and produced until after World War II.

Japan had put a case for World Heritage listing because of their lengthy history and the artisanal mining techniques used there at a time when European mines had turned to mechanization.

The proposal was opposed by Seoul when it was first put because of the use of involuntary Korean labor during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula.

UNESCO confirmed the listing of the mines at its ongoing committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday after a bid highlighting its archaeological preservation of "mining activities and social and labor organization".

"I would like to wholeheartedly welcome the inscription... and pay sincere tribute to the long-standing efforts of the local people which made this possible," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a statement.

The World Heritage effort was years in the making, inspired in part by the successful recognition of a silver mine in western Japan's Shimane region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had agreed to the listing "on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendation... to reflect the 'full history' at the Sado Gold Mine site and takes proactive measures to that end."

Historians have argued that recruitment conditions at the mine effectively amounted to forced labor, and that Korean workers faced significantly harsher conditions than their Japanese counterparts.

"Discrimination did exist," Toyomi Asano, a professor of history of Japanese politics at Tokyo's Waseda University, told AFP in 2022.

"Their working conditions were very bad and dangerous. The most dangerous jobs were allocated to them."

Also added to the list on Saturday was the Beijing Central Axis, a collection of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.

The UNESCO committee meeting runs until Wednesday.