May Titthara
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A resident of Kalai II village joins in the sacrifice of a water buffalo last week. KTs/Vireak Mai
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O’Chum district, Ratanakkiri –The buffalo could not be allowed to sleep; it had to be kept awake overnight. If it slept before the ceremony in which it was killed was over, even more misfortune would have followed, members of the family who held the ceremony in Kalai II village in Ratanakkiri province explained.
Five or six men took turns circling the animal, which was tethered to a post outside the home of Mr. Thakin’s family, chanting, dancing and banging brass kongs (gong-like instruments) to keep it alert from Tuesday morning to about 8 am last Wednesday when it was finally killed.
On the first morning the buffalo moved in circles, watching them warily, but as the day progressed it became almost motionless. By evening it only moved its neck. By dawn only its eyes. Its legs were trembling, but it did not lie down.
Only when a long blade, normally used to cut bamboo, was used to slice a tendon in its left hind leg did it start moving again – jolting and stumbling in circles at the end of the three-meter-long rope.
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