Divine Kings in Southeast Asia

It’s the season when the rain comes in torrents, pouring inexorably from the low, grey clouds on to a watery landscape. As the ground softens, the water buffalo strains at the iron-tipped plow, which cuts deep into the waterlogged soil, turning over thick clusters of rotting weeds and churning them into the mud. Blue-green algae cascade around the buffalo’s hooves, as rainwater held back by low banks at the edge of the field flows through a narrow defile and across the plowed soil toward a nearby stream. At the edge of the rice paddy, the women, seemingly oblivious to the wet, transplant new plants from a large seed bed, setting the seedlings in long rows. A well-dressed official watches the planting under the shelter of a red ceremonial umbrella, mentally assessing the potential yield from the crop .