The Royal Ploughing Ceremony (Khmer: ព្រះរាជពិធីបុណ្យច្រត់ព្រះនង្គ័ល, Preăh Réach Pĭthi Chrát Preăh Neăngkoăl; Thai: พระราชพิธีจรดพระนังคัลแรกนาขวัญ, Phra Ratcha Phithi Charot Phra Nangkhan Raek Na Khwan; Sinhala: වප් මඟුල්, Vap Magula), also known as The Ploughing Festival, is an ancient royal rite held in many Asian countries to mark the traditional beginning of the rice growing season.

In Cambodia, the history of the Ploughing Ceremony can be traced back to Funan period (1st-6th century) and was introduced from ancient India.

During John Crawfurd's Siam mission, he noted on 27 April 1822 (near the end of the reign of King Rama II):This was a day of some celebrity in the Siamese calendar, being that on which the kings of Siam, in former times, were wont to hold the plough, like the Emperors of China,[note 1] wither as a religious ceremony, or as an example of agricultural industry to their subjects.

This rite has long fallen into disuse, and given place to one which, to say the least of it, is of less dignity... A Siamese...who had often witnessed it, gave me the following description:—A person is chosen for this occasion to represent the king.

He stands in the midst of a rice-field, on one foot only, it being incumbent on him to continue in this uneasy attitude during the time that a common peasant takes in ploughing once around him in a circle.

Dropping the other foot, until the circle is completed, is looked upon as a most unlucky omen; and the penalty to the "King of the Husbandmen" is said to be not only the loss of his ephemeral dignity, but also of his permanent rank, what ever that may be, with what is more serious—the confiscation of his property.

During the whole of this day the shops are shut; nothing is allowed to be bought or sold; and whatever is disposed of, in contravention of the interdict, is forfeited, and becomes the perquisite of the King of the Husbandmen following the ploughing.

[8]In Thailand, the common name of the ceremony is Raek Na Khwan (แรกนาขวัญ) which literally means the "auspicious beginning of the rice growing season."

Rice grown on the Chitralada Royal Villa grounds, home of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej is sown in the ceremony.

Burmese chronicles traditionally attribute the start of this rite to the late 500s CE during the Pagan dynasty, when it was performed by Kings Htuntaik, Htunpyit, and Htunchit, all of whom bear the name 'htun' or 'plow.

In traditional accounts of the Buddha's life, Prince Siddhartha, as an infant, performed his first miracle during a royal ploughing ceremony, by meditating underneath a rose apple tree (ဇမ္ဗုသပြေ), thus exemplifying his precocious nature.

[16] One of the duties of the Emperor of Japan as chief Shinto priest is the ritualistic planting of the first rice seed in a paddy on the grounds of the Tokyo Imperial Palace.