Wat Preah Vihear Suor in Kandal province closed out this year's Pchum Ben festival with a buffalo and horse racing ceremony. The races brought the festival for the dead to an end after days of offerings and prayers at the pagoda. Races with buffalo and horses are a custom handed down through generations in the community around the temple. Locals stage the event to ask the village guardian spirit, Lok Ta Mchas Srok, for peace and good fortune. The ceremony also carries a spiritual purpose, as participants dedicate the merit of the celebration to the guardian deities of the pagoda. Crowds gather to watch the animals compete, a spectacle the pagoda and its surroundings have long been known for. With the final rites complete, the temple marked the close of one of the biggest dates in its religious calendar.