Head-butting buffalo lock horns in Vietnam festival
18:39 04/03/2009

      Cheered on by 20,000 people in a soccer stadium, water buffalo "26" was crowned this year's head-butting champion at an annual Vietnamese festival that is an economic boon for owners of the beasts.

Wednesday's final in Do Son near the northeastern city of Hai Phong lasted just two minutes after hours of pulsating quarter-finals and semi-finals in which two of this year's favorites were beaten.

Buffalo 26 – the buffalo have numbers helpfully stamped in white on their hindquarters – recovered from being tipped onto its bottom and following a head-butt or two, he sent his opponent scampering across the grass.

While barely a drop of blood was spilled in the actual fighting on the grass pitch, all finalists are electrocuted and then slaughtered. The meat is sold outside the stadium for between VND400,000 ($25) for the losers and VND700,000 ($43) per kg for the champion.

The winner of the matches is deemed to be the buffalo that manages to intimidate its rival into running away.

"I'm very happy to become champion today. Before the tournament, I had only hoped to make progress and I never thought my buffalo would be a winner," owner Hoang Dinh Hieu said as he stood in the centre of the arena at the awards ceremony.

The winning prize is VND15 million ($930) and a golden trophy that depicts two buffaloes in combat.

The buffalo fighting tradition goes back hundreds of years in honor of the water god worshipped by the seafaring residents of Hai Phong and the nearby Do Son peninsula. It is held every year on the 9th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

The event has become increasingly commercialized in recent years with sponsorship, public relations, companies advertising on billboards around the stadium and a live broadcast on Hai Phong's TV channel.

"In the past, it was the collectives that entered their buffaloes, but there have been changes in line with Vietnam's market economy and individuals can also enter now," said Dinh Phu Nga, a buffalo fighting historian and author whose buffalo won in 1999 and 2002.

Buffaloes are placid creatures and those selected for contests are separated from others for months of careful preparation, training and feeding by the farmers and handlers.

At the beginning of each match a pair are led to opposite sides of the arena and then untethered, accompanied by drums banging and head-butt by head-butt commentary loudly broadcast on booming speakers.

As soon as the final was over, the crowd quickly left the stadium to inspect and buy the buffalo meat and carcasses laid out on tables and on plastic sheeting near the entrance.

Source: Reuters

Source : thanhniennews.com