Buffalo fights in sin city
This coming weekend is the annual buffalo fighting festival in Do Son, Vietnam. I’ve been to the fights a few times, I think first in 2002, but haven’t gone in about five years. It’s a brutal weekend of crushing bones, spurting blood, alcohol, gambling, and all general sorts of vice. Which is fun once, then gets a little tired after that. But its an interesting local cultural phenomenon, as buffalo fighting festivals are a long held tradition all over northern Vietnam.
For the festival in Do Son (already a year-round Sin City to begin with, but it goes all out on the party favors this weekend), buffalo arrive from all over the mountainous north, where farmers have had them in isolated training for months. By the time the bulls are led into a football stadium, they haven’t seen or smelled another bull for months. When they see another male across the football pitch, they run at eachother and lock horns, with the victor eventually chasing the vanquished out of the grounds to thunderous applauds from thousands of spectators, most of whom are betting heavily on the fights.
The cruel twist (and the reason its difficult to make repeat visits) at the end is that the buffalo – both losers and winners – are then slaughtered in the streets outside the stadium, with their prize-fighting meat fetching a tidy sum for their owners. They used to electrocute and butcher the buffalo in the streets, but I’m told this practice is now on the outs.
Anyway, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be in Vietnam, so I thought I’d make one final trip out to Do Son. Those images to follow next week. . . .
Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival – Images by Julian Wainwright
