The buffalo fighting in Do Son Town in Hai Phong City, recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage on September 12, is a traditional festival of Vietnam attached to a Water God worshiping ceremony and the "Hien Sinh" (sacrifice) custom.
A good fighting buffalo must not be castrated and must have one or all of the following: big horns, a large neck, short legs, red eyes, thick cilia, strong and good-looking teeth, and a strong and red scrotum (affectionately dubbed the “gear box”).
Each buffalo has a distinct method of attack: charging headlong into an opponent; lifting an adversary onto its hind legs, exposing the vulnerable underbelly; or jabbing the eyes, ears or neck with its horns. Determining the loser its simple – it’s the buffalo that dies or runs away first.
In one of the fights, a buffalo is killed by a ho lao strike, prompting festival organised to remove the carcass in a truck. Some of the fights get out of control.
Some buffaloes visibly despise the violence. When they are supposed to charge one another, the more docile opponents just nuzzle. But this is rare – more often than not, the green grass of the field is covered in blood by the end of a fight. The fiercer the clash, the louder the applause from the crowd.
Unfortunately for the buffalo, this good treatment is short-lived. At the end of the festival, all of the contenders – regardless of whether they win or lose – are slaughtered and fed to the crowd. Although it may seem strange to eat the entertainment, village residents say the meat is some of the best they have ever tasted.
Source: vietnam-culture
