Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:58 am Post subject: Laotian bullfights are risky for crowd
When water buffalo head for the spectators, it pays not to be in the front row
A cold grey mist wreathed the city in the morning, giving a chill to the air. By 10 a.m. it had burned off, leaving behind a blue sky with a trace of clouds clinging across it. We had travelled up to Phounsavan via a 61/2-hour bus ride from Louang Prabang, the old capital of Laos. With us were our friends and guides Khage and Juu. Khage was Lao, and Juu was Hmong, one of the ethnic minorities in Laos.
Khage and Juu had brought us to Phounsavan for an annual event that tourists rarely witness. Every year rich farmers and landowners bring their prize bulls and water buffalo to Phounsavan to take part in a daylong version of bullfighting quite unlike anything I had ever seen.
We arrived around 8 a.m. with hundreds of other people visible only as shadows through the mist, and all converging on a field surrounded by hills several miles out of town. We reached the field, and although there were large crowds, by that time nearly 3,000 people, there was plenty of room at the very front. Looking back it was obvious why the locals would keep their distance. There was no barrier, no rope to mark the edges of the ring, nothing. We stood at the front and waited.
Not long passed before two water buffalo were led out into the middle of the field, the owners pulling them by ropes passed through large rings in their noses. The two large creatures were positioned facing each other, the ropes were unfastened and two boys with bamboo rods hit the buffalo on their flanks, enraging them. They charged together, locking their peculiar curved back horns.
Each pushed with all of its great strength trying to gain an advantage over the other. The fight took them back and forth across the field, until, suddenly, the smaller one disengaged and fled blindly, pursued closely by the other. Such was its panic that it simply ran in the direction it had been pointing, which in this case was straight into the crowd. People shrieked and a sort of mass hysteria engulfed the area into which the bulls charged. Everyone fled, leaping blindly out of the way, falling over one another, pushing, shoving, doing whatever they could to keep out of the path of the rampaging bulls. In a flash all of us understood how we could arrive late and still get into the very front row.
We asked Juu if people are ever killed during the bullfights. He replied that they had been in previous years. It was, he said, uncommon for bulls to fight to the death but it would occasionally happen, in which case everyone who had assembled to watch would make a contribution to the farmer to cover his loss. I didn't ask what happened if a person was killed.
The fights continued throughout the day. The crowd grew to be more than 4,000 people; all of them apart from us were native Laotian and Hmong. It was the single biggest crowd to attend the bullfighting in all the years that it had taken place. A bull had even been brought over from Vietnam, creating a bit of a rivalry between the two countries with everyone cheering for the local bull -- which was promptly defeated.
continued here
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/travel/story.html?id=efbf029c-67a5-4954-9f2f-ff43ccaf9e24&page=2 _________________ Asia Expats Forum Expat Friends Dating
Wow thats so crazy... I was just surfing google and i found a link here.. i wrote the article when i was traveling through Laos in December of last year. It was such a cool experience seeing the bullfighting, probably one of the most interesting things ive seen traveling... Ive got a few videos and a bunch of pics i can post if anyones interested in seeing them. I'm pretty sure its the only bullfighting that happens in the country... on that scale at anyrate, but if your in laos around december i would highly recomend you look into it... im going to see if i can find any info about it on the web...
haha thats so funny to see the article...
I'm not sure... we saw it in december and as far as i know thats the only time it happens, keep your ears open though...[img]/Users/martin/Desktop/IMG_1354.JPG[/img]
Or, if you click on 'album' at the top of thispage there is a currently empty Laotian album where you can upload a few pics directly from your computer. _________________
That looks quite similar to the bullfighting that I've seen once or twice on Korean television. I don't think it's particularly common here and don't know whether it's attached to a particular holiday.
Too bad more people didn't take advantage of those photo albums. _________________
It's in Phounsavan, a pretty small town but people come from all around, even Vietnam to see it, wierd that no westerners do though cos it was a really interesting expierience, ill post some videos of it on savefile coming up...
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