Bao Lam
AN GIANG, Vietnam (NV) – From a game in the villages of the Khmer people in Tinh Bien and Tri Ton districts of An Giang, Bay Nui bull racing has become a competition and festival attracting people from Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu provinces and even Ta Keo province of Cambodia to participate. The number of participants is increasing, reaching tens of thousands of people.
Bay Nui is a popular place name derived from the Chinese name “That Son” to refer to the westernmost area of An Giang province. The land of Bay Nui is sandy, stretching at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by a system of surrounding hills. Farming requires a lot of animal power from plowing, breaking the ground to transporting agricultural products, straw, etc.
The majority of the residents are Khmer people living in phums and socs (phums are residential units and traditional social organizations of the Khmer people in rural Southern Vietnam as well as in Cambodia; socs are villages, made up of many phums).
Land and cows of Seven Mountains
Each village has a pagoda and the pagoda has a large area of rice fields. During the harvest season, villagers often bring their cows to plow the pagoda and, during the off-season, they organize races for pairs of cows.
A pair of oxen competes to pull a harrow. The racers, called drivers or jockeys, stand on the harrow, holding a rope in one hand and using a whip to control the path and speed of the oxen. The competition is mainly for the owners to prove their skills in caring for and raising a pair of healthy oxen. The sandy soil of the Seven Mountains region is the only reason why this type of race cannot develop in other regions.
In Tri Ton, An Giang, there is a breed of Bay Nui cows or Bay Nui racing cows (also known as Cu cows or Phen cows) with many valuable characteristics. The chest is wide, the belly is slightly tapered towards the buttocks, the hind legs are strong. The four legs are high and the tail is not deformed, each leg has four hooves that grip the ground well, the hind legs of the cow step forward two inches from the front foot. The muscle and bone system is very special, allowing the cow to have the ability to stretch, jump quickly, and have superior endurance compared to many other tall and large cow breeds.
The cow has bright eyes and two curved horns pointing forward. There is a straight whorl on the cow’s face, and a whorl between the two horns in front of the nose string when tied. A whorl right in the middle on the back, about an inch from the cow’s gu is good.
Product of Southern Buddhism!
Before 1989, bull racing was either a contest between bull owners themselves or organized by Sai Ca. The number of pairs of bulls was limited to one village. Sai Ca called on everyone to gather pairs of bulls to plow and harrow the pagoda’s fields. The bull owners chose pairs to compete, the front pair and the back pair, and so on until all the pairs of bulls were gone.
There are two rounds of competition: the “call” round (the oxen walk leisurely to perform one or two laps) and the “release” round (a sprint race to determine the winner). During the “call” round, there will be no foul if the pair of oxen run out of the boundary line or run onto the edge of the rice field. This is a folk game, the players are also the organizers, there is no referee. If there is a dispute, Mr. Sai Ca will arbitrate. The prizes are only silver-jointed ropes or beautiful bells given by Mr. Sai Ca. This game during the free time of the farming season is associated with the Dolta festival (around the end of August and beginning of September of the Khmer lunar calendar every year because it is suitable for the weather and season and has become a custom of the Khmer people of Bay Nui).
By 1989, the bull racing festival expanded to a competition for both Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts with 15 to 20 competing teams. From 1992 to present, the Bay Nui bull racing festival has not only attracted Khmer people in the two districts above but also Kinh people, Khmer people in neighboring provinces such as Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, and Cambodian people in Ta Keo province.
The game becomes a festival
Since 2009, the race, called “Seven Mountains Bull Racing Festival for the An Giang Television Cup,” has featured 70 pairs of bulls selected through commune and district level competitions and lasted for a full day. The bulls from all over the country were decorated with bells and colorful cloth by their owners, showing off their muscles, creating an exciting playground.
Spectators from Saigon, the Western provinces, and Cambodia also flocked to watch. Most of the spectators stood outside, their feet in the mud, not minding the rain or shine. Many climbed up the cajuput trees surrounding the stadium to get a panoramic view.
Since its expansion, the race has been more tightly organized, but the competition venue is still attached to the pagoda, and monks are still invited to participate.
The racetrack is a flat field, about 200 meters long and 100 meters wide. The racetrack is an elliptical circle, about 10 meters wide, with water just below, plowed many times to create the slippery mud, with embankments on all four sides and a clear stretch of road at the finish line to make a safe stop for the cows.
The starting position of the pairs of competing bulls is not level, but the front and back bulls are marked with two blue and red flags, each flag is 5 meters apart for each bull, and the same is true at the finish line. The pair of bulls standing at which color flag will have the same color as the flag. The race track is about 100 to 120 meters long.
The racing format is to draw lots to select each pair and gradually eliminate them in each round. In each pair, lots are drawn or agreed upon for the position of the first and second pair. The basic competition is still based on the two rounds of shouting and releasing, but the regulations are more detailed. The attraction and fundamental difference between bull racing and horse racing or other running competitions is the shouting and releasing racing format.
Interesting two rounds of shouting, releasing
The driver calls the bull to go around the track twice to gain momentum. In the release round, the driver uses a whip to kick the bull’s butt and the bull starts to use all its strength to rush to the finish line…
Basically, whichever pair that doesn’t break any rules (driver falls, cow strays off the track) and crosses the finish line first wins.
If one pair breaks the rules, the other pair does not win immediately but must continue to complete the remaining race. If they break the rules on the race track, they are still disqualified. Most drivers from the Western region compete in “fair play”, even though they are alone on the race track, they do not save their cows for the next lap but still let their cows run at full speed during the release lap.
But there are detailed rules that make the race more attractive. In the release round, 30 meters from the starting point (some fields stipulate 20 meters), if the following pair steps on the harrow of the previous pair, they will be recognized as the winner immediately, without waiting to reach the finish line. This rule further stimulates the acceleration when moving to the release round and has a psychological advantage for the following pair of oxen. There are many pairs of oxen with good strength, when sprinting, running up to 80 – 90 km/h) which looks very attractive. Although the following pair is 4 to 5 meters behind the previous pair, many pairs after entering the release round accelerate to shorten the distance and step on the harrow, even surpassing the previous pair.
The release round is attractive but the shout round is even more dangerous because there is an opposite rule, in this round if the pair behind kicks the plow, the pair in front will also lose immediately. This rule creates a favorable mentality for the pair of oxen in front. Depending on the driver’s skill and the ability of the pair of oxen, the pair in front has many options. If the oxen are physically strong and have endurance, the driver will let the oxen gradually accelerate from the shout round, increasing the safe distance from the pair behind without being inhibited. If the oxen have good acceleration, the driver can force the oxen to go very slowly or sometimes fast, sometimes slow, causing inhibition for the pair of oxen behind, possibly causing a violation. When reaching the release round, let the oxen accelerate safely…
Therefore, the competition had many surprises. There were brave and enthusiastic pairs of bulls, but in the back position, the driver held the reins and stopped them during the race, so they reacted wildly and accelerated, breaking the rules or running out of the track, and were unfairly disqualified. There were also pairs of bulls with strong inertia but lacking flexibility, so while they were leading well at high speed, they suddenly fell flat on their backs when turning a corner.
The most stressful and dangerous situation is when the following couple overtakes and tramples the plow, many drivers are thrown off the plow and fall on the track, at risk of being trampled by the cow’s feet.
Wish you joy and luck
The success or failure of the competition depends on three factors: the strength and speed of the oxen are important. The skillful control of the driver and finally a little luck.
Because there are cow owners who directly drive the competition, most of them hire drivers, so the Organizing Committee not only gives prizes to cow owners but also has separate prizes for drivers.
In the Khmer people’s concept, the prize is not important. The winning pair of oxen brings joy, luck, and a bountiful harvest to the family and the whole village. The selection and careful care of the pair of oxen competing in the competition is very elaborate. The oxen chosen for the race will be raised in a cool place, the food must be a special type of grass, the drinking water must be clean water mixed with bran, every evening they must be given a batch of thin porridge, especially about a week before the race – this is the time for intensive feeding, so they should be given soda and egg to drink to have good health.
After winning, the owner does not kill or sell the winning pair of oxen, but keeps them as a precious asset of the family and the village. Many pairs of oxen compete and win prizes for many years in a row.
Compared to the Do Son buffalo fighting festival, where the winning and losing buffaloes are slaughtered, the Bay Nui bull racing festival is gentle and kind, bringing joy and dreams of peace to the community. An Giang province has built a professional stadium for the competition and has a plan to upgrade it to an international level.
However, in the development, there are also potential negative factors that need to be overcome. The innocent game in the old phum and soc is now not only stimulated by the increasingly high material prizes but also gives rise to gambling among the audience who are keen on winning. The Bay Nui cow breed has not been researched for pure conservation but is in danger of extinction due to the tradition of castrating cows and crossbreeding with foreign cow breeds. (Bao Lam) [qd]