Have you ever seen Buffalo Racing Festival ?

In Thailand

Running Buffalo culture is the festival of Chonburi province also as Known as "Buffalo Racing Festival" .One of the unique culture of Chonburi.That are held more than 100 years ago. Is a tradition held every year on the 14th night 11months. Chon Buri Water buffalo racing festival, Thousands of people flock to this entertainment in downtown Chonburi, 70 km south of Bangkok, at the annual water buffalo festival. About 300 buffalo race in groups of five or six, spurred on by bareback jockeys wielding wooden sticks,as hundreds of spectators cheer. The buffalo has always played an important role in agriculture in Thailand.


For farmers of Chon Buri Province, it is an important annual festival, beginning in mid-October. It is also a celebration among rice farmers before the rice harvest.
At dawn, farmers walk their buffalo through surrounding rice fields, splashing them with water to keep them cool before leading them to the race field.


This amazing festival started over a hundred years ago when two men arguing about whose buffalo was the fastest ended up having a race between them.
That’s how it became a tradition and gradually a social event for farmers who gathered from around the country in Chonburi to trade their goods. The festival also helps a great deal in preserving the number of buffalo, which have been dwindling at quite an alarming rate in other regions. Modern machinery is rapidly replacing buffalo in Thai agriculture. With most of the farm work mechanized, the buffalo-racing tradition has continued. Racing buffalo are now raised just to race; they do not work at all. The few farm buffalo which still do work are much bigger than the racers because of the strenuous work they perform. Farm buffalo are in the “Buffalo Beauty Pageant”, a Miss Farmer beauty contest and a comic buffalo costume contest etc..



Running buffalo culture.Buffalo Racing Festival.
Field duties at the district town of Chonburi ,Thailand.

Try to find new experiences.                                                                                      This Year

October 22, 2010.