Buffalo Fights

The buffalo, which is used to draw the ploughs through the rice paddies, among other duties, is crucial to Vietnam’s primarily rice-based agriculture. But nowhere is the beast more valued than in the township of Do Son, where it becomes the focus of the community in a ritual that rivals Spain’s running of the bulls. Every year, the mighty animals are pitted against each other in horn-locking battle. Despite the winning buffalo’s efforts, it is killed and eaten along with the tournament’s losers.