Tuesday, March 18, 2014

"And in this corner..."


Jinju, a southernmost town in South Korea, is not only known for it's yearly lantern festival (which draws in hoards of luminary lovers), but it is also renown for its bull fights. Unlike the Spanish variety where a bull fights to its death, the Korean variety involves considerably less blood and two bulls instead of one - both of whom continue living long after the fight is over.

The tradition, spanning centuries, goes a little something like this:

Two bulls are pitted together by their owners. The bulls, who at times appear bored by the prospects, lock horns and dance the Korean tango until one - or at times, both - of them backs of. A fight can last anywhere from mere seconds to over 30 minutes. The winning cow is decorated with ribbons and flowers before being led off the ring.


But it's not the fight itself that draws the most pleasure from its foreign onlookers. Oh no. The pièce de résistance comes from the owner of the winning bull. Or, at least, one winner in particular. 




Note: despite all appearances from the stands, there were hoards of Koreans present. They were all crammed on one side to avoid the sun. 
Also, the owner continued dancing until he was eventually kicked out.  Watching him was nothing short of amazing. 

1 comment:

Patti said...

Perhaps not as exciting as a traditional bullfight, but so much more humane. I can deal with that.