On Bull Fighting and Belt Wrestling

On Bull Fighting and Belt Wrestling
The following is a brief study of the connection between the original domestication of large
ungulates by humankind and the traditional sport of belt wrestling. It is an investigation that seeks
to find out why geographically diverse types of indigenous wrestling sports that utilise belts for holds
and throws are nearly always associated with other games involving various bovine species, which
may help to explain when and where this type of pastoral agriculture began.
You could be forgiven for mistaking the above images as depictions of the ancient Japanese style of
belt wrestling, Sumo, but the truth is none of them are Japanese cultural artefacts and similar styles
of belt wrestling exist across a wide domain. The first is a print replica of a 2200 year old comb found
in the tomb of the 2nd Qin Dynasty Emperor Huhai, showing a belt wrestling match with a coach or
referee giving instruction. Not only are the combatants wearing wide sash like belts but they also
have the topknot hairdo that sumo rikishi are so easily recognised for today, which the comb may be
symbolic of. Belt wrestling or Jiao Ti was immensely popular in China, especially during the T’ang
Dynasty (618-907CE), but it had essentially died out in all the major cities by the time of the Yuan
Dynasty (1271-1368CE) when it was replaced by Mongolian Bukh style jacket wrestling. The next
image is a woodblock print from Dong Ho Village near Hanoi that probably dates to the 18th century.
These prints were used for the mass production of rural scenes on paper used to bring good luck
during the Tet Lunar New Year celebrations and were widely dispersed throughout the entire
country, indicating how popular Dau Vat traditional Vietnamese belt wrestling once was. Dau Vat is
still practiced in villages in Northern Vietnam and is seeing something of a resurgence in recent times
with national championships attracting very large audiences.
1
The sandstone relief carving is from the Prasat Bayon Temple Complex of Angkor Thom in Cambodia
and dates from the reign of Rajah Jayarvarman VII who ruled from 1181-1201. It shows the sport of
Baok Chambab or traditional Khmer belt wrestling, competitions of which are still being organised
each Khmer New Year in Phnom Penh. The sheer size of the wrestlers as compared to the
surrounding figures is noteworthy and with their loin cloth belts they look very much like Sumo
rikishi. The bronze statuettes are from Myanmar and were made in the 19th century when Burma
was part of the British Raj of India. It most likely depicts the sport of Kyun belt wrestling that comes
from the former Arakan Kingdom, centred on the 15th century city of Mrauk U of Rakhine State in
Western Myanmar. The Shite-Thaung Temple of Mrauk U was built in 1536 after the Arakan
Kingdom conquered large areas around the Bay of Bengal and has depictions of Kyun carved in relief
along its inner walls. Kyun is an ethnic identifier and it is crucial for the Arakanese people to organise
competitions at every community gathering.
The wooden sculpture top left was carved by a Formosan Aboriginal craftsman in Taiwan in the
1930s. Belt wrestling is a popular part of the heritage of the Bunun, Ami, Puyuma and Paiwan tribes
and even though it was heavily influenced by Sumo in the five decades when the island was part of
the Japanese Empire (1895-1945), it has never the less always been considered central to cultural
expression during tribal gatherings. Scientific consensus sets Taiwan as the original homeland for
speakers of the Austronesian language family, so all of the Malay and Polynesian dialects can be
traced back to maritime migrations that started from there some 5000 years ago. It is not surprising
therefore to find a similar woodcarving from the Bara region of Madagascar, an island originally
settled by people from Borneo some 2500 years ago, a journey of nearly 8000km across the Indian
Ocean. It was designed to be a funerary sculpture that topped a grave marker pole called an Aloalo
but since it was carved in the 1960s, has subsequently been sold on the lucrative tribal antiquities
market. Aloalo were designed to tell stories of the deceased’s life so in this case we know the man
had a special love for traditional Ringa belt wrestling and it is most likely he belonged to the
Antandroy tribe from the southern part of the island. Interestingly considering their language is
classified as Austronesian, the Antandroy word for wrestling, Ringa, is the same used by the Maori of
New Zealand. The wooden Engishiki dolls from the Muromachi Period (1392-1573) offer a
comparison with actual Japanese Sumo and of course many parallels can be found. From the Jomon
Era (14,000BCE-400BCE) several terracotta statuettes called Dogu have also been uncovered from
burial sites, which although they are often said to be of ancient aliens, are now interpreted as being
of strongmen wrestlers. Sumo therefore is a particularly ancient Japanese custom.
2
According to the Han Dynasty scholar Sima Qian who lived around 100BCE, the army of the Chinese
culture hero Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, defeated the army of a bull headed king of the Jiuli
Nation, named Jiang Chi You, at the battle of Zhuolu in Hebei Province at around 2634BCE. By using
magical incantations Jiang Chi You was able to summon a thick fog to the battlefield that gave his
warriors initial success but Huang Di created a new technology in the South Pointing Chariot, which
was essentially a compass that inevitably guided his troops to victory. This story has been
entrenched in Chinese mytho-history ever since and is cited as the point of origin for Chinese
wrestling. This is because Huang Di and Jiang Chi Yu fought in hand to hand combat, so in honour of
this, an early form of Chinese wrestling had competitors wearing horned headgear and trying to butt
each other as well as throw to gain total victory. The story itself may just be an allegory for the
original domestication of livestock in China, which dates back many thousands of years, but as
already stated traditional Chinese wrestling evolved along a different trajectory involving two very
large men pitted against each while wearing just a loin cloth, as shown in the 8th century terracotta
statuettes. Generally referred to as Jiao Ti it was also called Xiang Pu during the T’ang era and
according to contemporary accounts tens of thousands of spectators would pack arenas in the
capital of Chang An to watch these professional fights.
Unlike amongst the Han majority who consider him a demon, Jiang Chi You is considered an ancestor
to the Miao/Hmong ethnic minority of Hunan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan
provinces of Southern China as well as the northern regions of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and
Myanmar, who refer to him as Txiv Yawg or Grandfather. Of the 55 ethnic minorities of China, the
Miao/Hmong are the biggest and have always been considered a potential internal threat to
successive Chinese governments. This is borne out by historical accounts of large Miao/Hmong
rebellions from the 13th till the 19th century and despite deliberate sanctions designed to keep them
in economic servitude, they have always maintained a separate cultural identity, including their own
3
spoken language and unique indigenous script. In respect to Txiv Yawg the Miao/Hmong still hold
very popular bull fights at all major gatherings but especially their annual Hmong New Year
celebrations and this is considered their national sport. Alongside these spectacles that pit bull
against bull, man is pitted against man in a style of belt wrestling called Ndrual Dluad and these
traditions are shared with ethnic minorities neighbouring the Miao/Hmong including the Yi, the
Dong and the indigenous Li Islanders of Hainan.
Most people are at least aware of Japanese Sumo, it is after all the most well known traditional belt
style around the world but not many would know of Togyu or Ishikawa Bull Sumo from Okinawa,
part of the 1000km long Ryuku Island chain in Southern Japan. Historians are generally unsure of the
exact origin of this sport but it has been documented since 1609 when the independent Ryuku
Kingdom was invaded by Samurai from the Shimazu Clan of southern Kyushu Island, bringing the
Ryuku Islands under the suzerainty of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Although now largely acculturated
to the rest of Japan, the Ryuku Islands have stubbornly maintained a separate cultural distinction
including their own Luchuan dialects. Togyu is followed on a fanatical basis in Okinawa, with farmers
indulging prize bulls like spoilt children and champions are called Yokozuna, just like in Grand Sumo.
Whether by coincidence or design, the initial starting position in Sumo, with the rikishi crouched on
all fours, is very reminiscent of a charging bull and it is hard not to find parallels between it and Bull
Sumo. The most well known activity to come from Okinawa is Karate and even though there are
hundreds of thousands of practitioners of this martial art globally, few would realise the essential
grappling foundation embedded in it. Known as Naha Tegumi, Shima or Muto, traditional Okinawan
belt wrestling competitions, organised between Karate schools, are now growing in popularity, even
over taking amateur Sumo tournaments in both the number of participants and spectators alike.
4
Okinawan Togyu is utterly eclipsed by the So Ssa-Eum or Bull Fighting Festival of South Korea held
annually in the town of Cheongdu in the southern part of the peninsular at the end of March. With a
documentation dating back over 1000 years it is a beloved cultural activity that reminds the Korean
people of their agrarian heritage. In 1999 a special roofed stadium with seating for 10,000 spectators
was constructed for displaying the bull fights during the festival but regular tournaments are held
throughout the year at other smaller arenas. Again traditional belt wrestling exists alongside
bullfighting in the form of Ssireum, a popular folk sport played by all able bodied men for fun during
each national holiday. Strangely even with a claimed lineage of over 5000 years, it wasn’t until 1983
that a professional Ssireum tournament was established, with dual championships held each Tano
Festival in May and each Chuseok Festival in September. National champions are called the Cheonha Jang-sa, the Strongest under the Sun and in addition to prize money are awarded an expensive
trophy in the shape of an Ox. In the past champions were actually awarded a live Ox because being
the traditional beast of burden, it was considered by farmers to be the animal that was strongest
under the sun, just affirming Ssireum’s connection to So Ssa-Eum bullfighting.
In Tibet it is the Yak that is the major beast of burden and just like in other parts of China, we find
the animal used for combat displays at the annual Bainang County Festival. Like all types of bull
fighting so far mentioned, Tibetan herders are tapping into the instinctive behaviour of the Yak that
ruts during mating season. This stirs up high levels of testosterone that cause bulls to instantly go
into attack mode when confronted by a male of the same species. Not only are the Yak fights
popularly supported but traditional belt wrestling is commonly practiced across Tibet, Qinghai and
Sichuan Provinces where it is known variously as Youri, Beiga, Jiazhe, Xiezhe and Jiareze. Outside of
the Han majority these provinces are mostly populated by the Tibetan ethnic minority but they share
this space with the closely related Qiang and Naxi minorities who follow similar customs. Another
popular Tibetan sport which has some similarities to traditional belt wrestling is Yajia or Elephant
Tug o War, which sees two men facing away from each other on all fours, tied together by a long
sash then trying to force their opponents backwards so a mark on the sash crosses a mark on the
ground. The Yi or Lolo people of Yunnan who speak a language closely related to Burmese also hold
bullfighting and belt wrestling as central parts of their culture and their annual Torch Festival each
July is held to commemorate a legendary wrestler named Atilaba who fought a demon that came to
destroy mankind by killing water buffalo and bringing forth a plague of locusts to eat the crops. After
rescuing the water buffalo from the demon, Atilaba dealt with the locusts by using torches made
from pine trees and in recognition of this the Yi make big bonfires at night after celebrating during
the day with sporting events.
5
Most usually it is the water buffalo that is used as a beast of burden in Southeast Asia and again,
based on its natural behaviour, it is quite common to see these bulls fight each other. On Koh Samui
Island off the coast of the Kra Isthmus in the Gulf of Thailand, the locals have been conducting water
buffalo fights during Songkran, the Thai New Year, since time immemorial and it is one of the major
tourist attractions of Thailand. In another part of Thailand, Chon Buri Province about 70km south of
Bangkok, instead of bull fights the farmers hold water buffalo races alongside water buffalo beauty
contests and these events show how cherished the animal is. Thailand is well known for its Muay
Thai style of kickboxing and seems to be devoid of its own form of traditional grappling but just
across the border in Myanmar is a treasure trove of indigenous belt wrestling sports. Like in Thailand
the Burmese celebrate the New Year in April by having water splashing festivals but here the event is
called Thungran. As mentioned earlier, the Arakanese people of Rakhine State regularly hold Kyun
belt wrestling tournaments and in this style one wrestler uses attacking moves to try to make his
opponent fall to the ground while the other is only allowed to defend, before they swap positions in
the next round. In the Chin States Lai Paih belt wrestling is practiced in a more conventional manner
where it is regarded as the national sport and because of forced emigration, Chin refugees have
spread this style around the world. The Karenni people likewise hold tournaments in Kae Htoe Boe,
which is similar to Korean Ssireum and involves wrapping the belt around the opponent’s left thigh.
Like Myanmar the neighbouring East Indian States also have water buffalo fights and many unique
styles of belt wrestling. In Assam for example, the people have been arranging water buffalo fights
called Moh Juj during the Magh Bihu Harvest Festival in January since at least the time of the
Kamarupa Kingdom (350-1140). In Nagaland the national sport is actually a type of belt wrestling
which bring thousands of spectators to championships and the athletes are semi-professional.
Manipur also has a very popular type of belt wrestling called Mukna that is done during the National
Festival of Lai Haraoba and has a documentation of championships going back to the 16th century.
6
Mizoram has two boundary force out sports somewhat like Sumo; Inbuan has two combatants
meeting inside a 4.5m diameter circle (the same size as a Sumo dohyo) and starting with a catch
hold on the belts, aim to either lift their opponent off the ground, make them bend their knees or
force them outside the circle. The game of Insuknawr utilises the same circle but instead of a belt
the men hold on to a rod and try to push each other outside the boundary something like a reverse
Tug o War, this is actually the Mizo national sport.
Water Buffalo Fighting Festivals occur in two different locations in Vietnam, Don Son and Hai Luu,
both near Hanoi and these are major tourist draw cards bringing much needed funds to the local
economy. According to folklore these events have been celebrated since the 2nd century BCE when
Han Dynasty invaders from China tried unsuccessfully to conquer Vietnam. At the end of the combat
spectacle the animals are slaughtered to take messages to the Water Deity in heaven to bring future
successful harvests but this happens in a spirit of great sadness with many people crying over the
loss of their beloved friends, the water buffalo. Dau Vat traditional belt wrestling tournaments are
arranged in the same vicinity and have the same chronological lineage; they are especially popular in
Leui Doi Village of Ha Nam Province just south of the Red River Delta. The aim of Dau Vat is to either
lift the opponent’s feet off the ground or turn him over on his back while he is prone on the ground
and it is done with great ceremony to the accompaniment of drum and gong music.
In neighbouring Cambodia the animal is held in a similar social esteem and in Vihear Suor Village
50km northeast of Phnom Penh every September they hold popular water buffalo races during the
Festival of P’chum Ben. This event started as a pledge made hundreds of years ago to the Buddha if
he would stop an illness that was killing all the water buffalo, an absolute necessity to rural rice
farmers and because the animals stopped dying they have maintained the races ever since, except
7
for the brutal interim under the Khmer Rouge regime. Not surprisingly Baok Chambab traditional
belt wrestling is closely associated with this event and just like in Vietnamese traditional wrestling,
ceremonial music and dance is a core part of the display.
The Formosan Aboriginal people of the Island of Taiwan have used water buffalo for agriculture
since it was introduced alongside rice some 4000 years ago. Although not organised as part of a
specific festive celebration, bull fights still occur on the island and the animal is held very sacred in
folklore. As stated earlier Taiwan may be the ancestral homeland for all Austronesian cultures and
even though they now only make up 2% of the population, it was only three centuries ago that they
were the dominant force. This premise is supported by the historical Kingdom of Dadu that initially
came into conflict with the Dutch when they established a settlement at what is now Tainan City in
1624 but after the Chinese expelled the Europeans from this region forty years later the brutality
against the natives increased exponentially and the tribes that constituted the kingdom were all
exterminated by 1732. Dadu existed on the west coast and when more Han Chinese migrated to
Taiwan, the indigenous people were forced into the highlands and onto the east coast. Traditional
belt wrestling has survived amongst the south-eastern tribes and is called Mapaparfu in Bunun and
Mariworiwos in Puyuma. During the Japanese occupation attempts were made to acculturate the
natives and Sumo was introduced as an alternative activity but even though it has retained much
from this cultural mixing, Formosan traditional belt wrestling is a different sport with its own rule
sets and customs. The Philippines lie just 190km due south of Taiwan and the Formosan Tao people
of Orchard Island (formerly known as Yami) speak the same language as the Filipino Ivatan people of
the Batanes Islands. Their islands may be divided politically but culturally they still regard themselves
as kin and it is most likely via this pathway that water buffalo were introduced to Luzon, the largest
island in the Philippine archipelago.
8
Known as Kalabaw in the Philippines, by careful selective breeding it has developed into a docile
subspecies of its own but still acts in accordance to the same biological blueprint of its brethren in
other parts of Asia and bullfights called Torugpo are arranged in rural areas for entertainment. In the
Cordillera Mountains of Central Luzon live the Ifugao people, famous for building the Eighth Wonder
of the World, the 3000 year old Banawe Rice Terraces as well as four other similar structures in their
territory, which are considered National Cultural Treasures by the Philippine Government. This at
least is the Ifugao’s tangible contribution to maintaining pre-Hispanic Filipino culture but in addition
they have also kept their own intangible Hudhud epic poems alive via ceremonial chants that may be
just as old as the terraces themselves. In these stories there are many accounts of famous
strongmen who performed heroic deeds and not surprisingly the Ifugao still practice their own form
of traditional belt wrestling called Bultong. Wearing their bahag loin cloths, the Ifugao also practice
other traditional sports besides Bultong such as Tug o War, arm wrestling while laying prone, leg
wrestling and a type of downhill race on homemade wooden bicycles. More than any other group in
the Philippines the Ifugao have refused to bow to pressure to westernise and even though
traditional wrestling was once widespread across the entire islands, this seems to be the only place it
has survived. Every four years they hold an Imbayah Festival in which they display customs such as
their brass gong music and graceful dances, the next one is due in 2014. Popular Kalabaw races are
now held each September as part of the annual Pineapple Festival in Mindanao but the animal is
well known outside of the Philippines as well. They were taken to Guam by the Spanish in the 18 th
century where they have become the national symbol and also have a long presence in Indonesia
where they are called Kabau in the Malay languages.
Ma’Pasilaga Tedong or bull fighting is conducted in the Tana Toraja highlands of Central Sulawesi
Island in Indonesia as part of the Rambu Solo funerary feasts that celebrate the life of recently
deceased chieftains. In addition to bull fighting they also arrange Sisemba contests, which are a kind
of mass foot fighting competition between village youths. The Toraja hold water buffalo in great
reverence and the size of the herd is the only measure of wealth in their indigenous Aluk Faith. After
the bullfights the animals are slaughtered to provide meat for the feast and the horns are
decoratively hung outside their boat shaped Tongkonon houses. On Madura Island, off the coast of
north eastern Java, there are the Karapan Sapi bull races done with the unique Madura Cattle breed
that are continued for three months of the year at the end of which they hold traditional Okol belt
wrestling tournaments to summon the rains. Madurese Okol is only one of the Gulat Tradisional or
traditional wrestling styles of Indonesia and in a country better known for its Silat martial arts, there
are actually several different versions to look at. Bandung Province in Western Java has Benjang
9
Gulat, which although not a belt style does require forcing a competitor out of dohyo like boundary
circle, using just the shoulders to push. Surrounding these sports events are dramatic sideshows that
recount mythic events from Java’s past in colourful pantomime.
The name of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra derives from a combination of two
words, minang-victorious and kabau-buffalo. There is a legend that this originated from a territorial
dispute between the Minangkabau ancestors and a visiting dignitary. To avoid conflict the local
people proposed a death match between two water buffalo to settle the dispute. The visitor agreed
and brought out the most aggressive bull in his herd. The Minangkabau in response produced a
hungry baby buffalo with horns that had been sharpened prior to the match. Seeing the adult
buffalo across the field, the baby ran towards it hoping for milk but the bull didn’t see a threat in this
so paid no attention and instead looked around for his opponent. When the baby thrust his head
under the big bull's belly looking for an udder, the horns punctured and killed it immediately; the
Minangkabau therefore won the dispute. Bull fights are still popularly held in rice paddies in this
mountainous part of Sumatra and even the traditional rumah bagonjong houses of Minangkabau are
designed so that their roofs resemble water buffalo horns, so honoured is the animal in their society.
In neighbouring Aceh Province there is a kind of Gulat Tradisional called Geudeu Geudeu, which is
something like the game of Kabaddi and has two players facing a single opponent who has to tag
one of them before getting back to his safe zone; their job is to restrain him and they all wear
coloured wrestling belts.
Before Islam became the dominant Faith of the Indonesian archipelago the whole region was ruled
by a Hindu Empire called Majapahit. It was founded in 1293 after Kublai Khan sent a fleet of over a
thousand ships and 30,000 troops from China to control the lucrative trade pathway of the Malacca
and Sunda Straights but by both guile and military astuteness, the first Majapahit King Raden Wijaya
was able to turn them away. From the capital of Trowulan on the north east coast of Java, the
10
remarkable Elephant General Gajah Mada, who served under two monarchs, conquered a vast
territory between 1329 and 1357 encompassing all of modern Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the
Southern Philippines. The Majapahit Empire lasted until 1527 when it was defeated by the Sultanate
of Demak, forcing the Hindu aristocracy to migrate to the safe haven of Bali, bringing with them all
their high art forms. This explains why the island is now a Hindu enclave in the most populous
Muslim nation in the world and the Majapahit descendants ruled there until the Dutch Intervention
in 1908. In 1540 there was a Hindu Reformation from Bali that reconquered parts of Eastern Java,
Lombok and Sumbawa but it didn’t last long after the coming of the Dutch East India Company in
1619. Never the less Bali has retained many unique cultural traits and arranges its own water buffalo
chariot races called Mekepang and a theatrical story telling art form called Mepantigan that
culminates in a wrestling match in a water logged rice paddy. Long before Majapahit destroyed it in
1377 however, there was an earlier Buddhist Empire called Sri Vijaya that ruled from Palembang in
South Sumatra from as early as 671 and at its peak in the 11th century it dominated not just Sumatra
but also Java, Malaysia, Southern Thailand, Cambodia, Southern Vietnam, the Sulu and Visayan
Islands in the Philippines that take their name from Sri Vijaya and even across the Indian Ocean to
the island of Madagascar. We know wrestling was important to these people because they left many
depictions in their artwork from Palembang itself to Borobudur in Java.
As said earlier the Malagasy people speak Austronesian languages most closley related to dialects
from Southern Borneo but their ancestry is mixed and waves of Bantu migrants also settled the west
coast from East Africa about a thousand years ago. Although rice is the staple crop of Madagascar,
water buffalo were never used and instead Zebu cattle have become the primary beasts of burden.
Cattle raiding was a rite of passage for Malagasy men in the past and the Betsileo tribe from the
Central Highlands have developed this into sport called Savika or Tolon’omby. In the town of
Ambositra 10,000 spectators regularly pack the stadium to watch men wrestle Zebu bulls by their
humps to control them. According to Malagasy lore from the Andriambahoaka Epic, the island was
originally settled by a primitive people called Vazimba but the Creator God Zanahary sent his son
Andria Nerinerina down from heaven to rule the land and establish a more advanced culture. From
archaeology this must have happened sometime after 500BCE and even though Madagascar was in
contact with highly developed polities like Sri Vijaya, it isn’t until the reign of the founder of the
Imerina Kingdom, Andria Manelo (1540-1575) that a reliable history could be established. One of his
descendants Andria Nampoin Imerina ruled the Kingdom from 1787 till 1810 and with persistent
conquests essentially brought the whole island under his hegemony. By standardising training for his
troops he established an efficient military force and the main form of unarmed combat was a type of
kicking sport done to music called Diamanga. Historians think this sport could have been the
11
inspirational source for both French Savate, Martiniquean Danmye and even Brazilian Capoeira. In
the northern coastal regions of Antsiranana Province, the Sakalava people hold regular tournaments
in a sport called Moraingy that combines punching and kicking with some grappling but in the desert
like southern Province of Androy is where the Antandroy people have kept Ringa belt wrestling alive,
the most traditional combat sport on the island.
Strangely enough the same type of Zebu bull wrestling also occurs in Tamil Nadu, the southern most
province of India. Here the sport is called Jallikattu, a term equated with the collection of prizes
attached to the bull’s horns and it is the most popular event of the Pongal Harvest Festival in
January. Due to similarities between Madagascan Savika and Tamil Jallikattu, this most likely is the
source from where Zebu cattle were first introduced to Madagascar before being transferred across
the Mozambique Channel to East Africa about a thousand years ago. This was after all when the
Tamil Chola Empire was at its peak, ruling over both Sri Lanka and the Maldives, even laying seige to
the Sri Vijaya Empire. Jallikattu is facing much pressure in its land of origin however because in 2010
animal rights groups had successfully lobbied the state government to have the sport made illegal,
not that this had any impact on its popularity but a counter lobby argued against this ban on the
grounds of cultural continuity and it seems that a compromise may have finally been reached.
Jallikattu events are now restricted to the first five months of the year only and stricter safety
regulations for the spectators, the athletes and the bulls are now being imposed. In the end the
animal rights people don’t seem to have stopped Jallikattu but rather have made it an even more
popular tourist spectacle. Based on linguistics, Tamil Nadu is also acknowledged as the place where
Kabaddi originated. This was once a village sport designed to develop team work in young men and
requires one competitor, called a raider, to move into his oppositions 10m x 10m space to tag one of
them and then try to get back to his own team’s territory within 20 seconds while they endevour to
restrain him. Since it was displayed at the 1936 Olympics it has now become a global sport.
12
India and Pakistan are endemic with water buffalo fights and bullock cart races, despite official
sanctions against these activities. Major bullfights are held in Himachel Pradesh in the Himalayas,
Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat on the border with Pakistan, Punjab in Pakistan, Madyha Pradesh in
Central India, Karnataka and Kerala in the south west and the former Portuguese territory of Goa
where it is called Dhirio. Although illegal they still draw huge crowds, much to the frustration of the
animal rights lobby who thought it would all stop with the legal impositions. Due to the antiquity of
water buffalo fights in India and Pakistan and their entrenchment as beloved cultural activities, it will
obviously take a lot more effort than this to end them. Traditional Kushti wrestling is widely
practiced across both India and Pakistan with recent championship events held between the two
nations drawing major investment and media interest. In the Sindh Province of Pakistan however the
locals also hold Malakhra belt wrestling tournaments that draw very large crowds and are even
televised. The word Malakhra derives from a very old Sanskrit term for wrestling, Malla Krida, and
being a Muslim nation this language has not been used in Pakistan for a very long time, indicating
the antiquity of this sport in the region. Sindh Province has the greatest concentration of ruins from
the Indus Valley Civilisation, the oldest urban culture in the world and artefacts from here prove that
the sport was practiced even in that era.
The Indus Valley Civilisation has roots extending back 9000 years but reached maturity between
3300BCE and its mysterious end in 1500BCE or there abouts. There are over 400 stone seals with an
undeciphered script on them recovered from major sites like Mohenjo Daro, Harappa, Dholavira and
the ancient port city of Lothal, as well as the thousand other cities identified as belonging to this
culture, which also have depictions of both the secular and the sacred life. There are numerous
images of water buffalo and it is obvious that it was a crucial beast of burden. There is even a stone
seal of a water buffalo tossing people around with its horns that some interpret as being of a game
similar to Jallikattu, but this is open to interpretation and it may rather be a recording of a specific
mythological event. The common seal of a three faced seated yogi with buffalo horns on his head
and surrounded by animals is most often interpreted as being an early form of Shiva, what is now
called Pashupati the Lord of Cattle; this demonstrates that the water buffalo was sacred to the
people of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Yoga is still an integral part of the training regime in
traditional Kushti wrestling that helps to improve general flexibility, physical stamina and mental
toughness. Another stone seal has a figure wrestling two tigers that has similarities to the
Mesopotamian Gilgamesh motif and this shows strongman wrestlers were highly regarded in Indus
Valley lore. It also connects the Indus Valley Civilisation culturally with the Near East, demonstrating
that it did not exist in complete isolation. It must have both influenced and been influenced by a
broader world community with specialised wrestling techniques spreading across a wide geography.
13
This might also allude to the fact that professionalism for the sport was present in that era and
athletes could have potentially earned a lucrative income just through their ability as grapplers.
Intriguingly in 1990 excavations at the Dholavira site in Gujarat found a 250m long rectangular arena
between the central ceremonial complex and the main settlement area that had seated terracing
with a capacity for approximately 10,000 spectators. This is believed to be the oldest stadium in the
world and was built in around 3000BCE; it was destroyed by an earthquake a millennium later but it
is probable that people watched sporting events like bullock cart races, bull fights and even wrestling
tournaments from here. Bullock carts were used as a form of freight transportation, which is evident
from the clay and bronze models found at various Indus Valley sites, the earliest of such in the world
so were most likely used for competitive events as well. It is often noted that even though they had
elite residences none of the ancient Indus Valley settlements have what could be identified as royal
palaces and it seems that it was a relatively egalitarian society, suggesting that Indian democracy
may be more ancient than it is generally accredited. The Dholivara stadium could have acted as a
gathering point for all the city’s residents during festive occasions and these were usually seasonal
affairs. A similar stadium, also with a smaller squared amphitheatre at one end, was recently found
at the Kuran site on Pachcham Island in Kutch District of Gujarat and it is now thought that this could
have been a common aspects of Indus Valley town planning.
The water buffalo was not the exclusive beast of burden used by the ancient people of the Indus
Valley and the Mehrgarh site in Balochistan Province of Pakistan gives indication that Zebu cattle
were domesticated over 9000 years ago. Ceramic representations of Zebu are dated back to
5000BCE while later stone seals from other Indus Valley sites beautifully depict Brahman bulls in all
their grandeur. Obviously different breeds of cattle were utilised in ancient India/Pakistan and other
stone seals depict a humpless variety that was always shown with just one horn. In Hinduism cattle
are sacred animals and this seems to have been so for a very long time.
14
The Indus Valley Civilisation was in regular commercial contact with the contemporary Sumerian
Civilisation of what is now Southern Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers empty into the
Persian Gulf. Like their trading partners the Sumerians used stone seals to depict common scenes
from their world and one in particular, the Seal of Ibni-Sharrum the scribe of King Sharkalisharri,
shows domesticated water buffalo being fed some sort of beverage from 2250BCE. This might be
alcohol as is often still given to bulls before a fight to increase rage. There are several depictions of
these animals and other bovine species in Sumerian art but this just alludes to the possibility that
bullfighting was likely popularly practiced here as well. The most famous story from ancient
Mesopotamia is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was written down in cuneiform script some 4000 years
ago. Part god, part mortal, Gilgamesh was the king of the city-state of Uruk and early in the poem he
meets a wild man named Enkidu who was sent by the gods to punish the monarch for his wrong
doings. After wrestling each other in a fight that smashed several doorways in Uruk, both Gilgamesh
and Enkidu realised they were equals in strength so soon after developed a strong bond of
friendship. They went on many adventures together and in one they had to destroy the rampaging
Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven that was sent by the goddess Ishtar in vengeance for Gilgamesh’s
rejection of her advances. This story therefore recorded accounts of both bullfighting and wrestling,
which together with other clues provide strong evidence that the Near East held regular multi-event
sporting festivals. These Near Eastern athletic carnivals were held during Arah Abu, the month of the
lion in August and later came to inspire the ancient Greek Olympik Games in the 8th century BCE.
One of the centres of these ‘Gilgamesh Games’, as they are called by the Australian researcher
David Chibo, may have been the city of Tutub near modern Baghdad in which a small statuette,
known as the Khafaji Bronze, was uncovered showing two belt wrestlers in a clinch and this piece of
art is dated at 4800 years old.
The Gilgamesh Games were widespread and practiced not just by the Sumerians but also the
Babylonians, the Assyrians and the Hittites, all the superpowers of Mesopotamia. Being the closest
to Greece it was most likely the Anatolian Hittites that had the most sway over Hellenic cultures and
this is suggested by a ceramic vase found at Hüseyindede Tepe in the Sungurlu district of Turkey's
Çorum Province, an early Hittite site 3900 years old. In the top band of the vase is a depiction of the
15
festivities surrounding a bull leaping event, with musicians contributing to the celebration. Hittites
also recorded several other sporting events in their documents such as archery contests, chariot
races, heavy stone throwing events, boxing and wrestling tournaments held in front of statues of
their deities as votive offerings and the word they most often used for wrestling was Hulhuliya.
There was however another word that was sometimes used as a synonym, Kit Palu, which means to
entwine, wind around or embrace and not only does this allude to the possibility that a wrestling
belt was used but it is very reminiscent of the Greek word for wrestling Palaio.
Bull leaping scenes are also found at Avaris in Egyptian Nile Delta, which was the capital city under
the rule of the Hyksos Dynasty 1783-1500BCE. Apis was a popular Egyptian deity considered the
most important of all the sacred animals and there were many expensive tombs built for mummified
bulls that represented the god. This is because Apis symbolised the powerful virility of the pharaoh
and carried the sun disc in his horns, ushering in each new day. The Egyptians conducted bullfights
for entertainment as they often recorded on their tomb walls and the Greek historian Strabo left an
account of one he witnessed at the Apis Temple in Memphis in the 1st century BCE but more than
any other pastime they loved their wrestling. There are innumerable depictions of the sport ranging
from small figurines to large frescoes and this shows wrestling was incredible popular throughout
the entire period of ancient Egyptian history. According to myth the gods Horus and Seth wrestled in
the heavens for the souls of men, so the sport was always imbued with a sense of sacredness. The
most famous depiction of Egyptian wrestling is from Tomb 15 at the Beni Hasan cemetery at elMinya in Middle Egypt. Dating from the era of the provincial governor Baquet III in around 1990BCE,
it shows a mural with over 200 pairs of belt wrestlers in combat giving great detail on how the sport
was conducted at that time.
The reconstructed bull leaping fresco from Avaris was no doubt based on Minoan art and shows that
the networks of this Aegean maritime power reached far and wide. The Palace of Knossos in Crete
has many depictions of bull leaping and there was even a stadium constructed in the complex for
16
displaying the sport. The idea has been put forward that the bull was worshipped in Crete because
the violent earthquakes this volcanic island witnessed were reminiscent of being shaken around on
the horns of the bull god. It seems probable that the Minoans were influenced by the Hittites of
Anatolia to their north-east and bull leaping was just one of the customs they acquired. The ruins of
Akrotiri on the island of Santorini in the Aegean were buried under rubble from the Thera eruption
in 1600BCE, which excellently preserved many of the Minoan style mural paintings, one of which
shows two boys practicing a sport that combined boxing and wrestling. With gloved right hands only
and wrestling belts it appears to be a forerunner of the ancient Greek sport of Pankration.
Training obviously began at an early age and there are several indicators to show that the Minoan
combat sport was conducted as a professional event. Another small statuette found in Crete shows a
boy carrying a ram on his shoulders and this is still a common prize given to wrestlers in rural parts
of the Middle East and Europe, clearly demonstrating that athletes were rewarded for their effort.
The Boxer Rhyton is a conical stone vase from the Hagia Triada site that has scenes of both bull
leaping and the Minoan combat sport etched on its surface, displaying the muscular bodies of the
athletes who are also seen sometimes wearing protective helmets. The object of the sport was
evidently simply to knock the opponent over and the fact it is associated with bull leaping
demonstrates that the combined events were part of a mass spectacle.
The story of Theseus and the Minotaur is the most famous ancient Greek account of the Minoan
Empire and this tells us that the bullfighting symbolism was remembered long after the collapse of
the civilisation in 1500BCE. Minoan bull leaping has a contemporary counterpart in the form of
Course Landaise cow leaping from Gascony in Southern France. With a documented history going
back to 1457, unlike the better known Corrida de Toros bullfights of Spain and Latin America, the
aim of the Course Landaise is not to kill the animal but simply avoid it as it charges and this often
involves spectacular leaps, just like in ancient Crete. Tauroctony or the killing of a sacred bull was
central to the rites of the pre-Christian Roman religion of Mithraism and it was the Romans who
17
turned Tauromachia or bull killing into a grand spectacle. The Coliseum in Rome could seat 50,000
spectators and was the largest non chariot racing stadium in the ancient world but Tauromachia was
not the only event displayed here. In fact it was only a small part of the Ludi Gladiatori or
Gladiatorial Games and seeing men fight to the death was a much more popular show.
The Corrida de Toros of Spain is the best known of all the bullfights worldwide and whenever the
word is mentioned this is immediately what springs to most people’s minds. Similar forms of
bullfighting were practiced by Celt-Iberian pastoralists around their Castro hill forts as early as the 6th
century BCE but with the fall of their last stronghold in 133BCE (the city of Numantia located in
North Central Spain), the Romans took complete control of the Iberian Peninsula and maintained
Tauromachia as part of the Ludi Gladiatori; even the 5th century Visigoth and 8th century Islamic
conquests had little impact on its practice. In 1726 the ritual was formalised as we know it today and
not long after this the first major stadium dedicated just to Corrida de Toros was constructed in
Seville in Southern Spain, prior to this they were held in old Roman amphitheatres. Although it
shares a common origin in the Hispano-Celtic people, the indigenous form of belt wrestling, Lucha
Leonesa, gives a very different spectacle to its audience. Done on open fields within the boundary of
a 15m diameter circle, it is mandatory that the luchadors be barefoot and they must wear a 3cm
wide leather belt around their waist, which is used for all holds. It is suggested that the wrestling
contests started as a way to settle disputes between cattle herders over grazing rights and the
custom was widespread not just in Castile & Leon but also in Extremadura, Asturias, Galicia and
Northern Portugal. In 1930 all these rural wrestling competitions came under the jurisdiction of the
Federacion de Lucha Leonesa, which has codified a standard set of rules and organised
championships ever since.
In Corrida de Toros the toreadors work in teams to weaken the bull through skilful displays on
horseback and foot before it is finally killed by a matador with a sword thrust at the end of the ritual.
Corrida de Toros has spread to the former Spanish colonies in Latin America such as Mexico,
18
Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. Mexico City actually has the largest bullfighting stadium in the world
in the Plaza Mexico, which has a seating capacity almost as big as the ancient Roman Coliseum but
Spanish bullfighting is facing a similar crisis to the bullfights in India. It has been outlawed in the
Argentina since 1899, Cuba since 1910, Uruguay since 1912, the Canary Islands since 1991, Catalonia
since 2010 and Ecuador since 2011, echoing the era of the Vatican bans in 1567 or when King Philip
outlawed it throughout Spain during his reign 1700-1724. There are nearly 100 cities worldwide that
declare themselves ‘Anti-Bullfighting’ with an animal rights movement called ‘Antitaurina’ aimed at
eliminating its practice globally. Since 2008 bullfights are no longer televised live on Spanish TV and
unless it adapts, due to this pressure Spanish bullfighting may yet see its inevitable end.
In the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique there is a magnificent bull fighting arena, the Praca
de Touros, in the Capital Maputo (formerly known as Lourenço Marques) that was built in 1950 and
used regularly until independence in 1975. The structure has subsequently fallen into disrepair due
to neglect but the rare photos above are actually of a bullfight held in Africa in the 1960s. The
Portuguese Corridas de Touros is different to its Spanish counterpart and is divided into two phases;
the spectacle of the cavaleiro in which horsemen riding specially trained Lusitano stallions stab small
javelins into the back of the bull, which is then followed by the pega in which a group of eight men
called the forcados, challenge the bull directly without weapons. The front man provokes the bull
into charging to perform a pega de cara or face catch, then takes hold of its head and is quickly aided
by his colleagues who secure the animal until it is subdued. The bull is not killed in the ring and it has
been considered immoral to bring death as a public spectacle in Portugal since 1836 but not legally
enforced until 1928.
Oman is an independent state on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula but from 1508 till
1648 it was part of the Portuguese Empire. Some historians think this is the reason that Omani
bullfighting is such a popular activity in the countryside today but it is conducted very differently to
the Corridas de Touros. Omani bullfights are more similar to the buffalo fights of India and Pakistan
19
in which the animals are pitted against each other rather than against men, except here they use an
indigenous breed of Brahman bulls. Actually nobody knows how old this custom is and according to
folklore it has just been played by the Omani ancestors since time immemorial or at least since Zebu
cattle were first introduced to the region. Across the border in the United Arab Emirates they also
hold bullfights but it is not as popular a pastime as it is in Oman. The UAE however has contributed
greatly to the international wrestling scene by sponsoring the most prestigious tournament, the
ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships. The competition was created by Sheik Tahnoon
Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 1998 to find the best tap out specialists in the world and so far he seems to
have succeeded, attracting high profile champions from the USA, Brazil, Japan and Russia.
Similar to the Omani bullfights, Bangladesh also uses Brahman bulls to do battle and this may be
from where the cattle were first brought to the Arabian Peninsula. Called Shar-er Larai, these
bullfights are very popular in rural parts across the country and this appears to have been the case
for a very long time. In Chittagong Province in Eastern Bangladesh, the traditional Jabbar-er Boli
Khela or ‘Game of the Strongmen’ has been held in the first month of the Bangla year as part of the
three-day Baishakhi Fair since 1909. The contest gets its name from a local merchant Abdul Jabbar
Sawdagor who introduced this competition with an aim to motivate and organise the local youth.
The sport itself is obviously much older but this particular event is the largest traditional wrestling
competition in the country and rivals the bullfights in spectator numbers.
The Portuguese did leave a cultural trace on the island of Pemba in Tanzania, which even today
conducts its own version of bullfighting and were in control of the island until 1698, when the
Zanzibar Archipelago fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman. The Pemba bullfights are
similar to Corridas de Touros and involve men trying to provoke then dodge hornless bulls as they
charge. These bullfights are always preceded by men having stick fights against each other and it is
20
bravado that is most highly prized in both activities. The Portuguese had a strong presence in East
Africa from the 16th till the 20th century but it was the Belgians that dominated Central Africa for
most of its recent history. While the big city of Kinshasa/Brazzaville with its 12 million inhabitants
promotes a theatrical form of professional wrestling using bizarre voodoo imagery, known as Catch
Congolaise, other parts of the Congo are reviving a very old custom in the form of Kobubu belt
wrestling. Focused mainly at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s third largest city of Kisangani,
which is located at the last navigable point along the Congo River from the Atlantic Coast over
2000km away. When Henry Morton Stanley established a trading post here in 1883 he saw the
Wagenya people fishing at Boyoma Falls from wooden scaffolding perched precariously right over
the waterfall itself. Despite witnessing some of the worst atrocities of European colonisation,
decades of corruption under the parasitic Mobutu regime and more recently the horror of the
African World War from 1998-2002, which saw 5.4 million causalities, the Wagenya have persisted
with their traditions and kept their culture alive. Using jungle vines to wrap around the waist, the
aim of Kobubu to simply topple the opponent but the membership in this activity has now reached
several thousand, with regular competitions held every weekend throughout the year and
demonstrations of this traditional sport have been given as far away as France, Spain and Italy.
Mayo bullfighting in Western Province Kenya is a traditional sport of the Luhya People and is central
to their Kakemaga Olympics. This event also includes Efikuti bullfighting dances done to the beat of
Isukuti bull skin drum music and produces a spectacular show. The Luhya bulls are often named after
world leaders and it is the only place you can actually watch Saddam Hussein battle directly against
George Bush for world supremacy. Cattle were first introduced into Central Africa, along with
pottery and iron working with the Urewe Civilisation over 2600 years ago, spreading out from Lake
Victoria to encompass Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Therefore the people of these regions share a common cultural heritage and this is where
the Bantu expansions began before taking pastoralism across the savannahs of Central and Southern
Africa; wherever there are bulls, there is bullfighting and this is most spectacularly seen in the long
horned cattle breeds of this part of the world. In the Buganda Kingdom in Central Uganda the
custom of traditional Ekigwo wrestling has been revived since the restoration of the 36th Kabaka to
the throne, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, in 1993. Henry Morton Stanley travelled through these
regions in 1875 and found a populous kingdom with a powerful monarch who controlled a standing
army numbering in the several hundred thousand. He said there was also a large fleet of war canoes
on Lake Victoria that could transfer commandos anywhere the Kabaka required and the Lubiri Palace
capital on Lubago Hill in Kampala hosted regular wrestling tournaments for determining the
strongest warriors in the kingdom, so the sport is very traditional in this part of the world.
21
Bullfights also occur in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the photo above was taken at the village of Granice,
about 80 km from the capital of Sarajevo. Thousands of Bosnians gather together every May to
August to watch traditional bullfights during Korida Festivals, which are organised in many places
across the Balkans. The name Korida is a modern invention used for marketing purposes to associate
these bullfights with the Spanish ones, but rather than man versus beast, these are more like the
Kenyan Mayo bullfights mentioned previously. The most common local name of these events is
Bodljavina Bikova or bull pricking and the most famous one is the Grmečka Korida of the northwestern part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, usually held in August as the last event of the bullfighting
season. Narodno Rvanje translates directly as ‘folk wrestling’ in the Serbian language and like
bullfighting is an ages old custom in the Former Yugoslav Republics. There are variations of the sport
practiced in different regions but the most common styles are the bare catch hold seen in the
picture above, similar to the Scottish Backhold style in which the wrestlers must grasp each other
with arms interlocked before the start of the fight and the belt catch hold, which is essentially the
same except all holds are maintained on the belt, similar to Lucha Leonesa.
The French speaking Valais Canton of Southern Switzerland holds a series of unique event known as
Combats de Reines or the Queen Fights, which can draw as many as 50,000 spectators. Unlike all the
other bovine combat spectacles mentioned so far, these are not fought by bulls but by cows. At the
end of the cow fighting season, a kind of grand finale is held in Martigny City between the six best
from each of the weight categories coming from the seven districts and they fight against each other
for the title of La Reine des Reines. Apparently similar contests are held in the neighbouring Aosta
Valley of Italy and the Haute-Savoie Department of France, with title records going back to 1920.
22
Switzerland is better known for its Alpine Festivals that feature Alpenhorn and Yodelling music
alongside the traditional sports of Steintossen or heavy stone throwing, Hornussen or long distance
ball hitting and Schwingen or swinging an opponent by his breeches. Traditional Swiss wrestling
probably goes back to the time when the Celtic Helvetii tribe dominated the region and therefore
shares a common heritage with Lucha Leonesa but the main language used in the sport today is
Swiss German. The Eidgenössisches Schwing- und Älplerfest is held every three years to determine
the Schwingerkonig or King of Schwingen and the sawdust fighting circles bring crowds of 80,000 to
witness these events. Although forbidden to accept direct payment, champion Schwingers are
awarded prize cattle and decorative cow bells, alluding to the pastoral heritage of the sport.
The silver Gundestrup Cauldron was found in a Danish peat bog in 1891 and is dated to the 1st
century BCE. It has several depictions of the ancient Celtic hallowed realm and one plate (plate D)
has images of a sacrificial slaughter of bulls by men using swords, looking just like matadors in
Corrida de Toros. Another plate (plate g) has what looks like the Gilgamesh motif with a man
wrestling a lion and the best interpretation of all this iconography relates it to Irish fables of Cu
Chullain and the Cattle Raid of Cooley. Plate A is one of the most mysterious and shows an antlered
deity sitting in a yogic posture surrounded by wild animals. Consesus of interpretations says it is
most likely the Celtic horned god Cernunnos but for anyone who has viewed this image it is hard not
to find comparison with the buffalo horned Pashupati figure on the Indus Valley stone seals
mentioned earlier in this article. It is likely that the Gundestrup Cauldron was made by Thracian
craftsmen, thus connecting the Celtic people of Western Europe with the Cimmerians, an Aryan
people originally from Ukraine, explaining how the symbolism could be so similar to that of Asia. The
cauldron itself was most likely used for magical rites and plate E indicates that this may have been
for the resurrection of the dead. What this artefact clearly demonstrates for our purpose is that the
bull was sacrosanct to Celtic people and we know that belt wrestling has been practiced since the
foundation of their culture. Besides Lucha Leonesa of Spain, Narodno Rvanje of Serbia and
Schwingen of Switzerland that have already been discussed, Celtic wrestling is also practiced
extensively in the British Isles and medieval images of the sport show men with sash like belts
wound around each others torsos. It is thought Scottish Backhold may have evolved from this sport
and only modified in the 18th century when the Great Kilt, which was draped over one shoulder,
stopped being worn and was replaced by the English designed Small Kilt that is most commonly seen
today. In Cornwall the opposite happened and the wrestling sash grew into the wrestling jacket that
today is the most recognisable aspect of this sport. Interestingly the shoulder sash is still the prize
awarded to champions at Cornish Wrestling tournaments.
23
Artvin is a city in north-western Turkey near the border with Georgia and is known for its Kafkasör
Festival that has included bullfighting for longer than anyone can remember. In a country better
known for its Kirkpinar Festival of oil wrestling, Turkish bullfighting is actually growing a large
following and the Kafkasör Festival includes many sideshows such as traditional dance troupes
ornamented in local costume, folk music concerts and traditional wrestling competitions. Held on
third week of June, bulls come from all parts of the province and are categorized according to the
thickness of their necks and their weight. Like other places that conduct similar sports, although the
bulls do catch horns, push and occasionally toss each other to the ground, they are never critically
hurt and as pastoralists already know it is just tapping into their instinctive behaviour. Turkey is
actually home to five different styles of folk wrestling besides Yagli Gures oil wrestling with one,
Salvar Gures, resembling Swiss Schwingen and another, Aba Gures, Cornish jacket wrestling.
Traditional belt wrestling, somewhat like the game played in medieval Britain, is called Kusak Gures
and is widely practiced by Turkic people right across Central Asia. Known as Alysh in Kyrgyzstan and
Köräş in Russian Tatarstan, it is central to the celebrations of the Sabantuy Spring Festivals in the
Ural Mountains. Although as a traditional sport it has existed for millennia, since 1959 it has steadily
grown in organisation until it could claim a global following and the first annual Belt Wrestling world
championships were held in 2001.
Çatalhöyük was a very large settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately
7500BCE to 4900BCE. It is the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date and held a
population as high as 10,000 individuals. The site of Çatalhöyük is located overlooking a plain of
wheat fields southeast of the city of Konya in Turkey, approximately 140 km from the twin-coned
volcano of Mount Hasan. The eastern settlement forms a mound which would have risen above the
plain at the time of occupation but there is also a smaller settlement mound to the west and a
Byzantine era settlement a few hundred meters to the east. A channel of the Çarşamba River once
24
flowed between the two older mounds and the settlement was built on alluvial soil which may have
been favourable for early agriculture. Çatalhöyük gives hints that it was one of the first places in the
world to domesticate wheat and possibly the earliest to domesticate cattle. Some of the rooms
within the complex acted as temples with shrines dedicated to some sort of bull worship. Not only
was the animal highly prized for its food production and maybe as a beast of burden but it was
actually considered a deity. Wall mural artwork from Çatalhöyük that is most often interpreted as
depicting a bull hunt, could easily be reinterpreted as being of a bullfight and it is no wonder that
this part of Turkey later gave the world the sport of bull leaping, as recorded in Hittite ceramics 1000
years after the demise of Çatalhöyük. There are some indications that cattle corrals were formed at
the edge of the township and these could have easily acted as small stadiums used for witnessing
spectacles such as bullfights. So far no images of wrestling have been found at Çatalhöyük but
considering only one acre of the 32 acre site has so far been excavated, this is not surprising and
something may be found in a future dig.
Çatalhöyük is not the oldest ancestral site in Turkey and the Göbekli Tepe ceremonial centre near
Şanlıurfa in south-eastern Anatolia dates back nearly 12,000 years. To put this in context Göbekli
Tepe reaches much further back in time from the building of Stonehenge than Stonehenge does
from our time. The discovery of this site stunned archaeologists and has rewritten history books
because it shows human beings were creating monumental architecture at a time once regarded as
the Old Stone Age. The oldest life sized human statue was uncovered at Göbekli Tepe and is known
as Balikli Gol or the Snowman, which may be a deity, a priest or a warrior but considering when it
was created, the level of artistic achievement is astounding. The site mainly features monumental Tshaped pillars that have anthropomorphic symbols sculptured into their surface, with arms and
hands depicted on their sides and are arranged in circles throughout the site. A taller pair of pillars
standing in the centre of each circle could have acted as roof supports, giving each one the
appearance of a great house. Some of the pillars are blank, while others are adorned with elaborate
petroglyphs of wild felines, boars, vultures, scorpions, spiders and snakes. Bulls are present in the
Göbekli Tepe imagery and whether this indicates an even earlier phase of domestication is unknown
at present but only four of the twenty or so circles have been excavated and many new discoveries
can be expected from this site. It is estimated that it remained a major cult centre for about 6000
years, making its last phases contemporary with Çatalhöyük. Anatolia then seems a likely place that
cattle domestication began and this must have happened more than 10,000 years ago. This at least
is the case for the humpless Bos Taurus subspecies but as discussed earlier the site of Mehrgahr in
the Indus Valley has clear signs in the form of ceramic artwork and archaeological remains that the
25
humped Zebu or Bos Indicus subspecies was also domesticated approximately 9000 years ago,
showing an independent development in this form of herd agriculture. Studies on mitochondrial
DNA show that there was a parallel domestication of Bos Taurus that occurred on the East Asian
Steppe with the Turano-Mongolian type of cattle over 8000 years ago and it is from this that the
famous Japanese wagyu beef originates. The Bos Mutus or Himalayan Yak likewise experienced an
independent domestication many thousands of years ago although exactly when is still to be
determined.
The continent Africa however is giving the greatest surprises when it comes to indications of the
earliest identifiable domestication of cattle. Nabta Playa is a site in the Nubian Desert of south
western Egypt, near the borders of Libya and Sudan, which has complex astronomically aligned
stone circles that were constructed from before 7000BCE. From about 11,000 years ago this now
sandy desert region received regular monsoonal rainfall, so much so that a depression in the
landscape filled creating a large lake, attracting people from the surrounding regions to permanently
settle in what was then a fertile zone. In addition to the calendrical stone circles, Napta Playa also
has some of the oldest pottery in the world, telltale signs of settlements that seem exceedingly large
for their time and the remnants of indigenous cattle that were sacrificially buried in underground
stone roofed crypts. There is even a large sandstone block buried under one of these cattle graves
that was roughly sculptured into the shape of a bovine.
The people of Napta Playa were part of a larger ethnic grouping that extended right across what is
now the Sahara Desert and other megalithic sites have been found belonging to the Capsian Culture,
the ancestors of the indigenous Amazigh or Berber people of North Africa. Some of the best
depictions of this unique civilisation are found on a plateau in the Tassilli n’Ajjer mountain range on
the Libya, Algeria and Niger border; amongst the 15,000 or so petroglyphs many show that Bos
26
Taurus cattle were domesticated. Even though it is impossible to pinpoint the exact dating, by
examination of fossil evidence it can be estimated that most of this artwork was created from
12,500 years ago during the Holocene Subpluvial era when the area was a lush savannah. The
earliest period of Saharan rock art is called the Bubaline phase and is named after the long extinct
Pelorovis Antiquus species of African buffalo that is so often shown in the petroglyphs. With its long
horns it looked very similar to the Asian water buffalo and may have even served a similar ecological
niche. Some artwork gives clues that this animal was not only hunted but could have even been
tamed and possibly even interbred with cattle to create the iconic African long horned breeds. One
of the more beautiful pieces from Tassili n’Ajjer is from the Ti-n-Tazarift site that shows a scene in
which tethered cattle are displayed before a gathering of people and in the upper corner of the
painting it looks like a wrestling match is about to take place between two boys. This may be the
oldest depiction of the sport from anywhere in the world.
Nabta Playa is suspected to be the mother site that stimulated later developments with Egyptian and
Nubian civilisations and this came about with the desertification of the Sahara starting some 5000
years ago, forcing people to emigrate from their formerly green pastures to settle along the Nile
River Valley, bringing with them their advanced cultural practices. This included their cattle herding
habits and all those scenes of bullfighting shown in Egyptian tomb art mentioned earlier, may
actually find their genesis in what is now the world’s largest desert. Cattle were most probably the
earliest form of currency and herd size was the clearest indication of wealth. This seems to have
been the case at the site of Kerma, along the Nile River in the Nubian region of North Sudan.
Evidence of occupation at this site extends back 9500 years but from about 3000BCE urbanisation
began in earnest and Kerma soon developed into the largest city in Sub-Saharan Africa. With its huge
Deffufa temple precincts surrounded by mud brick walls Kerma displayed a unique architectural
tradition and the king’s audience hall looked like a very large version of a typical round African hut.
Some of the royal burial mounds found on the outskirts of the city’s perimeter were huge, 15m high
30m wide and required an enormous workforce for their construction. The royal entourage were
always entombed with the monarch with one tumulus having 400 additional skeletons but even
more significantly for this article, another had over 4500 head of cattle buried with the king as a
display of his prosperity. We know that wrestling was an important cultural pastime for the Nubian
people because several pieces of artwork found in both Nubia itself and Egypt demonstrate this
point and also show continuity with the wrestling style practiced by the Nuba Hill tribes of the
Kordofan region of North Sudan that still hold regular tournaments in Khartoum.
27
The Kingdom of Kerma lasted from 2450BCE till it was crushed by Egyptian forces under King
Thutmose I in 1520BCE. With the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt however about half a
millennium later, the Nubians had a chance to regroup and during the reign of King Kashta in
760BCE, they actually installed themselves as the 25th Dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs. They effectively
ruled the entire Nile Valley for the next century until pushed out of Egypt by an Assyrian invasion
from Mesopotamia in 650BCE. During this period many traditional Egyptian customs were
strengthened and merged with those of Nubia, so it is thought that bullfighting may have reached its
peak in popularity with major festivities held at all cult centres. Always closely associated with
bullfighting was wrestling and as shown in the replica sketch above, Nubian depictions of the sport
are very reminiscent of photographs taken of the Nuba Hill tribes in more contemporary times. In
the background of this etching on a limestone slab, two long horned cattle are shown along with a
dog, a woman and a referee holding a stick; this scene is easily replicated by contemporary images of
either Nuba wrestling in North Sudan or Dinka wrestling and South Sudan.
Most people assume that there is only one style of Nuba wrestling but the truth is each tribal group
not only has its own rule variation but the Kordofan Province also has multiple indigenous languages
used by the different Nuba tribes and rather than being a single ethnicity, they are really just an
enclave of cultural survivalists that have grouped together over the last two centuries to escape
slave raiders from other parts of Sudan. Wrestling has been used as a way of controlling hostilities
between young men (before episodes of agression could escalate into violence) and intervillage
tournaments are an obsession in the region. Some Nuba tribes wrestle completely naked with just
simple body decorations made from white acacia ash mixed with cows milk marked on their skin
while others utilise wrestling belts, like in the photo above. Still other groups use elaborate kilts
made of layers of fabric with calabash gourds tied to their ends and other fetishes worn on the body.
The Dinka people have again embraced traditional wrestling after decades of civil war and it is now
one of the most popular sports in the newly created country. With their leopard skin kilts, Dinka Riaŋ
Ajor wrestling is an umistakable ethnic identifier and alongside their unique breed of longhorned
cattle this sport seems to have jumped right out of ancient artwork.
28
As suggested it is thought that the African longhorn breeds of cattle such as the famous AnkoleWatusi of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda may be descendants of cross breeding experiments with the
now extinct Pelorovis Antiquus long horned African buffalo of the Sahara. Nobody knows for certain
if this actually occurred, there is just not enough genetic information about this animal to state
conclusively but it does help to explain this peculiar adaptation. According to mitochondrial DNA
studies Zebu genes have been mixed with indigenous African cattle for nearly 4000 years but exactly
how this event occurred no one is sure. Mariners must have brought the Bos Indicus subspecies to
Southern Arabia, Ethiopia and Sudan a very long time ago with all surviving African breeds now
having this mix. Bovines are generally classified into the following genus; 1. Bos which includes the
Aurochs with all their 800 or so domestic descendants (both Taurus and Indicus subspecies), the
Banteng or Bali Cattle, the Gaur which is the largest of all bovines, the Yak or hairy cattle of the
Himalayas and the endangered Kouprey of Vietnam; 2. Syncerus or African buffalo such as the Cape
Buffalo, the Forest Buffalo, the Mountain Buffalo, the Sudanese Buffalo, the Nile Buffalo and the
already mentioned extinct Saharan Buffalo; 3. Bison such as the American Buffalo and the
European Wisent; 4. Bubalus or the Asian Water Buffalo, along with the Tamaraw and the Anoa;
and 5. Saola a rare and only recently discovered species in Vietnam. There has been hybridisation
between these animals going on for millennia and the Banteng has been bred with Bos Taurus to
create Madura Cattle, the Gaur with Bos Indicus to create the Gayal, the Yak with Bos Indicus to
create the Dzo, the Yak with American Buffalo to create the Yakalo, the American Buffalo with Bos
Taurus to create Cattalo and the European Wisent also with to Bos Taurus to create the Zubron.
All domestic cattle breeds ultimately find a common ancestor in the Auroch or Bos Primigenius,
which was a huge wild bovine that if ancient artwork is any indicator must have awed early man.
Julius Caesar wrote about them and said they were "a little below the elephant in size and of the
29
appearance, colour and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare
neither man nor wild beast which they have espied." Aurochsen were widespread in their habitat
ranging over nearly all of Eurasia and North Africa in prehistory but the species initially evolved in
the Indian Subcontinent some 2 million years ago. Over time several subspecies came about and the
three major branches correspond to the domestication of cattle breeds mentioned earlier; the
Eurasian subspecies that ranged from the British Isles to Korean Peninsula, the Indian subspecies
that further developed in the Subcontinent and the North African subspecies that once lived in the
Sahara. After domestication and with overhunting the last pure Auroch died in Poland in 1627,
despite nearly seven decades of prior conservation measures designed to protect them. In the 1920s
two German brothers, Heinz and Lutz Heck, started an animal husbandry program from their zoos in
Berlin and Munich to bring the species back from extinction, successfully creating a new breed called
Heck’s Cattle that looks very similar to the ancient Auroch. Incidentally the Heck brothers are also
responsible for saving the European Bison from complete extinction in the 1930s by using similar
breeding programs but by utilising stock from the toro bravo breed used for Spanish bullfights,
Heck’s Cattle are known to be particularly aggressive, which is very much like their ancestor.
The 15,000 year old Altimira Cave Paintings in Cantabria have depictions of Auroch bulls and
charging bison but similar art is found throughout Northern Spain, Portugal and Southern France;
some of this art stretches back nearly 35,000 years to the time of the Aurignacian cultural phase that
spanned nearly all of Western Europe. Even though not domesticated, cattle still played an
important role in the mindsets of the earliest European people and the power of the beast was
obviously admired. As already stated Corrida de Toros is not the only type of bullfighting in the
Iberian Peninsula and besides the Corridas de Touros of Portugal and the Course Landaise of
Southern France that have been described, there are other versions as well. For example there is the
Recortes style of Navarre and La Rioja in Northern Spain that involves athletes trying to grab small
prizes from the bulls horns while at the same time performing acrobatic leaps to avoid being gored.
Eighteenth century depictions show that a pole was sometimes used to assist in these evasive
manoeuvres but regardless of what style is being watched, they all provide incredible spectacles.
One commonality shared between these bull evasion styles and most of the cave art mentioned
above is that they both originate in and around Euskal Herria or Basque Country on the western side
of Pyrenees Mountains. These sports more than likely evolved from local customs like the famous
Encierro or Running of the Bulls at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona Navarre in which bulls are
freed to charge through the streets of the city with young men testing their bravado by running in
front of these dangerous animals. As yet nobody has been able to tell why this habit is so
entrenched in Basque culture but it shows they have had a long association with cattle.
30
Euskal Herria includes the Autonomous Communities of the Basque People and Navarre in Spain
along with the Northern Basque Country in France, stretching from the Atlantic coast on the Bay of
Biscay in the western Pyreness to Aragon in the east.The Euskaldunak people speak a very ancient
linguistic isolate that predates the incursion of Indo-European languages into the Europe and it is
estimated by some to be so old that it survives from Aurignacian times. If this is so then their
language was once spoken right throughout the Iberian Peninsula and there are sites that seem to
archeologically support this premise. The Toros de Guisando are a set of ancient cattle sculptures
located on a hill in the municipality of El Tiemblo, Avila, Spain. Nobody knows the age of these
zoomorphic statues or the hundreds of other Verraco megaliths scattered throughout Spain and
Portugal but in Euskaldunak lore Aatxegorri is the spirit of a young red bull who dwells in caves and
at night arises from his lair to attack criminals and other malevolent people. He is thought to be a
representation of the earth mother goddess Mari, or maybe an enforcer of her will, punishing
people who break her laws. Although most often attributed to Celt-Iberian artists, it is possible that
the Toros de Guisando sculptures may be images of Aatxegorri and his assistants in stone put there
to remind ancient people to always do the right thing. The ancestors of the Euskaldunak must have
been the builders of the other pre-Celtic megalithic monuments scattered throughout Western
Europe and this is affirmed by their indigenous sports. There are 18 official rural sports or Herri
Kirolak that include events such as Sokatira (tug-of-war), Harri Jasoketa (heavy stone-lifting) and
Gizon Probak (stone block pulling with human or animal teams); these all allude to working with
quarried stone. The Euskaldunak also practice a type of belt wrestling called Barroka, which could
possibly be the oldest combat sport in Europe. In this style competitors must force their opponents
backwards across a line marked about 2 metres from the centre of the rectangular pitch, all done to
quick rhythms kept on the txalaparta traditional xylophone. It has some likeness to traditional
Japanese belt wrestling Sumo but is more similar to the Hungarian sport of Grundbirkozas or Javan
Benjang Gulat and the way it is played is actually very reminiscent of how bulls fight each other.
Basque myth also tells of the Jentilak or Hairy Giants (sometimes called Basajaunak) that were said
to have built the earliest megaliths but these people ended up vanishing underground when they
31
saw a new star in the sky, which has most often been interpreted as the birth of Jesus and the
coming of Christianity. The only remnant was a man named Olentzero who has become a Santa
Clause like character that brings presents to children at Christmas time. It is speculated by some
however that this story may actually be a Euskaldunak collective memory of the Neanderthal people,
once again implying the antiquity of their culture and a more detailed study of their folklore could
probably shed light on the deeper meaning of cave art in the region. According to an archeological
theory, the ancient Euskaldunak culture belonged to a broader grouping often called the Old
European Civilisation and they were making complex technological advancements earlier than the
people of the Middle East. This included such things as the domestication of plants and animals with
cattle herding connecting them with the neighbouring Capsian Culture of Morocco in North Africa
some 12,000 years ago. In about 4500BCE the European continent was hit by a series of invasions
from nomadic horse riding people who originally came from what is now Ukraine. In addition to their
aggressive equine battle tactics, they brought with them their Indo-European languages and their
method of interring warlords in large burial mounds; because of this they are referred to as the
Kurgan Cultures. The Kurgans swept through the entire continent from east to west replacing the
older worshippers of mother earth to eventually become the Celtic Cultures and the Euskaldunak
were the only survivors of what could be called a continental cultural holocaust. There is certainly a
juxtaposition between the bullfighting methods of the Euskaldunak, which are based on evading the
animal as it charges thus metaphorically capturing its power and the later Celt-Iberian cult of bull
killings, which was further developed under the Romans to inevitably become Spanish bullfighting as
we know it today. Never the less this all proves that bullfighting in one form or another has been
part of Iberian culture for a very long time.
There is one domesticated bovine species that still needs to be more thoroughly addressed by this
article however and this animal is no less important to early human cultures than any of the others
so far mentioned. Much like what happened to the Auroch, the Bubalis Arnee or Wild Water
Buffalo is on the verge of extinction with pure stock restricted to a few locations in the East Indian
States, Nepal, Bhutan, the northern parts of Myanmar and Cambodia. The major difference between
the Wild Water Buffalo and the 20 or so domestic breeds that have been developed from it is
mostly in size with the wild ones being much bigger and more aggressive towards humans. Nobody
has yet pinpointed an exact origin for domestication but like the cattle breeds this could have
concurrently happened in several different locations. Certainly the Indian River Buffalo are more
productive milkers as mozzarella cheese aficionados will attest while the Southeast Asian Swamp
Buffalo are stronger draught animals. Due to this animal’s economic value its range has spread far
beyond that of its wild ancestor and from Southern Asia it has been established as far west as the
Nile Valley since antiquity and subsequently on every continent except Antarctica. One of the oldest
pieces of artwork depicting a Domesticated Water Buffalo was found in Lopburi Province Thailand
and dates from 2300BCE, coinciding with some of the earliest bronze workings done by mankind.
32
Ban Chiang in Thailand is one of the few places in the ancient world where both copper and tin
mines are found in close proximity, indicating that Southeast Asia might be where this technology
started. The Dong Son Culture of Northern Vietnam and Southern China illustrates this point with its
very refined bronze artefacts that were traded across a vast area, some of which show the long
boats that were used for this purpose and we know from their artefacts that they also brought
domesticated zebu cattle back into their homeland as early as 3000 years ago. It is highly likely they
were taking their own Domesticated Water Buffalo with them on these same commercial
expeditions thus diffusing the animal far and wide.
Being the hydrophilic species that it is the Domesticated Water Buffalo is absolutely essential for
wet rice cultivation and Southern Asia has some of the largest human populations on the planet due
to the increased food productivity that it helps to provide. As a staple crop rice provides
nourishment to more people than any other grain and the most productive means of cultivation is
farming in wet rice paddies, which becomes even more effective in terraces. There are examples of
this form of agriculture found across the world in places like Japan, Madagascar and Indonesia with
some of the more beautiful rice terraces being the Dragon’s Backbone at Longshen in Guangxi
Province of Southern China and as mentioned earlier Banawe in the Cordillera of the Philippines.
None of these architectural marvels could have been built without the assistance of the water
buffalo and this explains why the animal is so cherished. Archaeology seems to indicate that rice
cultivation in wet paddy fields first started along the Yangtze River Valley in the Miao/Hmong
heartland of Southern China some 12,000 years ago and we can safely assume that this was always
associated with the great Asian beast of burden the water buffalo. Therefore the domestication of
the Bubalis species may be just as old, if not older, than the domestication of Bos.
The Miao/Hmong people, as already stated, still hold the water buffalo as a sacred animal, with
bullfighting considered their national sport and many of the tribes wear decorative buffalo horns as
33
part of their traditional garb, as can be seen on the headgear of the women above. They also hold
Ndrual Dluad wrestling as a central ethnic identifier that differentiates them from the Han majority
and it may be from this geographical location that the combined practice of bullfighting and belt
wrestling spread. This might actually be the ultimate ancestral journey of formalised Japanese
wrestling and it is interesting to contemplate that not only is the mawashi loin cloth the prescribed
attire for Sumo but is also the preferred clothing apparel for traditional rice farmers across Eastern
and Southern Asia. The loin cloth is a practical garment for anyone working in a muddy environment
because it is minimalist, being very easy to either clean or replace. Taking into account the time
frame being suggested, this combination of bullfighting and belt wrestling was not only shared with
the near neighbours of the Miao/Hmong ancestors but it could have even culturally impacted on
Europe via Africa, explaining why bullfighting and belt wrestling are similarly brought together as far
away the Iberian Peninsula. Beyond any other animal, bovine domestication brought about
significant behavioural changes to human cultural evolution and not just because of the increased
food productivity it provided. It allowed human beings to congregate in increasingly larger numbers
and also demonstrated the necessity of rutting behaviour in overall herd wellbeing. Just like
bullfighting, wrestling is an instinctive manifestation of mankind and it is almost a standardised
practice in all human societies across the globe. If the premise of this article is correct then we
should be particularly grateful to the offspring of Grandfather Txiv Yawg (Jiang Chi You), the
Miao/Hmong people, for sharing this gift with the rest of the world.
Coreeda Association of Australia March 2012
34
Suggested Reading
http://www.ikanlundu.com/literary/borneo_loincloth.html
http://www.gilgameshgames.org/
http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/tag/domestication/page/2/
http://fiskeharrison.wordpress.com/about-the-bull/
http://dakshinatya.blogspot.com/2008/11/zebu-buffalo.html
http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/aurochs.htm
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2011/04/great_bubalus_rock_art.php
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/cattle.htm
http://belt-wrestling.org/tmp/28_eng.pdf
http://aars.fr/bubalin_en.html
http://comcul.ucalgary.ca/Bulls
http://hillyareas.blogspot.com/2011/07/rice-terraces-hd-wallpaper.html
http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Cetartiodactyla.html
http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hybrid-bovines.htm
35