I saw my first ever instance of cock fighting today. We were riding between places in Notorious Vang Vien when we rode past a group of men and children under a tree with two birds wrestling each other.
It’s a bit contentious the subject of cockfighting so I best be careful how I write about it I guess.
Let me therefore start with what I saw…
There were two large roosters more like a wild chicken that the domestic chickens we think of naturally. And it was halfway through a fight. I pulled over and the locals immediately tensed and it was very much apparent to me that they were nervous of me sitting and watching both them and the fight. I smiled whenever they looked at me to ensure that I was as disarming as possible. I very much imagine that it in a town so popular with westerners that the locals may have been somewhat chastised for this practice. By the same token, and judging by some of the westerners and the reputation of Vang Vien the truth may be quite the opposite.
The roosters puffed themselves up in a prideful display of male dominance and looked quite magnificent to be perfectly blunt. They strut in towards one another and stretch their long necks out to meet each other. They them proceed to rub their necks up and down in an almost bobbing motion and being circling each other whilst continuing the bobbing, which must be the initial size up process.
Once this has been established 4-8 seconds, the birds escalate their dance. And I think dance is an appropriate word. It’s not a simply pecking fest at each other’s heads.
The birds will each employ a level of strength and tactical manoeuvre. They will entwine their necks to peck at the feathers on the back of the opponent bird and this motion causes them to turn, twirl if you will. They will employ tactics such as wrapping a wing around the neck of the other bird, which only serves to further the impression that you are watching a dance, two ballroom chickens twirling together across the mahogany floor boards…
There is a brutal elegance and grace to how they turn together and fight for advantage, they will then tear apart from each other like two salsa dances pulling apart only to come back together in a fury of claws and wings. The birds will buff themselves up and leap at each other claws first wings spread like majestic eagles swooping in for the kill, and the receiving bird will rise to the challenge with a deflective kick of its own.
I watched not exactly knowing how I should feel. I am not an animal activist but I don’t believe in cruelty to animals either. I’ve been told cockfighting is a brutal cruel activity indulged by those with cruel hearts, and that activists challenge it’s practice across the globe. But sitting there watching the whole scene the men and children watching the chickens engage was somehow strangely pleasing.
I honestly thought the birds looked stunning, normally these birds would look decrepit and gangly, and I have seen plenty of them and kept my distance but not here. Here they looked majestic and proud and stood tall and moved with a swift deadly speed and grace that it was mesmerising to watch. It’s a scene of nature and even though it’s not a civilised scene it is nonetheless entrancing and beautiful in a morbidly satisfying way. These birds that I have seen everywhere and thought were ugly and sickly were transformed and I saw them in a whole new light.
The spectators sit mostly quietly and watch with a vested intensity. Adults and children alike watch the dance of death with the same intrigue that was possessing me.
I say deadly, as I was fully expecting to see a bird brutally ripped apart, but I found to both my relief and disappointment that the birds were separated and each returned to his owner.
The birds were checked over for injury and treated and cleaned and then washed down. The birds themselves once separated are instantly calm and resort back to their cooing and strutting. Another two birds were awaiting their turn in the ring and were being vigorously wiped down with an oily substance over their bodies and feathers which I assume is to prevent them holding properly on each other and causing serious harm. Clearly this is not a scene for the demise of these birds but perhaps the pre-fight sparring training.
In my mind I am ‘searching for stan’ as a metaphor for seeking out different cultures and seeing the world from other perspectives other than Western, which is all I know. I wish to seek out culture and experience that is non-western and struggle to reconcile it within my own mind and I was happy to find this scene today so I could if only from a distance and the outside engage/witness this spectacle from that perspective, a more wholesome and untampered angle perhaps, as it feels that as we travel through South East Asia we travel in a tourist bubble, no matter where we go we are shown the tourist perspective of what these people wish us to be apart of, and sometimes you break through that barrier and it matters.
Another two birds are flung together and the whole saga begins again, still I do not leave but find myself eagerly watching, waiting…
Searching 4 Stan 