The folksy and friendly people of Ch'ongdo County in North Kyongsang Province have, until recently, been renowned for their fabulous peach crops that please palates around the nation in mid- and late summer. Now, however, a tradition supposedly going back 1,000 years to the Shilla Kingdom is putting Ch'ongdo in the spotlight for something else -- bull fighting.
Thanks to a big boost from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which last year designated it as one of the 10 most important annual cultural and tourist events, the Ch'ongdo Bull Fighting Festival has grown from a local and provincial attraction to one now drawing international interest and participation. With completion of an exclusive bullfighting stadium by the year 2001, Ch'ongdo County looks forward to becoming a major tourist attraction during the 2002 World Cup soccer matches in Korea.
The capricious winds of mid-March behaved themselves during this year's five-day festival in the town of Iso, site of the upcoming stadium and located just outside of the county seat of Ch'ongdo. The first four days were bright and a bit breezy, and the enthusiastic crowds on the last day barely noticed a few showers as they watched an American-style rodeo, the Korean finals, and the Korean-Japanese friendship championships.
More Than A Lot of Bull
Although the central attraction, the bull fights were part of a larger program to enhance the reputation of the Ch'ongdo area for its cultural and tourist attractions. A tented marketplace serving just about everything from land and sea (which, perhaps to the dismay of the fighting bulls, included plenty of beef) sprung up around the temporary bull fighting stadium and included an invitational tent restaurant from traditional cultural arch rival, the Cholla provinces. Troupes of taffy sellers and others provided a wide variety of humorous and talented entertainment, which, like the bull fights themselves, was free of charge. Exhibitions included artworks on bull fighting and special local produce (sweet persimmons, persimmon vinegar, and beef). The sponsoring committee established a photo contest to encourage greater public participation in the festival. A local celebrity, "Sundogi" the gentle, a bull who refuses to fight, gave a free ride around the grounds to those wanting one. American and Japanese tourists added to the lively international atmosphere on the last two days, following three days of preliminary matches. The bulls were grouped into three classes: pyong, up to 640kg; ul, between 640 and 730kg; and kap, over 730kg.An Ancient Tradition
Ch'ongdo County is home to more than half of the nation's estimated 500 fighting bulls, and over 180, mostly from the Kyongsang provinces, participated in this year's festival. Tradition has it that in ancient times, bull fights were, along with Korean-style wrestling, ssilum, a great source of entertainment around the Harvest Moon Festival, with clans and villages vying for top local honors.Bulls are chosen at an early age on the basis of their physical characteristics (including height, horns, proportionately smaller eyes and ears, and shorter front legs) and on apparent potential as fighters. They undergo rigorous training for years that includes climbing steep hills, dragging large tires loaded with rocks, and jogging on sandpits. With a hefty diet that includes special supplementary Oriental medicine concoctions, they learn their fighting skills and practice them by battering logs and mounds of hardened earth.
Bloodless Combat
Usually completely bloodless, these bull fights begin when handlers bring the two contenders into the ring. A referee whistles to start the match, and the bulls, often already in a state of agitation in the staging area before the match, get set. Some even prance a bit while others kick up the sand as if trying to frighten the opponent. One of the most intriguing parts of the bull fights was watching the eye contact between bulls before physical contact. It readily becomes apparent at this stage that each bull has his own unique personality, and the supposed male penchant for territorial rights unfolds as reality. It is short but very entertaining theater.Once they make contact, the bulls use any of a number of fighting techniques, although head pressing each other, or milch'igi, is the most common. The referee declares a winner when one bull turns its back or runs away from either fear or fatigue. One of the preliminary matches lasted less than a minute: one bull wanted no part of it and ran off after sizing up the opponent. Another match lasted over an hour in a head-to-head shoving contest.
Other techniques the bulls employ include milch'igi or ramming with the head; mokch'igi, or pushing into the neck; side pushing, yopch'igi; bbulgoli, or drawing horns; bbulch'igi, or bumping horns side to side and then pressing down; and yont'a, or continuous head attack.
Unlike many other forms of male-to-male battle in both the human and animal realms, Korean bull fighting usually leaves little more damage than a fleeting case of thirst and exhaustion, and perhaps a bruised ego and a loss of face. But it's soon all forgotten, as evidenced by the serenity of the bulls in the staging area soon after a match. In one match where one bull did draw a bit of blood between the horns of another, it was quite moving to see the heartfelt emotional pain the owner suffered for the slight physical injury to his bull, "a member of the family."
Although some 40 million won in prize money was at stake, the owners and trainers gave the impression that they were participating more for the fun of the festival. Some 20 members of The Korean-American Cowboys Association from the U.S. 8th Army demonstrated their prowess and wowed the weekend crowds with their bronco riding on Korean bulls and other rodeo feats. The three Japanese champion bulls from Kagoshima, weighing 800-, 850- and 870kg, also added decidedly international spice to the festival and awed the overflowing crowd with their size and might. These black bulls, providing a stunning contrast to the largely brown Korean bulls, were shipped to the port of Pusan from Hakada in late February.
By the end of the festival, it appeared that just about everybody was a winner: the bulls, the owners and trainers, the foreign participants, the crowds, the marketeers, the organizing and sponsoring committees, and most of all the gentle people of Ch'ongdo County. The Ch'ongdo Bull Fighting Festival, still nascent in its rush to prominence after 1,000 years of obscure entertainment, promises to be an increasingly enjoyable event for a growing international following.
The festival is scheduled to be held in early March each year, although it might be an even greater cultural success should it be held a bit later -- when the hills and vales and plains of Ch'ongdo County burst forth as one gigantic peach blossom.
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