Weird World of Sport: Cock-fighting is weird. Why have cocks been chosen as opposed to ducks or swans?
Monday, 27 April 2009
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I am in Cambodia doing "research" for a book I'm writing about my passion for travel to dodgy places. I'm visiting "The Killing Fields" tomorrow and today, I'm bizarrely off to see a man who is selling Pol Pot's shoes and loo. I've had my fill of dark depressing subjects in the last week or so and I decided to have a little look at the world of Cambodian sport.
The truth is it's a pretty minimalist area. They do play football here but they are spectacularly bad - so bad that most people support foreign teams. Their national football team was supposed to go to the Beijing Olympics but, according to rumours, the powers that be used the tickets to send their families there on a jolly.
The only real sport of any consequence here is kick-boxing. I know this sport as Thai kick-boxing but call it that here only if you want to lose your teeth. Here it's Cambodian kic-boxing, but it is exactly the same. Bouts are shown regularly on TV and the gambling is intense.
It's weird that in a country that has seen so much terrible violence in the last 50 years something violent like kick-boxing would be of such mass appeal. Violence, however, seems to be something that goes deep into the national psyche. The legendary French explorer of Indochina, Henri Mouhot wrote: "Cambodians appear only to have known how to destroy, never to reconstruct." He was obviously referring to their military history but it seems to apply to their sports as well.
While I was visiting one of the extraordinary temples that dot the countryside around the town of Siem Reap, I came across some amazing bas-reliefs on one temple called The Bayon. These bas-reliefs showed in some detail what Khmers, some 800 years ago, got up to for fun. Among others there was wrestling, hunting and elephant- and cock-fighting.
Wrestling, despite it's innate campness (something I've already written about having seen Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympics and then received much hate mail from big strong wrestlers so we won't go there again) is a fairly standard historical practice and you see it in all parts of the world on ancient illustrations. There's no beating about the jungle, it seems that a lot of men, when given the opportunity, love to strip naked and roll around on the floor scrapping – and fair play to them.
It's a moot point as to whether hunting is nowadays seen as a sport but way back then, it most definitely was. Elephant-fighting is understandable but cock-fighting, however, is a weird one. Why have cocks been chosen to fight through history as opposed to, for instance, ducks or geese or swans? It's always the poor cockerels who get blades attached to their legs and have to step into the ring. Rather embarrassingly I speak about this from some experience as, very unwillingly, I attended a cock-fight in Mexico once, where it is legal. It was while I was filming Happy Hour and the director thought it would add local "colour".
It was a deeply depressing experience. We entered through these doors that looked like they were to a dungeon and came out in a fully seated "cock-pit" complete with commentator on the PA and barely dressed conchitas serving Coronas. Hundreds of Mexican men (it was all men) were off their seats and throwing money about at a table where, what I took to be the bookies, were seated. Then a fight would start and two cocks would be brought in and rubbed up against each other while being held by their "trainers". They were then let loose and would fight rather pathetically on the dusty floor until one would go down and the winning cock would jump on him.
All the time the commentator was keeping a really monotone description going that I couldn't understand but probably went something like "And cock number one has jumped on cock number two, now cock number two has jumped on cock number one, now, great excitement as cock number one has jumped back on cock number two ... holy Pedro, is this a cock jumping and a half...."
It was depressing and left me feeling a little hollow. We didn't stay long. I've just been offered the opportunity to try another great Cambodian sport: blowing up a cow with an RPG. I gave this offer a miss but there are plenty of takers in the backpacking hostels around town.
Wigging out over Murray's humour
More exciting news on the Andy Murray Tweet watch: "Fitness trainer in a wig at lunch. Regular forfeit for him now." Sounds an absolute hoot on the Andy express..
3 comments:
"It's weird that in a country that has seen so much terrible violence in the last 50 years something violent like kick-boxing would be of such mass appeal. Violence, however, seems to be something that goes deep into the national psyche. The legendary French explorer of Indochina, Henri Mouhot wrote: "Cambodians appear only to have known how to destroy, never to reconstruct." He was obviously referring to their military history but it seems to apply to their sports as well." ...
Well, it seems to be a very superficial perception of Cambodian history and culture. Are you suggesting that violence is everywhere in the Cambodian mentality? It has been said already by several barangs suggesting Cambodians "are violent by nature", an statement that seems to ignore also human history. It is possible to say also that Europeans - the ones who produced the world wars of the 20th century, are violent people as violent are Americans who invaded Iraq, Pakistan, created a center for torture in Guantanamo and, of course, bombed Cambodia seven times more than what US bombed Japan during the II World War? Cambodian sports are violent? So then karate, kong-fu, Western boxing, wresting and even English football. By the way, cock fighting was introduced by French invaders between 19th and 20th century to Cambodia (maybe replacing elephant fighting, of course.) Then you are ignoring other aspects of the ancestral Cambodian culture (Buddhism, Hinduism, philosophy of the harmony, etc.) Then about Thai kid boxing... please read history: Cambodia is the mother land of that martial art and not Thailand.
Albeiro, my hat off to you. Dom Joly writes a very good piece here, except some facts. Two facts needed to be corrected, as you already done so. Khmers are a very docile, timid, pacified and peaceful people. This is why our neighbours took advantage of us and annexed most of our lands. Kickboxing, which the Thais called Muay Thai and the Khmers called Kun Khmer, is a Khmer sport, invented and originated in Cambodia many centuries ago. The Thai copied it and took it to Thailand.
បើយើងជជែកគ្នាដោយអត់មានភ័ស្តុតាងនិង
អំណះអំណាង បើទោះបីជាយើងខំប្រឹងជជែក
ក៏មិនបានការអ្វីដែរ។ ភ័ស្តុតាងតាស៊ីក្លូបានបង្ហាញ
ដោយសុំចុចទៅកាន់តំណភ្ជាប់នៅខាងក្រោម
នេះ
http://tacyclo.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/%e1%9e%9b%e1%9f%92%e1%9e%94%e1%9e%bb%e1%9e%80%e1%9f%92%e1%9e%80%e1%9e%8f%e1%9f%92%e1%9e%8f%e1%9f%84%e1%9e%ac%e1%9e%94%e1%9f%92%e1%9e%9a%e1%9e%8a%e1%9e%b6%e1%9e%9b%e1%9f%8b%e1%9e%94%e1%9e%bb%e1%9e%9a/
ហើយមើលទៅរួចពិចារណាថាតើកីឡានេះជា
របស់ខ្មែរឬជារបស់សៀម? តាស៊ីក្លូបានថតបាន
ហើយភ័ស្តុតាងជារបស់ខ្មែរគឺនៅលើជើងសរសរ
បា្រសាទបាយ័ននាសតវត្សរ៏ទី១៣។ ឥឡូវនេះសុំ
ឲ្យអ្នកគាំទ្រថាកីឡានេះជារបស់សៀមបង្ហាញ
ភ័ស្តុតាងមក.....
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