THE MADURESE BULL RACING FESTIVAL

-
Image by Devanocturno - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Madurese Bull Racing Festival or Karapan Sapi is a special festival of the inhabitants living on Madura Island. It is celebrated in the month of August or September every year. Usually, the final race is held at the end of September or October.

Two bulls pulling a wooden cart run very fast towards the finishing line. The jockey stands on the cart controlling the speeds and movements of the bulls. The racing takes place in 10 seconds to 1 minute over a 100 meter distance.

Besides racing, karapan Sapi is also a prestige folk culture and party which will increase one’s social status. Those who want to join should spend a lot of money to take care of their bulls before the festival.

Building muscle and maintaining the health of a bull that is going to race needs at least 4 million rupiahs. The bull should be served with herbal medicines and a dozen chicken eggs a day, especially when the day of the Bull Racing Festival is approaching.

The Madurese celebrate this festival after a good tobacco or rice harvest. Besides tourist attraction, it plays other important roles such as a good opportunity for vendors to sell things or food, work of applying mantras and calculating auspicious numbers of the bulls before racing. Each team has a dukun or shaman to put magic spells on the bulls, so that they will have a high probability of winning the contest.

Before the racing starts, every pair of the bulls is accompanied by the team to walk around the racing area while traditional musical instruments are being played in the procession.

At the end of the first round, the referee announces the groups that come out as the winner or loser. The second round is to determine the number one loser of the losing groups. The third round is used for identifying the winner from the winning groups. The presidential rolling trophy is only given to the champion who has won first place in the competition.

According to the traditional story, the tradition of the Madurese Bull Racing dates back to the 15th century. In those days, Madura Island was dry and unfertile and it wasn’t suitable for farming.

A prince named Katandur wanted to make the Madura Island fertile. Later, he used buffaloes to cultivate the land and improve soil fertility. Eventually, the plan was successful. He succeeded in turning a barren tract into a highly productive land which was suitable for vegetation.

In order to celebrate the moment of glory, the prince asked the farmers to join a bull racing game. All the people were very glad and they prepared everything for the competition. This is the old tradition which has been handed down from the past.

Madura Island is one of the famous tourist destinations that is worth visiting. Visitors can travel around this island by motorcycles. Karapan Sapi or the Bull Racing Festival is so attractive and most tourists like it. It’s a good idea to bring a video camera, so that you can record the most beautiful and valuable events and people on that island.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE MAGIC POWER OF SATAM

-
Image
Photo  https://pixabay.com/en/planet-apocalypse-space-science-2967684/ Satam is a kind of stone which is found in the area of the tin mines of Belitung Island. According to various sources of information, the stone was given the specific name Billitonite by Ir. N Wing Easton from Netherlands in 1921. The Billitonite stone or Satam won’t be found easily, an experienced worker will find it in the tin field of the tin mining company. It is said that all the Billitonite stones are the meteorites from outer space. A complex burning process started at the time they entered the earth’s atmosphere. After being buried in the ground for millions of years and they formed themselves into a kind of hard and shiny black stones. The Billitonite stones are usually used as the ornaments and are set in gold or platinum. Some people like to carve something on the shiny surface for more artistic senses. Women will be very glad to wear them when they go to attend their friends’ parties
Read more

THE LEGEND OF JOKO KENDIL

-
Image
Image by Sabrina Eickhoff from Pixabay   Long ago, there lived a poor widow in a remote area of Central Java. She had a son who had a cooking pot shaped physique. In Central Java, the pot used for cooking rice is called kendil. As the boy looked like a kendil, he was named Joko Kendil. The widow didn’t feel shamed or disappointed, though her son looked like a cooking pot. She loved her son with all her heart. When Joko Kendil was a child, he liked joking and was well like by his peers. One day, there was a wedding party in his village and Joko sneaked in the kitchen. A woman praised the beauty of a pot, which could be used for keeping cakes and fruit. He didn’t know the pot she meant was a human being. The woman didn’t know the pot was indeed Joko Kendil himself. After fully filled, Joko Kendil rolled out of the kitchen. The people seeing this strange happening couldn’t help shouting bravo. They struggled to snatch that strange pot.  Joko Kendil was rolling faster to home. After reachi
Read more

THE JAPANESE CAVES IN BALI

-
Image
Image by Marcky Bolung , CC BY 3.0 As Japan had colonized Indonesia for around three and a half years, the Japanese left a number of historical objects. Japanese troops used the caves as bunkers or underground bastion tunnels and those caves are called Goa Jepang or Japanese Cave. Such facilities were built by forced labor, a lot of sad and bloody events had ever happened in that period of time. Most Goa Jepang or Japanese caves were the places for torturing prisoners to death. That’s why such locations are so spooky and visitors will always get goosebumps when they stepped into the bunkers or bastion passages. According to the history, a lot of people were trapped in forced labor during the construction of Goa Jepang. The locals claim that they often see the spirits of the dead near the Japanese caves. Some of them look seriously wounded and walked like zombies. Besides the walking dead, there’re the scary creatures that have the appearance of half human and half animal.
Read more