Cock Fighting

The other day on the HASH, as I climbed a pretty narrow and treacherous slope, in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, I heard voices growing louder and louder... and lots of them! I emerged from the jungle path pretty much into the center of a huge gathering... it was a Cock Fight!



(This picture is c-Gert Holmertz 1976, but almost exactly represents the scene I came upon... more than thirty years later)


We were up in the hills, and our HASH run took us through this small, remote village... where all the men from villages miles away were gathered for this traditional, and some would say, inhumane, form of entertainment. Although Cock Fighting is part of the traditional Balinese culture, it is now also illegal.

I stuck around to see what all the commotion was about... In fact, the majority of the time, it was just a bunch of men sitting around in a circle petting their cocks... the actual cock fight itself was over in less than a minute... pretty anti-climactic if you ask me! The real hubub takes place just before the roosters are released - that's the final call for bets (yes, gambling is at the heart of this tradition)! I was peering into the circle to see what was really at the center of attention, when at one point everyone started waving their fist-fulls of money around out in front of them, calling, "hum hum hum hum hum", and I got ushered back to the outside of the circle, with warnings that the knives were sharp and it was dangerous for me to be so close. This was the betting process, signaling that the fight was about to begin...







The cock fight is a fight to the death. The roosters have sharp blades attached to their feet in order to inflict the mortal wound to the opponent. The owners get their roosters riled up for the match, then they are released, neck feathers fluffed up, and ready to strike. The winning rooster goes home again, and his master is famed and his machismo secured, while the looser has chicken soup for supper.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the event; I haven't gotten brave enough to take my camera on a hash run yet, although we run through the most amazing scenery, it's also very treacherous, wet and muddy, and I would hate to damage it! These are a few that I was able to find on the internet, and pretty much represent the scene I was privy to.