Bare-chested men in brightlycoloured belts grapple forpossession of a giant woo-den ball at a Vietnamese fes-tival, tumbling from cornerto corner as hundreds of ex-cited spectators cheer themon.

They are playing Vat Cau— a centuries-old sportwhich began as a training ex-ercise for soldiers and con-tains elements of wrestlingand rugby.

Vat Cau is the main drawof a three-day annual festivalheld in Thuy Linh villageduring Vietnam’s Tet LunarNew Year, just 10 km fromHanoi.

A single match has fourseparate teams of eight menwearing waist straps of diff��e-rent colours. They tussle ov-er a 17-kg ball made from thewood of a jackfruit tree, la-boriously inching it towardsone of the holes dug in eachteam’s corner.

“This game is the tradi-

tion and the pride of theThuy Linh people,” Le DucDuong, an athlete with 15years of experience playingVat Cau, said.

In tip-top shapeBefore the annual show-down at Thuy Linh’s com-munal temple, each sport-sman must train in sportslike swimming, running andbodybuilding to get in tip-top shape, he added.

The audience at Satur-day’s competition were inhigh spirits, laughing andcheering as a match announ-cer commented on the ath-letes pouncing on each otherin the fi��eld.

“Some of our athleteshave a six-pack body, andsome have a six-pack-in-one,” he said wryly.

At the end of the three-day tournament, the squadwith the most points advanc-

es to the next round, and thechampions in the fi��nal stagewill receive a cash prize of$260 to share between them— a small reward that giftsbragging rights to one teamamong the 16 competing.

Dating back to the 11th cen-tury, the game was inventedby a revered general to teachhis recruits about the impor-tance of teamwork, intelli-gence and strength whenfi��ghting against foreign in-vaders, festival organiser LeMinh Xuong said.

“(This game) inherits thetradition of our forefathers,which is to train the men inthe village to have health andfi��tness for the ultimate pur-pose of protecting our ho-meland,” he said.

But for the players today,the stakes are not so high.

“We play this game for funactually. The prize is not im-portant for us,” 20-year-oldplayer Nguyen The Hien, akickboxing trainer, said.

“Each year we play it andit brings joy to us.”

Wrestling for glory at Vietnam’s festival The main draw is Vat Cau, a sport that started as a training exercise for soldiers

Ball game: People watching as men wrestle for the prized ballmade of jackfruit wood during ‘Vat Cau’in Hanoi. * AFP

Agence France-PresseHanoi