Pacu Jawi is a traditional cow race held in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The race itself is not held in the usual way as there are no opponent. The cow release to race in pair at a time. The idea is who could get the cows race in straight line is the winner. The jockey held the cows on its tail and to make the cows run faster, the jockey generally pull the tails hard or slap the cow's butt or bite its tail. The race itself done in a wet muddy rice field and taken place when the growing season is about to start. The race is held in turn among the the village in some villages in Tanah Datar district, West Sumatera, the one that I came to see the race is in Sungai Jambu village, Batu Sangkar.
Pacu Jawi also become a place for cow's owner to show off his cows as on this kind of event is a good place to make a transaction in selling or buying cows. In this event were more or less 150 cows racing and according to the organizer usually more than that...(I couldn't imagine that!). The event itself begin at 1pm and finish around 4 or 5 pm depends on how many cows racing that day.
The best time to see this cow race is between November and December when the race frequencies is high, so we could choose the suitable date for ourselves.
It was fun and memorable..as I had to run fast to avoid being hit by a full speed cows as I tried taking picture of the moment..:D.
Many thanks to Mr. Dodi Sandradi, owner of Kemilau Indonesia (http://www.kemilauindonesia.com/) who has kind enough to allow me to tag along to his group so I could come and see this fascinating cow race.
**Will post some pictures from this event on separate entry
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