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'Karapan brujul': Probolinggo's mud-field bull race
Muddy race: Brujul means plowing, and the bulls race on wet, muddy land, unlike similar bull races on the island of Madura, which are held on dry land
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span class="caption">Muddy race: Brujul means plowing, and the bulls race on wet, muddy land, unlike similar bull races on the island of Madura, which are held on dry land.
Karapan, or bull racing, is usually said to have originated from Madura, East Java. As the Madurese migrated to mainland Java, however, they carried the tradition with them.
Undeterred by the heat of the sun, villagers crowded into a paddy field already turned into a 60-meter muddy, swampy race track, like a newly plowed strip of land for crop planting.
The sound of gamelan and trumpets with songs from Madura roused the enthusiasm of bull owners and signaled for the village community to gather and watch the bull race known as karapan brujul.
Several pairs of cows were waiting for the race in a cassava field and in tents, while others were led back and forth along the track to familiarize them with the muddy path for the contest.
This was a glimpse of karapan brujul, a tourist targeted program put on by East Java's Probolinggo city administration. The event was called SEMIPRO, short for Seminggu di Kota Probolinggo (A week in Probolinggo city), and ran from Aug. 31 to Sept. 5, in Curah Grinting village, Kanigaran district, 5 km east of Probolinggo's town square.
The event is almost the same as karapan sapi and karapan sapi merah found in Madura. The muddy race track for karapan brujul, meant to represent planting season and enjoying leisure time while plowing the field, distinguishes it from the Madura tradition. Brujul is the Madura word for plowing.
In 1990, karapan brujul was the popular entertainment for circumcision and wedding ceremonies, with tickets sold to spectators. Hairil Mustufa, 43, a race committee member, said this competition was intended to reintroduce Probolinggo people with the brujul tradition, now fading away due to the use of diesel tractors.
Once held annually, the contest is now held once every two or three years, without admission fees, as part of the city administration's tourism program. This time, 96 pairs of cows owned by 50 participants from Probolinggo and its neighboring cities of Lumajang, Pasuruan and Bondowoso, have joined in the race.
Racing music: A traditional musical ensemble accompanies the karapan brujul race.
The brujul race has category A for cows aged 1.5 or more years and category B for those aged five months to a year. The brujul event covers two days out of the week-long program.
'I join this contest because it's free of charge and just for the pleasure of it. I'm fielding two pairs of bulls this time,' said Firman, 55, from Lumajang.
Exactly at 9 a.m., participants and their bull pairs started entering the muddy race track toward their start positions, with the rest of the contestants waiting for their turns behind. The first batch on the track was the category B pairs, followed by those in category A.
Each round saw two pairs racing to reach the finish line along the 60-meter muddy track. In karapan brujul, ordinary and slaughter cows raised by farmers for plowing are used as racing bulls, unlike in Madura, where only competition cows are raced.
Madura's karapan sapi uses red competition cows native to the island, which cost at least Rp 200 million (US$14,270) per head, and the 1-month-old calves of champion cows fetch at least Rp 20 million. These Madurese bulls are banned from joining the brujul form of the contest.
Brujul cows run slower than Madura's red bulls, and sometimes they're not even strong enough to complete the 60-meter course. Their jockeys are mostly adults who have once taken part in karapan sapi as youngsters. At 2 p.m. the final round is run with three pairs in the arena to struggle for the title of Champion.
The prizes awarded by the committee are not as big as those at karapan sapi events. In brujul, the champion of category A receives a motorcycle and that of category B a refrigerator. Jockey Astur, 25, said 'Karapan brujul is just for amusement, to satisfy my longing to ride in the race.'
The bull race in Probolinggo will continue to entertain local residents as long as cattle breeding and farming remain part of the livelihood of these descendants of Madurese.
Misguided: A pair of race bulls veer off the track into a spectator.
' Photos by JP/Aman Rochman
