Officials in Yen Bai province have come under fire this week after videos surfaced online of local residents killing a buffalo during a local festival.
According to Tuoi Tre, however, the provincial government claimed the graphic videos, which depict a water buffalo being hanged from a tree branch, were filmed in previous years.
The clips surfaced on social media late last month, sparking outrage among netizens as well as animal rights groups.
Chairwoman Pham Thi Thanh Tra of the Yen Bai People’s Committee told the news outlet that provincial officials had already instructed local residents to refrain from killing animals as part of festivals or other celebrations. It was unclear, however, whether the chairwoman confirmed the discontinuation of the practice.
“We have requested that people in Dong Cuong Commune stop the ritual of hanging buffalo to death,” Tra told the outlet.
A 2015 circular from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also called upon localities throughout Vietnam to end traditional festival practices involving the slaughter of animals such as pigs or buffalos.
“Our view is that localities have the right to hold festivities to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but any rites that are no longer suitable should be omitted,” Trinh Thi Thuy, responsible for managing local-level cultural practices under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told the news outlet.
According to Tuoi Tre, Nguyen Tam Thanh of the animal rights organization Animals Asia also decried the killing, saying such practices are “no longer appropriate to be held as part of any festival in our civilized society”.
“These traditional practices must be altered to fit in our modern times,” Thanh continued.
However not everyone is against such rituals. Associate Professor Bui Quang Thang of the Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies argued that Dong Cuong’s buffalo-hanging practices “stem from the undeniable spiritual belief of the Vietnamese people, so they should not be scrapped”, according to the news outlet.
“For these cases, in my humble opinion, we should let the community decide whether to keep the rites,” he told Tuoi Tre.
“If they wish to continue practicing these rituals, we should let them do so.”
The festival, which takes place during the first half of the first lunar month in Yen Bai’s Dong Cuong Commune, honors ethnic minority heroes who helped to stop the Mongol invasion during the 13th-century Tran dynasty.
[Photo via Tien Phong]
