Photos: Thailand’s annual buffalo racing festival

Thai farmers in eastern Chonburi Province joined in the annual buffalo race with ploughs as part of a festival to conserve the buffalo ploughing tradition.

Updated on: Jul 19, 2017 8:12 AM IST

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Jockeys compete in Chonburi's annual buffalo race festival, in Chonburi province, Thailand. The race is the highlight of an annual rice planting festival in Chonburi, two hours east of the capital Bangkok, where a small group of local farmers try to keep the tradition alive even if most of their fields are now ploughed by tractor. (Athit Perawongmetha / REUTERS )

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Throughout the day pairs of buffaloes attached to a wooden plough thundered down a flooded field as human drivers attached by a rope desperately tried to keep up behind their charging beasts. (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

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Farmers bath a racing buffalo in between the race in Chonburi. (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

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For centuries, Thais relied on water buffalo to plough their rice paddies, provide transportation and even defend villages during war, but with mechanised farming the animals have seen their importance diminish. (Athit Perawongmetha / REUTERS)

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A farmer rides on the back of wooden ploughs tied to pairs of racing buffaloes during the annual rice planting festival.Locals say the idea to race buffaloes began generations back as a way to blow off steam after the arduous ploughing season. (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

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Jockeys compete in Chonburi's annual buffalo race festival. (REUTERS)

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Now racing buffaloes are specifically bred for the sport, taught to obey the commands and whistles of their owners. The most successful can sell for up to 300,000 baht ($8,800). (Athit Perawongmetha / REUTERS)

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Spectators sit under umbrellas next to a rice paddy field being used for buffalo racing during the annual rice planting festival. (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

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A farmer rides on the back of wooden ploughs tied to a pair of racing buffaloes. (REUTERS)