91-year-old artist, former police colonel, wins Do Son buffalo fighting festival for the third time

As usual, on the 9th day of the 8th lunar month this year, the traditional buffalo fighting festival, a national intangible cultural heritage, kicked off. After fierce, tense and extremely attractive competitions, the audience expressed surprise and admiration when they learned that the champion buffalo owner was... artisan Dinh Dinh Phu.

During the award ceremony of the 2025 Do Son traditional buffalo fighting festival on September 30, when the Organizing Committee announced the champion buffalo owner as artist Dinh Dinh Phu in Do Son ward ( Hai Phong city), cheers resounded in the stands, blending with the jubilant sound of festival drums.

And even more impressive, when people saw artist Dinh Dinh Phu in a bright red costume, stepping onto the stage, holding high the award, and not everyone knew he was 91 years old.

Artisan Dinh Dinh Phu (middle) was happy to win the championship for the third time at the Do Son buffalo fighting festival (Hai Phong).

Born in 1935, Mr. Phu's birth name was Dinh Dinh Nga. When the August Revolution of 1945 broke out, at the age of 15, Mr. Phu worked as a liaison for the Viet Minh to fight against the French under the working name Dinh Dinh Phu. At the age of 19, he reached the age of enlistment, became a police officer, and then joined the army to fight on all battlefields. After that, he returned to work in the police force, at the Hai Phong City Police Department.

His life went through many difficulties, bombs and bullets, growing up over the years, through every step, but he always kept in himself a loyal heart to the Party, faithful to his love for his homeland and country.

In 1993, Security Colonel Dinh Dinh Phu received the decision to retire. Returning to live in Do Son, he settled down to enjoy reading books and writing poetry, but still worried about the fact that his hometown Do Son had a long-standing buffalo fighting festival, but it was at risk of being lost because it had not been held for many years.

At that time, Mr. Phu and other dedicated locals did not mind the hardships and complicated procedures, determined to campaign to restore this unique traditional festival.

Buffalo No. 06 of artist Dinh Dinh Phu "knocked out" its opponent at the Do Son buffalo fighting festival on the morning of September 30, 2025.

When the Do Son buffalo fighting festival was restored, Mr. Phu also contributed greatly to collecting and searching for documents and personally wrote a book about the buffalo fighting festival, so that this festival would later be recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2020.

Mr. Phu recalled: “In that year (2003), right on the occasion of the Do Son buffalo fighting festival, the UNESCO Center for Northern Culture held a press conference to introduce my two books “Do Son - History and Buffalo Fighting Festival” and “Random Thoughts on the Do Son Buffalo Fighting Festival”, published by the Culture and Information Publishing House”.

Not only that, Mr. Phu is also an experienced buffalo owner, has won many awards in festivals and has been honored as a Folk Artist since 2014. For many years, Do Son people have become familiar with the image of an old man playing the role of a "shepherd", leading the buffaloes out in the morning and back in the afternoon, caressing and training them to become elite "warrior buffaloes".

He is the first person in Do Son to train a buffalo to "kneel to greet the audience" and is also the only person to have won the championship three times since this traditional buffalo fighting festival was reorganized (including 2025).

At the same time, Mr. Phu is also the oldest person participating as a buffalo owner. He confided: “The buffalo fighting festival has entered the blood of Do Son people, my family is closely linked to the ancestral land of Do Son, also closely linked to the buffalo fighting festival…”.

Artisan Dinh Dinh Phu (3rd from right) receives the prize for the champion buffalo owner of the 2025 Do Son buffalo fighting festival.

Sharing his experience in selecting and training fighting buffaloes, Mr. Phu said that when buying a buffalo, one must pay special attention to its appearance, look at its hooves, fur, horns, chest, eyes, nose, etc. to ensure it meets all three criteria.

First, the buffalo must be strong, healthy, have high fighting ability and be resilient; second, the buffalo must be brave and able to withstand blows; third, the buffalo must have sharp eyes and dangerous attacks...

The process of taking care of fighting buffalo is equally elaborate. When you buy a buffalo, you have to give it medicine to remove worms. The main food is simply grass, but you have to increase feeding at night, and when to feed it sugarcane, when to feed it porridge, when to feed it eggs... so that the buffalo can absorb enough nutrients.

In addition, you must choose the time for the buffalo to practice running and swimming to train its muscles, health and agility, not to mention some other folk "tricks" to protect the buffalo's health.

According to Vice Chairman of Do Son Ward People's Committee Pham Hoang Tuan, who has many years of experience in the traditional buffalo fighting festival, the experience of artisan Dinh Dinh Phu as well as his achievements are truly a vivid history of the Do Son buffalo fighting festival, contributing to preserving and enriching the cultural identity of the coastal area of ​​Hai Phong in particular and of Vietnam in general. Perhaps for this alone, artisan Dinh Dinh Phu deserves to be called a famous person.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Chuyen-dong-van-hoa/nghe-nhan-cuu-dai-ta-cong-an-91-tuoi-lan-thu-3-vo-dich-le-hoi-choi-trau-do-son-i783079/