BALD
HEAD BUTTING
By Witch
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A set of fibre-glass figures at the
Thai Human Imagery Museum,
Nakhon Pathom, showing all the seven types
of bald heads, two of which are shown playing
a game of bald head butting |
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the most funny,enjoyable and exotic Thai games is bald
head butting. Nobody knows who invented the game and why
it has to be played by bald men only. However, the game
has a long history. It was mentioned in a book written
in the reign of King Narai the Great (1656-1688) as one
of the popular sports in those times. Several local literary
works of the South also recorded it as a part of festivals.
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Bald head butting is played with bare hands
by two bald males who are strong and highly enduring. The
players are restricted in a limited area to test their strength
by butting their heads. The exact rules of the game are unknown.
According to some books, before the game starts, both fighters'
sizes and constitution are observed and compared to make sure
that neither gains too much advantage over the other.
If there is no problem, the game begins.
The antagonists, who are required to move on hands and knees
during the fight, act in imitation of a wild ox by using hands
or feet to dig holes in the soil while roaring to threaten
each other. After sizing up each other for a while, one of
them dashes his head against the other's. The excitement of
the game is when each player tries to use his head to push
the other out of the ring so as to be the winner of the game.
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| Despite a lot of enjoyment
gained from playing and watching the game, its popularity
declined and it finally disappeared because of the coming
influence of Western culture regarding the exposure of
the upper part of the body, especially for women, as an
uncivilized act. |
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 here
is an episode in the popular story called Si Thanonchai
mentioning a bald head butting contest, which the northeastern
people believe was the origin of the game in that part
of Thailand. The hero of the story, Si Thanonchai, was
a genius of the period of Dvaravati (9th-11th C.) who
always helped his king solve problems. As the story goes,
one day the king of another state sailed a junk to the
capital of Dvaravati. After dropping anchor in the river,
he sent a representative to challenge the king of Dvaravati
to send a bald man to fight in a bald head butting game
with his man with the capital of Dvaravati as the wager. |
Si Thanonchai voluntarily offered his service. He boasted
that he could win this competition even without a fight.What
Si Thanonchai did was ordering a man to cut seven banana trees
to be planted loosely along the bank of the river where the
enemies on the anchored junk could see. Then a bald man supposed
to participate in the game was dressed in an oversized black
shirt fully stuffed with kapok and remnants of cloth, making
him look like a giant when seen from a distance.
He was tied up with a rope made of long pieces of cloth twisted
together and painted in black, looking like leather. Si Thanonchai
then spread a rumour that Dvaravati's bald head butter would
come to take a bath in the river in the evening.
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Ancient Thai people
classified bald heads into seven categories as
shown in the pictures above and on the left.
For more information
see the bottom of this page.
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| There is another
game for females which was played together with bald head butting
in former times. It is called Nom Yan Ti Keng meaning
sagging (yan) breasts (nom) strike (ti)
a barking deer (keng). The number of players in the breast
striking game was limited to two females. The most important
qualification for the players was big and flabby breasts.
Most competitors of the sport were in their middle age. Similar
to bald head butting, this game required the players to fight
in a ring, and both of them must be compared before the game
to see whether their strength could be matched. During the
game, their breasts were uncovered, some with patterns. When
the game started, both fighters danced like a barking deer
by jumping and kicking their feet. Both swayed their bodies
to find a chance to attack the other by striking either of
her breast against each other. The excitement was intensified
by the cheers of the audience including relatives of the players.
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Hearing of this, the enemies waited to see the fighter of
Dvaravati. When the time came, the disguised guy tied with
the thick rope was led by a man to the river. He was fastened
to a tree and left alone. Suddenly, he turned furious and
threw off the rope easily.
What was more horrifying was when the guy pulled up all the
seven banana trees one by one not needing the slightest effort.
Very frightened at what they saw, the enemies retreated and
Dvaravati was easily saved by the wit of Si Thanonchai. Because
of the popularity of the tale, this enjoyable game was brought
to fame by the local people of the Northeast.
Bald head butting once was played in every part of Thailand
as an activity of festivals. But it's rare nowadays. One reason
is that bald men do not want to play for feeling ashamed and
for fear of getting hurt. What's more, the advance of technology
brings a great variety of new games and entertainments which
can better attract people's interest.
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Seven
categories of Thai bald heads
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Ancient Thai People classified bald
heads into seven categories, each with a vivid and humorous
name.
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he first is called thung ma long which
means that the head is so smooth and completely
hairless that it is like a piece of ground (thung)
devoid of natural growth and that if we let a
dog (ma) to walk on it, it will lose its
way (long). Bald heads of this type are
true baldness.
Dong chang kham is the
second type. This means a path in a jungle (dong)
where elephants (chang) regularly walk
past (kham). This kind of bald head is
bald from the forehead to the back but still with
hair on both sides. It is thus compared to a jungle
where a path had been cleared by elephants.
Ngam the-pho is the
third type of which the hairline above the forehead
recedes on the left and right but not in the middle,
thus resembling the tail of a the-pho fish
which is in the form of a two-prong fork (ngam).
The fourth type, chado ti
plaeng, is a head with a round bald area at
the top of the head. The hairless area is compared
to a circular muddy depression which chado
fish makes while swimming round in circles
(ti plaeng).
Raeng kraphu pik , meaning
a vulture (raeng) flapping (kraphu)
its wings (pik), is used to refer to a
bald head with a bunch of hair left at the top,
some in the areas near the ears and at the back
of the head, but nothing elsewhere.
Chik hang fad, which
mean raising (chik) a tail (hang)
and striking (fad) it on the head, is another
sort of bald head on which there is some thin
hair scattering, looking like the waves caused
by a fish striking its tail.
The last type is called raj
khlueng khrao, which means a king stroking
his beard. This type of bald head may refer to
any of the above which comes with a beard and
a hairy chest.
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