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Next: about 17 Oct 2027

Karapan sapi, the President's Cup final

The final of the Madurese bull-racing season, when pairs of yoked bulls pull a jockey on a wooden sledge down a 130-metre track.

Karapan sapi merupakan istilah untuk menyebut perlombaan pacuan sapi yang berasal dari Pulau Madura, Jawa Timur. Pada perlombaan ini, sepasang sapi yang menarik semacam kereta dari kayu dipacu dalam lomba adu cepat melaw
Photo: Ivuvisual, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cattle at Karapan sapi, the President's Cup final

Karapan sapi is the bull race of the island of Madura, off East Java. From about July to October, after the tobacco harvest, heats are held in towns across the island's four regencies. Two bulls are yoked to a light wooden sledge, a jockey stands or crouches on it, and pairs race over about 130 metres in a few seconds. Before the race the bulls are paraded in gilded yokes and bright cloths to the music of a saronen band. The season ends with a final for the President's Cup, usually on a Sunday in October. Welfare groups and religious leaders have long asked organisers to stop painful goading, and rules now forbid it.

The breeds

MaduraThe island's own small, fast breed, part banteng and part zebu.Bali cattleThe domestic banteng, one of Madura cattle's two ancestors.
About this page

Written by the EveryCow desk with AI assistance. Background: "Karapan sapi" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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