Cult Wrestling Tournament of Death

From the oral account of Noy Castillo of Western Panay, Philippines.

In the mountainous area of western  Panay, there was  a wrestling tournament  propagated by various mountain tribe. It was called Dumog-Upas in their local dialect. In this tournament  the protagonist will fight with each other with outcome even resulting to death by one of them.

The arena is atop the plateau. As we climbed to the area I saw various  large stones place atop a rectangular mound. My friend told me that those  are graves of the fighters who died in the arena.

The arena is a circle with sands as the ground in contrast with the stony ground that surrounds it. It was ringed with split bamboo poles that also follow the shape of the circle. Spectators stay beyond the ring.

The protagonist were expert in the arts of wrestling, my friend told me. He said that their knowledge of the sports was handled from one generation to another. Although it was dangerous it survived up to this modern age for the sport was very popular to the mountain people, where most of them were pagans and had never been evangelized.

As we witness the opening fight I admired the body built of the fighters. They were naked up to the waist. They were lean with tight muscles all over the body. They were barefooted and dressed with tight shorts.

The rules were shouted at them. I heard the referee  telling them that eyes plucking and strangling were not allowed. Biting and head butt were prohibited too.

They will fight until somebody will surrender or until referee stopped them for fear of imminent death.

The fight started and both fighters exchanged grapples. Their bodies  slithered when held. They were also slippery for no fighters managed to clutched  and took advantage of each other after many minutes of fight.

Then, one of the smaller fighter caught the big one on his leg and locked it with his both arms. The big fighter fell down on his back and immediately his opponent plowed him on the sand in circle pattern.
The big one was bathed with sands suffocating his face. He was helpless for the lock was hard to untangle.

Sensing that his opponent was weakening now, the small fighter grabbed his body and raised it in the air to the applause of the spectators. Then he hammered him on the sand, head first. His opponent fell down with a loud thud. He lay unconscious and the referee stopped the fight.

The winning fighter collected all the various type of bets he won. Money, cattle and reptiles skins.

The loser was pronounced dead so the referee cancelled the all the fights that were lined for that day. He said  that the death on the first fight is an ominous sign that will render the other fights to follow more dangerous and fatal.