Professor Dr. Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol Graciously Presented the Royal Trophies to Winners of the 2023 National Buffalo Beauty Contest at the “2nd Udon Thani: People’s Ways of Life, Buffaloes’ Ways of Life, Thai Heritage, World Heritage Festival” at Khok Nong Ko Public Area, Thung Yai Subdistrict, Thung Fon District, Udon Thani Province
On November 19, 2023, Professor Dr. Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol graciously presented the Royal Trophies to the winners of the 2023 National Buffalo Beauty Contest in the “2nd Udon Thani: People’s Ways of Life, Buffaloes’ Ways of Life, Thai Heritage, World Heritage Festival”. The event was organized by Udon Thani Provincial Office, in collaboration with Udon Thani Provincial Administrative Organization, Udon Thani Provincial Livestock Office, the Association for Thai Buffalo Conservation and Development under the Royal Patronage, Udon Thani Rajabhat University, and a network of buffalo farmers in Udon Thani province, at the Khok Nong Ko public area, Thung Yai subdistrict, Thung Fon district, Udon Thani Province.
On this occasion, Her Royal Highness presented the Royal Trophies to the first-prize winners of the Grand Champion category, the owners of a male buffalo named Pee Mai from Ubon Ratchathani Province and a female buffalo named Khao Hom from Chai Nat Province, and to the runners up of the Reserve Champion category, the owners of a male buffalo named Wan Charoen from Nong Bua Lamphu Province and a female buffalo named Thong Tip from Nong Khai Province, totaling 4 awards. This year, 686 buffaloes from across the country entered the beauty contest. The Thai people are filled with joy and deep gratitude for the intention of Her Royal Highness to make people recognize the importance of conserving and developing Thai buffaloes, through promotion and care of the Thai buffaloes so that they remain a valuable part of the Thai society and agricultural traditions and livelihood. At present, the number of Thai buffaloes and their herders is diminishing on a continuous basis. Therefore, events like this are considered an attempt to conserve the Thai buffaloes and integrate them back into the ways of life of the Thai people once again.
Her Royal Highness graciously distributed royal commemorative brooches, on the occasion of the Buffalo Beauty Contest for the Royal Trophies, to 60 supporters of the event. Her Royal Highness also gave the opportunity for buffalo farmers to present Her with four male buffaloes, which possessed esthetic traits, for breeding improvement in order to acquire the beautiful characteristics to align with international standards.
Afterwards, Her Royal Highness visited the “Udon Thani: People’s Ways of Life, Buffaloes’ Ways of Life, Thai Heritage, World Heritage” exhibition. It showcased the background and operation of the volunteer doctors’ clinic. For instance, Udon Thani Provincial Livestock Office has set up a network of livestock volunteers to monitor and prevent foot and mouth disease and haemorrhagic septicemia, provide healthcare for buffaloes, and rabies vaccination for pets in Udon Thani Province. Buffaloes are indigenous animals that have long shared traditional ways of life with the Thai people. Therefore, the Udon Thani Provincial Office enhances on this concept by promoting culture, tradition, wisdom, livelihood, and combining identity to come up with the local northeastern products relevant to people’s and buffaloes’ ways of life, such as buffalo-patterned traditional reed mat weaving, buffalo-patterned traditional cloth weaving, and buffalo-shaped pottery making, etc. These activities will increase the potential of ecotourism and diverse nature to support tourism in secondary cities, using Thai buffaloes to reinforce “tourism based on local wisdom” in the four pilot districts of Mueang Udon Thani, Kut Chap, Nong Han, and Ban Dung. In the future, Khok Nong Ko public area will be promoted to a village for conservation and development of Thai buffaloes, serving as a new tourist destination and a buffalo-training school. Currently, there are 13,287 buffalo farmers in the province with 69,571 buffaloes, ranking 10th in the country.
Her Royal Highness graciously had two of Her buffaloes, Khun Petchkram and Khun Srimongkol, brought from the Tippiman Palace, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, to the event so that people would have the opportunity to admire their esthetic and auspicious characteristics. The two buffaloes possess the five auspicious characteristics of Magnificent Buffaloes according to ancient texts, namely, a flower-patterned face, flower-patterned tail, spotted colored hoofs, flat tail, and glass ball-carrying mouth (spotted colored mouth resembling a glass ball-carrying mouth). It is believed that the owner of such buffaloes will experience happiness, prosperity, and plentiful agricultural products. Once the buffalo reaches adulthood, the buffalo herd will be well taken care of. At this event, there was a display of award-winning Thai buffaloes with esthetic traits of various breeds, as well as well-trained intelligent Thai buffaloes. Her Royal Highness showed great interest and expressed Her support for the promotion of widespread conservation and development of Thai buffaloes. This initiative would create employment and professions, elevate and strengthen the communal and local economy, and ensure the sustainable existence of people’s ways of life, buffaloes’ ways of life, Thai heritage, and World heritage to remain side by side in the Thai society.
Public Relations Section, Office of the President
November 20, 2023
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