Kambala - the most awaited traditional sport of tulunadu (Coastal Karnataka, India). It is the traditional buffalo race in the slush water held during December to March in various districts of Coastal Karnataka. The buffalo's running at headlong speed, it is an absolutely breath taking and thrilling experience. The racetrack is around 159 mts and the buffaloes take 20/30/40 seconds to complete the track. You can get the detailed information about the Kambala at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambala
Years back, there were paddy fields throughout Mangalore city and each region would organize annual Kambala events. With time, all the regions stopped farming, sold the land, fields turned out to monstrous buildings but Kadri Kambala field being in the midst of the city has kept the cultural game alive until last year. Kadri Kambala is also known as Devara Kambala, as it is related to Kadri Manjunatha Temple.
It was disheartening to see the Kadri Kambala field filled with soil on one side. At first, my thought was they sold this land of cultural importance. Later, while browsing through the news I studied that due to some land dispute, they had to stop this and the bottom line is there will be no more Kambala’s organized in this place. In spite, there will not be any Kambalas within Mangalore city as Kadri Kambala is the only one, which was organised within the city.
The coming generation has already lost many historical, cultural experiences. Kambala was one such event, which our current generation was witnessing. One by one, even this experience is stolen from the next generation.
Few of the picture memories from Kadri Kambala of year 2011.
P.S: Image is copyright protected to Prashant Bhandare. Anyone who wants to publish or use these images for any purpose, please contact the concerned for permission.
