Classroom » Multimedia
Close-up view of the front half of a water buffalo at Mai Chau
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- May 1997
- Location
- Mai Chau, Vietnam
- License
- This photograph copyright ©1997. Terms of use
See this photograph in context
- Rice farming and rural life in Vietnam: Photographs and text tell the story of rice and rural life in Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on the highlanders, or Montagnards. (Page 7)
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for animals, buffalo, farming, highlanders, livestock, Mai Chau, rural life, and Vietnam.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
A water buffalo tethered at Mai Chau village is seen in a close-up view of his head and front legs. A locally-made fiber harness is tied around the buffalo’s head and large horns.
Water buffalo are mostly gentle creatures used to pull plows and turn soil in preparation for the planting of wet-rice fields. Buffalo also sometimes are eaten at major community feasts. Traditionally, buffalo were a major source of wealth for Southeast Asian families. They still are favored in highland wet-rice areas where neither humans not machinery can move as easily through the deep, sticky mud fields.
