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Features

Cockfighting: the last, hidden link to Bali’s warlike past

The island’s image as a new-age nirvana isn’t much older than the middle-aged hippies who love it

3 January 2015

9:00 AM

3 January 2015

9:00 AM

Driving around Bali, the first thing I noticed was the big wicker baskets by the roadside. Inside each basket was a cockerel. I asked my friend Wayan why these birds were there. ‘They put them by the road to make them used to people,’ he told me. ‘Then they won’t be scared when it’s time for them to fight.’

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