Rhinoceros fights in Laos

For a long time, rhinoceroses have been used for fights meant to entertain both royalty and the masses in India. The best documented instances have been the battles organized by the Maharajah of Baroda (Vadodara, Gujarat) in 1864 and 1875 (Rookmaaker et al. 1998). It was pointed out to me by Mr. Henri Charpentier of Paris that there is evidence of similar induced combat in Laos. He referred me to a paragraph in a book about hunting animals in this Indochinese country published in 1939 by Guy Cheminaud. This passage reads as follows in translation: In former days the people of Laos made two male rhinoceroses fight each other. This was done for general excitement. These peaceful animals usually refused to fight. But human nature would not let them. People used to bath one of the animals in bluish indigo, and the other one in red blood. It appears that the colour difference decided the issue and the animals would start their fight. The battle would usually end when one of the animals was able to kill his adversary by striking his horn in the other's throat (Cheminaud 1939, p. 84). One would like to believe that the story is apocryphal, because there is so little evidence to go by. But to paint the animals in blue and red seems to be a novelty not found in other sources. If true, I for one would love to see a drawing of the event, like those produced in India. It may also be noted that the rhinoceros was rather often encountered in Laos in earlier days (Rookmaaker 1980). Although most sources are too general to indicate which species was involved, the most likely one is the Javan species (Rhinoceros sondaicus), now confined to populations in Java, Indonesia and in Vietnam. Or could we still hope for another re-discovery of the animals in Laos?