![A woman leads her painted buffalo onto a stage during a buffalo bodypainting competition in Jiangcheng county, Yunnan province A woman leads her painted buffalo onto a stage during a buffalo bodypainting competition in Jiangcheng county, Yunnan province](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014-05-18t075333z_813399993_gm1ea5i17.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
By Nolan Feeney
Those large, brown, beastly masses known as buffalo are rarely described as pretty, but this weekend a lucky few of them became works of art that would make all the others jealous.
Competing in a buffalo body-painting competition in the Jiancheng county of China’s Yunnan province, artists from eight different countries decked out the animals in wild patterns as they competed Sunday for bragging rights and a 100,00 yuan ($16,042) prize.
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com