OpenGL ES 2.0 and vertex buffer objects (VBO)

I can't figure out how to use a vertex buffer object for my terrain in opengl es 2.0 for iphone. It's static data so I'm hoping for a speed boost by using VBO. In regular OpenGL, I use display lists along with shaders no problem. However, in opengl es 2.0 I have to send the vertex data to the shader as an attribute and don't know how this works with the VBO. How can the vertex buffer know what attribute it has to bind the vertex data to when called? Is this even possible in opengl es 2.0? If not, are there other ways I can optimize the rendering of my terrain that is static?