Naadam!

Today we went to Naadam [like the Mongolian Olympics + 4th of July: it's the celebration of the 805th anniversary of Chinggis Kahn's establishment of the Great Mongol Empire], where the three manly sports are contested: horse racing, archery, and wrestling. We had to get tickets from a scalper [an adventure in itself], and crammed ourselves into our "seats" - luckily for us, we weren't standing at the rails or in the aisles, where people kept toppling over and pushing and shoving. 

The opening ceremony featured a parade of traditional costumes, many dancing little girls in flowing capes and costumes, mounted Mongols in traditional garb, a 400-strong horse head fiddle orchestra [amazing!!] and the highlight: a veritable horde of Mongol warriors [hundreds and hundreds!] who performed maneuvers, ran, marched, and in a pinch, shrugged their shoulders to techno beats. At one point, they all got down on one knee as the women in traditional garb [carrying buckets - of airag?] danced through their ranks.

As the last warrior cleared the arena, the wrestlers came out: distinguishable by their hexagonal hats, upturned knee-high boots, frontless, cropped, sleeved coats, and speedos, they ranged in size from small and scrappy to absolutely gigantic. I think some of them must have been pushing 7'. Mongolian wrestling has no weight classes: it's just a series of one-on-one matches until eventually, there's an ultimate champion. There are no rounds in each match - one guy loses when he touches the ground with any part of his body other than his feet. The most curious part: each wrestler has his own "encourager," who holds his hat while he wrestles, and presumably, helps referee the match. Lasting hours sometimes, the ones we saw were quick - a minute or two - as in these early rounds, it's the giants paired up with the little guys. 

Next, we checked out the archery. We could get very, very close - as in a matter of feet - from the archers. We watched several rounds, of men, and of women too. They were pretty badass. The bows are made from layers of wood, bone, horn, etc, and are kept untensioned between rounds. Downrange, the judges reset the targets [black and red blocks] and sing out the results back to the scorekeeper. Everyone is such a good shot that the judges chat and don't even watch out for the slew of arrows that are continuously zinging only feet from them. 

We finished off the day with mutton-filled pancakes of fried dough, and now, finally, a much-needed Chinggis draft.

Outside the national Naadam stadium: the Mongol hordes arrive!

The Mongols on maneuvers.

So many Mongols!

Wrestlers wait to take on their opponents.

Female archer.

Female archer, just releasing a shot.

Female archers.

Down range, where the judges rely on the archers' excellent aim to prevent their getting shot...notice the targets at their feet: the black blocks.

Male archers.

Wrestling matches: wrestlers are in speedos, encouragers are in robes. There seemed to be dozens of matches going on at once, each one commencing with a sort of dance and a slapping of the thighs. I know it's hard to tell here, but I say again: these guys are huge.