Naadam Festival
It’s July and I cannot believe I’m in the enigmatic country of Mongolia. My father and I came to experience the annual Naadam festival, Mongolia’s most important national festival that celebrates sport, culture, local traditions and the history of the country.
During this week, the city of Ulaanbaatar becomes a quiet capital. Businesses close and locals head to the country with their families for a holiday away from the main festival goers.
Naadam dates back over 800 years when Chinggis Khaan (aka Genghis Khan in the Western part of the world) founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire instituted three sports… archery, horse racing and wrestling… as training to keep his soldiers battle ready. Naadam has now transformed to be a national holiday festival that is celebrated across the country.
Today Naadam is officially opened by the President of Mongolia in the main Sukhbaatar Square. Soldiers on horseback, dressed in warrior regalia, ceremonially carry Chinggis Khaan’s ‘nine horsetail banners’ of peace and eternity to the National Sports Stadium.
Archery
Mongolian Archery is steeped in tradition carried down through the generations. For nomadic tribes, archery was used as a main tool for hunting animals for food but also as a means of defense against potential dangers.
Today, Archery in Mongolia is about competition. These matches happen throughout the year and include a national championship at the main Naadam festival.
There are three different types of Archery (Buriad, Uriankhai and Khalkh), each with its own set of gear and rules. The targets and the range differ by type. For Khalkh (the most practiced on) competitors shoot at small leather cylinders called “hasaa” that sit on the ground. The center target of the stack sits the red “hasaa”. The idea behind it was that the row of baskets representing a man lying down on the ground and red baskets were his head; meaning success would be hitting a red “hasaa”.
The photographs below were made at the main Archery venue in Ulaanbaatar and at the Khanjargalant soum of the Bulgan province in the north.
Horse Racing
The main event, and probably the most exciting, are the horse races. As expected, most of the races happen away from cities and towns given that the space needed. Races range between 15 kilometers for young horses to 30 kilometers for the more seasoned.
One noticeable part of horse racing are the jockeys. They range in age from 6 to 12 years old. Most are trained by older family members who have also gone down the same path of learning to ride and racing at a young age.
Traditionally horses were ridden without out saddles and stirrups to keep the weight down, However, recent new regulations instituted require riders to wear protective gear and have accident insurance.
