Naadam Festival: Mongolia's Three Manly Games

Picture a grassland so wide the horizon bends. Then picture it filling with riders, wrestlers and archers, and a roar of "Uukhai!" rising each time an arrow finds its mark. This is Naadam (那达慕), the great summer festival of the Mongol people — celebrated both in independent Mongolia and across China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Its full name, Eriin Gurvan Naadam, means "the three games of men," and those games are wrestling, horse racing and archery. They are not sports in the modern sense so much as the survival skills of a nomadic civilization, performed as spectacle.

A Warrior's Holiday

Naadam's roots reach back centuries. The tradition is tied to Genghis Khan (1162–1227): after uniting the Mongol tribes in 1206, he gathered his people for reviews and contests of strength, turning wrestling, archery and riding into the basic skills every Mongol male was expected to master. What began as military training and victory celebration became, by the Yuan dynasty, a fixed cultural format.

"Mongolian Naadam is inseparably connected to the nomadic civilization of the Mongols." — UNESCO, on inscribing Naadam in 2010

In 2010 Naadam was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In China it had already entered the first national ICH list on May 20, 2006. In Inner Mongolia it is typically held in July or August and lasts one to five days.

Wrestling (Bökh): The Eagle Dance

Wrestling is the prestige event. There are no weight classes and no time limit; a wrestler loses the moment any part of his body above the knee or ankle touches the ground. Competitors wear the zodog (an open leather vest) and shuudag (briefs), and before each bout they flap their arms like eagle wings — a gesture borrowed from the steppe's master bird. Tournaments can field 512 or 1,024 wrestlers in single elimination; winners earn ranks named after animals: falcon, elephant, lion, even "titan" (avraga) for repeat champions.

Horse Racing: Children and the Open Steppe

Mongolian horse racing is nothing like a racetrack sprint. Races run 15 to 30 kilometres across open country, and the jockeys are children, usually aged five to thirteen, light enough not to tire the small, tough Mongolian horse. Before the start they sing the "giingoo" to encourage their mounts. The first five horses are honoured; tellingly, the last horse in the two-year-old class also gets a prize, for it is believed to win the following year.

Archery: Precision Over Distance

Archery uses the traditional composite bow and sur targets — cylinders stacked into a low wall. Men shoot from about 75 metres, women from 65. Teams of ten loose four arrows each; every hit draws the crowd's "Uukhai!" Unlike wrestling, archery is open to women and girls, as is children's horse racing.

More Than Three Sports

Around the core contests, Naadam is a full cultural gathering:

• Shagai — games played with sheep anklebones, used for both divination and fun.
• Khuushuur — fried parcels of mutton or beef, eaten by the stadium-load.
• Airag — fermented mare's milk, the festival's signature drink.
• Deel robes — everyone wears their finest traditional coat.
• Long song and Biyelgee dance to open the holiday.

Naadam in China's Inner Mongolia

In China the festival's predecessor was the aobao sacrifice — heaping stones on a cairn to pray for safety and harvest, followed by sport. Today Inner Mongolia hosts Naadam in locations from Xilinhot to the Gegentala grassland, often fused with bonfire parties, Mongolian chess and track events. Anyone may compete, regardless of ethnicity or faith.

Naadam is the most anticipated event of the year for many Mongols — a chance for families to gather and the nation to celebrate its heritage. — State Council Information Office (SCIO)

Whether in Ulaanbaatar's National Stadium or a soum on the Chinese side of the border, Naadam is less a competition than a declaration: we are a people of the horse, the bow and the open ground. The games may be 800 years old, but on the steppe they feel like tomorrow.

Sources

• UNESCO — "Mongolian Naadam" (Representative List, 2010)
• State Council Information Office (SCIO) / China.org.cn — "The Naadam Festival: A feast for the grassland nomads"
• ChinaCulture.org; CNN Travel (Naadam feature)