Naadam Festival

Finally the Mongolian Naadam Festival where 20 stone wrestlers battle in boots, prance around in local costumes (apparently designed to deter ladies from entering!) and wave their hands around when dancing, archers who sing to their arrows before firing them over 50 metres at judges who stand right next to the targets, ankle bone throwing and horse racing by very young boys over 20km. The Naadam festival is Mongolia's summer sport spectacular and we are here to witness it all. We had been trying to buy tickets for the opening ceremony since we arrived in Ulaanbaatar but with no joy. So like tourists we headed for the Naadam Stadium anyway to find the ticket touts. When we arrived a lady offered us some tickets for two days at a cost of $50 we declined as we thought we'd get it cheaper. After an hour of looking for any touts we could not find any more. Oh no what had we done? Had our one and only chance to get tickets had passed us by? Whilst we were looking it was great to see all the traditional Mongolians who had dressed up in all their finery best for the occasion. It was fast approaching 11am and the opening ceremony was about to start, we were now getting desperate. We noticed crowds of people at each entrance and finally - we had found the touts. Jody saw a lady who had 2 tickets for two days and she grabbed her! We dragged her away from the rest of the people clambering for tickets, got her on her own and agreed a price. And yes they cost us $50 the same price as the lady earlier in the morning! 2 hours wasted. Never-mind - all part of the fun. So we’d done it! We had our tickets and headed for gate number 9, found our seat and sat down at 11:10am, it was just starting. Oh YES we made it! The nine yak-tail banners had already been brought to the stadium from parliament house and stood in pride of place in the middle of the stadium guarded by four, traditionally dressed, soldiers who stood very very still. Then just as with the Olympics, people started dancing, singing and providing us with a spectacular display of colour and music. From the band, soldiers on horse back and soldiers fighting, to women in colourful dresses, dancing with ribbons, and 1000 horse-head violins. It was spectacular. It lasted for about two hours, worth every penny. First sport was the wrestling. You had huge men who looked some 7 foot high fighting small teenagers weighing in around 10 stones fighting each other. Before they started the wrestling each contestant would perform a small dance around the judge, the judge would remove the wrestlers hat and then the wrestler would dance in front of the yak-tail banners before returning for the fight. Many fights happened at the same time and it was hard to keep up with what was happening, although when one of the small wrestlers managed to knock over a larger wrestler a huge cheer from the crowd went up. Some of the wrestling went on for a good 20 minutes and then finally one of the wrestlers would knock over the opponent and then the winner would race to the yak-tails and dance we such passion and happiness at winning it was great. It was all very friendly too as they always went back to pat their opponent on the back before having a quick interview with the reporters. It’s big business here and everyone is really into it. Later we left the main stadium an headed for the archery. On the way we came across many stalls selling food, airag and beer. We even spotted the police drinking airag which just shows you how relaxed everyone was. We were however very vigilant about pick pockets and at one point Bryan felt his camera go loose on his shoulder. Some one had cut the shoulder strap and was trying to pinch his camera. Luckily he noticed this an grabbed his camera before it could be stolen. The archery stadium was open with the competitors standing some 50 metres from the targets and all in brilliant coloured traditional costume. The men were standing a little further behind the woman. Archers use a bent composite bow made of layered horn, bark of wood. Arrows are made from willow and the feathers are from vultures and other birds of prey. They shoot their arrows towards the targets and when they get a direct hit in the centre red blocks, the judges who stand near the targets emit a short cry called uukhai and raise their hands in the air to indicate the quality of the shot. Close by to the archery is a small building where they are ankle bone throwing which is quite a bizarre sport, where an ankle bone is placed about 5 metres away from the competitors and they flick, what look like square bones at the ankle bone. The first to knock it over gets a point and it continues until the one with the most points wins. They take this sport very seriously and the faces on the competitors is quite a picture. Outside the main stadium, lots of stall holders have set up selling everything from umbrellas, old fashioned children’s toys (windmills etc - when was the last time you saw a child playing with a windmill in England?) They has lots of traditional style fairground games too; hoopla - over horses heads, knock the cans off the shelf - with an onion!, and have a go archery. Jody had a go and after a bit of a fumbled start, got some brilliant shots off - so much so the boys running the stall were so impressed and gave her another go. The festival lasted three days, with the wrestling being the main sport, watched on TV's in the bars and at people's homes. We did watch the finals of the wrestling, but to be fair it was same-same with just the crowds giving bigger roars when they knocked over their opponents. We were so glad we got tickets for the festival and could enjoy and feel part of a the ceremony. It was amazing to see and a memory that will stay with us forever. At the end of the third day, we had tickets for a Traditional Mongolian Cultural show at the theatre. Something we had been told by other people who had been, was quite good. However, nothing could have prepared us for such a brilliant evening. The music, the dancers, the orchestra and the singers came together in such a riot of colour and life that we wanted it to last longer than the hour and a half it did. We bought the CD of the music and singing after the show but we have nothing to play it on. Oh well, something to look forward to when we get home.