Naadam – “The Three Manly Sports” (Erinn Gurvan Naadam)

1. Wrestling

Wrestling is national sport of Mongolia; it is the highlight of the Three Games of Men during Naadam (July 11-13). There are no weight categories or age limits in Mongolian national wrestling and during Naadam, every willing and curious man is given an equal chance to compete (including the American PC boys of Dulaankhaan host community; video footage link yet to be posted). The wrestlers wear heavy boots, a very small tight-fitting loincloth, a pair of sleeves which meet across the back of the shoulders resembling a tiny vestige of a jacket, and a pointed cap of velvet. It is rumored that this “uniform” came to be because during one Naadam, a woman had beaten all the contestants (wrestling is the one sport during Naadam that is reserved only for men to participate). The contestants come out on the field leaping and dancing, flapping their arms in imitation of an eagle (the “Eagle Dance”), then slaps with both hands his thighs and buttocks – a sign to his opponent that he is ready to begin.





2. Horse Racing

Mongolia’s second-biggest sport is horse racing. Jockeys are children between the ages of five and 12 (Mongolian children have been riding since infancy; “The nomad is born in the saddle”), racing their horses over open countryside rather than around a track; courses range from 15km-30km, depending on the age of the horses. The winning horse receives the honorary tile of ‘tumnii ek’ or ‘leader of 10,000’.




3. Archery

Archers use a bent composite bow made of layered horn, bark and wood. Arrows are made of willow and feathers from vultures and other birds of prey. The distance is 75m for men and 60m for women. Men shoot 40 arrows and must score greater than 15 points; women shoot 20 arrows and must score great than 13 points using the same bow. The winner earns the title of ‘mergeb’ or ‘super marksman’.

Replacing One National Holiday for Another

Happy Independence Day! How odd it will be to celebrate an American holiday so very far away from the county it was meant to commemorate, especially having had celebrated the last seven 4th-of-Julys in Washington, DC. At least I will be amongst a large group of Americans, happy to introduce their fellow Mongolian neighbors to an American tradition. The next three days in Darkhan (away from our host communities) will be a nice break from the intensity of daily language classes and give everyone an opportunity to gather their bearings (i.e. check email that runs at “normal” speeds, stock up on hair conditioner at the local Nomans). The schedule includes a hot shower, ‘barbecue’ (there are rumors of hot dogs and pizza), basketball tournament (PST trainers vs. trainees; pictures from the tournament below), and evening festivities at the familiar Darkhan Hotel bar.





This day also marks the halfway point through PST (Pre-Service Training). The mid-LPIs (Language Proficiency Interviews) were given today (as practice for the final-LPIs in August). My Mongolian – after being in-country for over four weeks and three weeks of intensive language training at four hours a day/five days a week and living with a non-English speaking Mongolian family of five – is worse than my spoken Spanish. Knowing three previous languages before attempting to learn Mongolian actually leaves me at a disadvantage; my brain scrambles the vocabulary in one “dictionary” and what comes out is a combination of confusing phrases and sounds: “Muy Sain!”(Spanish-Mongolian). My tongue was not designed to pronounce “l-th” and “ts” sounds; I am doomed to sound like a blabbing foreigner in my site community for the next two years. For this, I am thankful that my program – CYD (Community Youth Development) – involves me working directly with children; they are far fairer judges of mistakes and blunders.

Naadam is also quickly approaching (July 11), a Mongolian national sports festival that celebrates the “three manly sports” – The Three Main Games of Men – of wrestling, archery, and horseracing. Under the old communist regime Naadam used to be preceded by military parades and workers’ demonstrations in central Ulan Bator’s Sukhbaatar Square (Сүхбаатарын талбай) to mark the anniversary of the establishment in 1921 of Mongolia’s revolutionary government. Nowadays, the three-day festival is held in the city stadium with a colorful ceremony combining national and quasi-religious elements.

Replacing one national holiday for another… Those wrestling underwear are another sight in themselves. I’ll post pictures of the festival as soon as I can.