Naadam, the festival of three manly sports, has finally arrived! Celebrating the warm(er) weather and Mongolia's three favorite pastimes, Naadam is cause for great jubilation around the country. Although UB supposedly has a great opening ceremony, every Mongolian we talk to says we are lucky to be spending Naadam in the provincial town of Hatgal.
The festival is three days long, but the first two contain most of the excitement apparently. We hitched a ride from a passing van (hitchhiking is neither dangerous nor unusual here), cramming in 18 people and heading to the fairground. Once we got there, my stomach immediately began to turn.
You see, when we arrived in Mongolia, our friend Anarmaa suggested that Brian and I wrestle in Naadam. We had naively accepted. Throughout the trip, the wrestling match began to loom larger and larger in our future. First, we wrestled a Mongolian student at the camp-- both of us were down in about 5 seconds. Next, Anarmaa explained to an old, Mongolian woman that we planned to wrestle; the woman burst into the heartiest belly laugh of the trip. Now, I was seeing the wrestlers in the flesh, and they were big.
Naadam is a festival for all ages, though, so we watched the "pro" wrestlers start out versus five to eight year old wrestlers. The pros would basically pick them up and then set them down on their backs, and as long as anything but the wrestler's palms or feet touches the ground, he is out.
Eventually, we figured out that we would wrestle at the end of the first round. I breathed a sigh of relief. The first round is swollen with wrestlers as novices and experts alike compete in Mongolia's best loved sport. Basically, I could eat before I had to wrestle.
When the time for wrestling came, I was still nervous, but now for a different reason. Before anyone wrestles, they must complete an extensive, ritual dance. Brian and I had done our best to watch and learn. Slap the front and back of the thighs like a camel, then fly like an eagle around the referee. Allow him to remove the hat. Stand before the horse hair altar and flap like an eagle again...
After a disastrous eagle dance on my part, it was finally time to wrestle. My opponent was slightly bigger than me (no weight classes) and a hell of a lot stronger. I lunged at his legs, but he stopped me by grabbing my shoulders. I grabbed his to stabilize myself. With our arms interlocked, we pushed back and forth for at least a minute. I heard Brian fall. I tried for my opponents legs again to no avail. This guy was immovable! Then he gave one good twist with his arms that sent me falling. The match was over.
Needless to say, I was full of adrenaline for the rest of the day. The excitement of the match quickly overflowed into watching the horse race finish. I couldn't believe the speed at which the five year old riders pushed their horses (bareback!) across the finish line after 30km! The distance the archers shot their arrows astounded.
On the second day, the real wrestling started, with people like me well out of the way. The guys got bigger, the eagle dances got better, and the crowd got boisterous. Still, if I had only had a shot at the winner...
[Note: the title of this post translates to "Those who are enjoying Naadam..." The announcer said it before every news bulletin.]
1 comment:
Wow, you have interesting story to tell.
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