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horse riding
ICH Elements 12
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Traditional knowledge related to the technique of making horse equipment
Acknowledgment of the role of a horse is expressed in traditional horse equipment, which is divided into protective equipment and items that provide comfortable and safe position of the rider. Significant attention was also paid to an artistic decoration of details. Items of the horse equipment are made of metal, leather and wood, and decorated with stylized plant and animal motifs. Soft types of wood are used to make a saddle. Pine, poplar and beech timber possess suppleness; they do not crack or break easily. Peculiarity of the Kyrgyz saddle is a long front pommel (kash). This detail serves to tie the bridle. A good saddle is necessarily covered with leather and decorated. Stirrups for saddle can be made of leather or metal. Horse girth represents a wide durable leather belt. Metallic parts of the harness are also richly decorated. Kamchy (horsewhip) is composed of elegant handle and whip made of tightly intertwined leather.
Kyrgyzstan -
Kokpar tartu, Kazakh traditional horse sport game
Kokpar Tartu (in Kazakh means 'taking goat away' is a traditional competition of horse riders for a goat carcass. 'Kokpar' or 'Kok bori' in Kazakh means 'grey wolf'. Originally kokpar attributed to three factors: 1) the players portray predatory steppe wolf attacking a herd and likewise destroy their sheep; 2) it is possible that in this way before fleeing with the production, so, probably, rescued from captivity the wounded batyr; 3) linked with the struggle of phratry for the carcass of an animal totem. This game is known among other peoples of Central Asia and East (Kyrgys Kok boru traditional game was inscribed to the Representative list in 2017). There are two versions of the game. The most common is 'zhalpy-tartys' ('common competition), where the winner will be the most skillful horseman. Another version of the game 'doda-tartys' (contest of two teams) - a struggle between the two groups, which include a certain number of riders participating in the contest. So, one of the riders jumps with a dead goat carcass, and the rest of the team's players are trying to take away the carcass. The aim of the game is to pick up and bring the goat carcass to the set location. Participation in kokpar tartu requires a high training of members, as this contest of the strength, agility, endurance, ability to stay in the saddle.
Kazakhstan -
Naadam, Mongolian traditional festival
The Mongolian Naadam is inseparably connected to the nomadic civilization of the Mongols who have practiced pastoralism on Central Asia’s vast steppe for centuries. Mongols’ traditional Naadam festival consisting of three manly games is considered as one of major cultural heritage elements which Mongols contributed to the nomadic civilizations. The three types of sports games – archery, horserace and wrestling – are directly linked with lifestyles and living conditions of Mongols and thus become the authentic cultural traditions among nomads. National Naadam is celebrated from July 11 to 13 throughout the country, in soums (counties), aimags (provinces), and the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Naadam represents distinct features of Mongolians’ nomadic culture and traditions, with expression of their unique cultural characteristics and images to become an identity of Mongolian people to the outside world. Thus, Mongolian Naadam has served a key factor to unite the Mongolian people and an important symbol of national solidarity. Mongolian people develop their physical strength, strong will power, patience, space and time related sensitivity and friendly hospitality from the three manly games which provides the cognitive and moral education basis. Main bearers of this cultural heritage are practitioners of the three games. i.e. those who significant part of the Mongolia population. Currently, over 100,000 people practice the traditional wrestling in various clubs and training courses, in addition to 3,000 students studying in several wrestling universities and colleges. Besides, the home schooling is considered one of most effecient forms, as it is the main traditional method to teach and learn the wrestling. Youths who practice wrestling would develop postive personalities such as being friendly, caring to the elderly and modest, besides strong will power, physical strength and courage. The main bearers of horserace appear racehorse trainers and jokey-children. Nowadays, about 400-500 horserace tournaments take place annually and altogether 200,000 horses (some recounted across tournaments) participate in them. About 100,000 racehorse trainers normally train these horses, while over 70,000 children ride and race. Besides, the audience of those tournaments would reach over 300,000 people. The Mongolian traditional home schooling provides extensive knowledge and skills, traditions and customs, culture and art elements of horserace. Compared to other two forms, relatively fewer people (about 10,000) practice and are interested in archery. Similarly, home schooling methods tend to dominate in learning and transmitting archery that family members and relatives become archers a lot. There are hundreds of thousand artisans and craftmen who make various tools and items used in the three manly games through employing meticulous skills and design to make them as collections of various art pieces. For instance, wrestling outfits – hat, boots and shorts, racehorse saddles and jokey’s outfits, and bows and arrows used in archery competitions have specific traditional technology and techniques each. These three sports games make a core blend of traditional arts and sports. Title-singing of horses and wrestlers indicate musical elements embracing songs and melodies. • Wrestling. After the wrestling site has been chosen based on the quality of the grass and the flatness of the site, the wrestling matches begin. Judges in groups of 8, 16, or 32 are divided into two groups which line up at the right and left side of the wrestling site and the wrestlers are divided into two groups at the left and right wings. To present the wrestler to the audience, judges will hold the participant's hat and sing praise songs while the wrestler performs an eagle dance before assuming the position to begin. Wrestling is not only a display of strength and bravery; it is also a competition of skill and technique. The object of the match is to make one’s competitor to fall on the ground with his elbows, knees or any other part of the body touching the ground, at which point he loses. Wrestlers who lose in each round will get eliminated from the tournament. The number of rounds differs from tournament to tournament. There are often 9 rounds at the national festival which takes place on July 11-12 annually and altogether 512 wrestlers wrestle. A half leaves after each round. From the fifth round, winning wrestlers can earn titles starting from hawk, falcon, elephant, garuda /mythical bird/, and lion, to the coveted champion. Wrestlers are divided into two groups or so-called ‘wings’ that the highest ranking wrestlers are listed at the top depending on their titles, such as first grand champions, then champions, lions, garudas, elephants, hawks, falcons etc. • Horserace. Horse-trainers choose potential race horses among horse flocks and train them meticulously, carefully adjusting their daily training and diet. Horse races are grouped in age-specific categories such as stallions, adults, 4-years old, 3-years old, 2-years old and 1-year old which race in different distance categories from 10 km to 30 km. Race horses have their mane and tails trimmed to improve their appearance while their trainers use specially crafted wooden sticks or a brush to remove the sweat from the horse after the race. These sweat-removing tools are often carved and decorated with traditional patterns and images of horses to symbolize their strength. Young riders wear special clothing including the deel and hat. Typically, children aged 6-10 years old jockey racehorses. When registration of the applicant horses is completed, the race administrator rides around the Naadam site three times, while children riding race horses sing ‘Giingoo’ to raise spirits of horses before racing. The winning horse is given the title of ‘Tumnii ekh’ (the mightiest of all), whereas the last horse in the race is given a nickname ‘Buren jargal’ “complete happiness”. The praise song is performed to congratulate winning horses and is called ‘singing titles’. • Archery. This competition is divided into two categories; Khana sur (big bow) and Khasaa sur (small bow). Men shoot from a distance of 75 meters to the target, and women from 65 meters. The target is called ‘zurkhai’, and is made of leather balls neatly lined along the flat ground in two rows. Each archer shoots 40 arrows and the one who shoots the most targets wins.
Mongolia 2010 -
Kok boru, traditional horse game
‘Kok-boru’ is a traditional game played by two teams on horseback, where the players try to maneuver with a goat's carcass, or ‘ulak’ and score by putting it into the opponents' goal, or ‘tai-kazan,’ while riding on their horse companions. Modern games last for 60 minutes, with 3 periods of 20 minutes each. The team scoring most ulaks into the opponent tai-kazan wins.
Kyrgyzstan 2017 -
Kuda Pasu
"Kuda Pasu" dance is a traditional dance that has been passed down through the ages and still practiced today. This dance is originally from Bajau ethnic from Kota Belud Sabah. "Kuda Pasu" dance symbolize riding a horse movement, originally "Kuda Pasu" dance is for wedding ceremony and use to welcome the groom. Now it can be performing at any event or ceremony. The movement of this dance is related to martial art move becouse apart from horse movement there is "Silat" too. Music of this dance called "Tigad-Tigad". It is a main bit of song that play by some musical instrument like "gong", "kulintangan", "gendang" and "babamdil".
Malaysia -
Teri Onderu - Traditional leather processing
Traditional leather processing and dyeing techniques are widely used in Shubarkuduk (Western Kazakhstan), which also hosts a school for teaching these techniques to young people. Leather utensils, serve as a 'refrigerator', which can withstand any changes in temperature. The freshness of kymyz (mare's milk) and shubat (camel milk) kept in such way. The tradition of leather craft, method of treatment passed down from generation to generation. Currently, the synthesis of professional creative activities and traditional motifs of the past is seen as the source of the revival of the classical tradition. These days, leather utensils fail to fulfill its utilitarian function, people mostly use it as a souvenir. Traditional technique of leather processing is used along with modern methods. The leather is used to produce men’s belts (kumys beldyk); hunting belt with accessories (kyseh beldyk with powder flask, pouch, fire striker, and sheath for a knife); women’s belt (belbeu); traditional footwear (yetyk, kebys, myasy); leather braided whip (khamshy), four, six and eight strand whip (used for horse riding); twelve and fourteen strand whip (used for protection from wolf attack); a quiver for arrows; a sheath for knives, swords, and sabers; leather shields. There are also leather vessels for mare’s milk: kauhar (flat vessel with narrow neck), torsykh (a vessel with rounded handles), mess (water skin), sabah (a large vessel tailored from goatskin). Traditional fur hats are widespread in Kazakhstan, namely tymakh and boryk with a lining made from fox, wolf, muskrat or mink fur and pushpakh tymakh made from fox paws; as well traditional men’s clothes (shapan and zharghakh) light coat made from light and soft suede and decorated with fine silk embroidery. Kazakh suede was one of the most valuable goods of the Silk Road and was traded as expensively as Chinese silk. One of the most common techniques used by Kazakh artisans is hot stamping on leather with metal plates called khalyp. Nowadays the national artistic traditions and new creative trends reflected in the works of modern masters and artists, where the ancient stamping technology has been preserved almost intact. . Embossing is made on soaked leather on the underside using special wooden plates with a desired carved design. Leather is clamped between two wooden plates and left to air-dry naturally. The design used for decorating leather is similar to the one used for making carpets. The central field filled with khoshkhar muyiz (sheep horn pattern) and khos myuiz (a cross-piece made of paired sheep horns). For the border, usually a plant design is used. The leather can be decorated with shaped metal plates with silver inlay. Embossed leather can be used for decorating wooden chests (zhaghlan). Along with embossing, incrustation with colored leather (kok saur), velvet and gold embroidery on leather is used.
Kazakhstan -
Lbaeng Veay Kon Koal (Khmer Traditional Golf Game)
“Lbaeng Veay Kon Koal” is a kind of game that is played in many countries. They have played the game from ancient times to the present day, especially in India. This game has two types: "Horseback Rider" and "Pedestrian Runner". But today in Cambodia, this horse-riding golf is gone, no one has ever seen or heard of it, only the sculpture on the terrace of the north corner of Angkor Thom, which is probably built during the late 12th century or early 13th century. On foot, golf is still played today, for example, in Prek Sangke village, Koh Sor Tin district, Kampong Cham, and Kampong Speu provinces. This Veay Kon Koal game can be called in different names by different districts or regions across Cambodia. Those names are "Veay Kon Koal", "Veay Bror Dum" or “Leng Pek.” To play the game, People have to divide themselves into two groups to compete like in football. The number of people is not limited, more or less, depending on whether there are people or not. This game is often played in rice fields or farm fields that have been harvested, along the wide trails or sometimes in the fields with water up below the knee. The main equipment for this game is golf/ball and sticks. The golf (or so-called "Kon Bror Dum" are usually made of light spruce wood, such as Derm Ror Lous or Derm Kor Chang to be rounded and dried. Otherwise, they use coconut or palm fruit. The sticks or hooks for beating, are made from the branch of a palm tree or Kandol tree, Sangke tree, Trabek tree, Krasang tree or any wood that as big as the size of Kid’s wrist. The stick should be smooth and the grip should bend in order to make it easy to hold or they can use Russey Ping Pung, Russey Prech, Russey Prei, Pdoa which has a curve trunk. This game can be played both day and night, and if played at night, they burn the golf ball almost become live coal, which is then called the "fireball". Before playing, they set a "goal" on either side of each group, depending on the size of the yard, and plugged in a piece of wood to mark the place. At the start of the game, both teams line up facing each other with golf balls which is in the middle of the playing field and each team has to choose a representative to stand in the middle in front of the golf ball. Then the two of them hold the stick and raise the interface or confront each other to be ready "Kae", hit gently, changing from right to left and from left to right 3 times. Then both players hit the ball and run past the opponent’s goal. If the player runs past any team, that team is lose. This game does not allow the players to use their hands, but they can use their feet, instead. The game will be in vain and the golf ball will have to be Kae again.
Cambodia -
The craftsmanship of Mongol boots
The Mongol boots are made up of vamps, leather bootlegs, hide soles, clips and welts. The Mongol boots are ideal for horse riding, they are spacious, and the upturned tips prevent one from being caught in the stirrups. Mongolian boots are named for the number of the ornaments on it, starting mostly from eight and extending up to thirty-two. The craftsmanship of Mongol boots is a complex art of hand-making workmanship of craftsmen skilled with their ancestral inheritance, through already-set and special technique, style and design.
Mongolia -
Chibdrel: Traditional Ceremonial Reception
The literal meaning of Chib-drel is ‘the procession led by the riding horse’. It is the traditional way of receiving important dignitaries as a gesture of honour and respect appropriate to their positions and importance. Such dignitaries range from heads of state to religious heads and high-ranking officials. The procession comprises monks equipped with their traditional orchestral instruments, namely trumpets, clarinets, drums and cymbals, which they play as they walk. The procession also includes a number of other participants such as Pacham (hero dancers) and folk dancers in traditional costume, persons carrying auspicious symbols and substances, people carrying flags associated with deities, and a hierarchy of officials, bodyguards and attendants.
Bhutan -
Chogān, a horse-riding game accompanied by music and storytelling
“Chogān” is a traditional horse-riding game which is accompanied by music and storytelling. In Chogān, two rider teams compete and the aim is to pass the Gūy (ball) through the opposing team’s goal posts by using a Chogān (wooden stick). The team with a higher number of goals wins the game. It is played in an open area called Meydān in several “Chukkeh”s (rounds). Chogān differs in the size of the Meydān, the number of Chukkehs and "Chogānbāzān" (players) depending on the region. The game of Chogān includes: Chogānbāzi (the main game), the corresponding musical performance and, storytelling (Naqqāli and Morshedkhāni etc.). Given that the game needs a level Meydān, several Chogān horses, and skilled Chogānbāzān, it is mostly performed in specific places and major events including Nowrouz, and other local and national occasions. The audience for the game are mostly locals, the players’ family members and people interested in this entertaining game. Chogān has more than 2000 years of history in Iran and has mostly been played in royal courts and urban fields. Because of its connection with elements like the family (players and artists), nature, horses and arts, Chogān is of paramount importance in the Iranian culture. Today, the patterns and figures related to Chogān have a strong presence in the motifs used in Iranian handicrafts, traditional miniature paintings, architectural ornaments and stone engravings as well as the Iranian literature and languages.
Iran 2017 -
Zergerlyk - Kazakh jewelry art
Jewellery art (kaz. 'zergerlyk') - is knowledge and skills in the field of traditional Kazakh art manufacturing of silverware. Since ancient times, there were produced a variety of silver jewelry: rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, buckles and much more. Especially highly prized precious silver vessels, such as jugs, bowls, mugs, decorated with engraved images. Archeological findings suggest that Kazakh people achieved a higher level in the development of jewellery making. Chylik findings were made using such techniques as stamping, engraving, true grain, incrustation (VII-V century BC); Issyk finding included “Golden warrior” (IV-III century BC); Berel kurgan findings (IV-VI century BC) from Eastern Kazakhstan are the testimony of a unique “animal style” in jewellery making. Jewellery is mainly made with silver. This craft is widespread across Kazakhstan but each region has its specifications concerning technique and design. Jewelry sets are made for men, women, and children; as well jewellery making is used for decorating musical instruments, household items, weaponry and horse gears; some made for rituals, others have symbolic or sacred value. Zergerlyk used for making details in men’s clothing, rider’s gear, horse riding gear, for example, horse equipment (er-tuman), traditional belts (beldyk, kyseh beldyk and kyemer belbeu), sword and knives’ handles and scabbards, powder flask (okhshantai), snuffboxes (nasybai). Women’s decorative items include forehead jewellery (shekelyk), braid jewellery (shashbau), earrings (syrgha), necklaces (alkhah, onirzhiyek, tumar), bracelets and cuffs (bilezyk), rings (zhuzyk), belt buckles (khapsyrmah), buttons (tyuime), personal hygiene items (tyss tazlaghysh, khulakh tazlaghysh), tools for crafting, spindle (urshykh), thimble (oymakh). Zergers also make child’s cradle set: bessyk (cradle), shumek (tube to flow urine), syldyrmakh (rattle), yemyzik (pacifier), tumar (amulet, charm) and other items. The jewelry pieces in the form of circle, oval, triangle, half oval, rectangular, petal, peak and beak are frequently combined to make a larger piece, for example pectoral decorative items onzhyrek and alkah are made of several triangle and rectangular plates, khudaghy zhuzik (a special large double ring presented when marriage brokerage occurs) and bes-blezyk (a bracelet connected with chains with three rings). Geometric style from Western Kazakhstan is famous for large-scale decorative items that are assembled from pre-made pieces that are joined together by soldering (plates, borders, solar symbols, grain). Most common techniques include true grain, plated filigree, stamping, embossing, engraving, niello, enamel, casting, forging, and incrustation with precious and semi-precious stones. Stone (tas) are sliced flat and are called eye (koz) as they considered to be protection charms. The most popular stone is cornelian (akhykh) as it symbolizes prosperity and joy.
Kazakhstan -
Traditional horse game – ‘Kyz kuumay’
‘It is one of the most widespread horseback games played at various feasts and festivities. Kyz kuumai is translated as chasing a girl. ‘Kyz kuumay’ was a wedding tradition in the past, in which a groom on a horse had to pursue and catch a racing bride. The game involves several couples in national costumes, which are well acquainted with rules of the game and have perfect horse riding skills. The bride was provided with the best horse; she started the race first. The groom had to catch his bride, thus proving his love and reaffirming his right to marry her. The groom has to catch up with the bride and kiss her or to touch her with his headwear, thus declaring his victory. In case of a failure, the girl chases the young man, striking his back with a whip. Due to the worse horse, the groom often failed to capture the girl. However, this was not a reason for the bride to refuse to marry.
Kyrgyzstan