зохиогчийн эрхээр хамгаалагдана.

Dear Guest,

This subsection is under re-construction.

Naadam means "festival or games" in Mongolian language. Naadams, Mongolian games trace  their roots back to time of Huns and Chingis Khaan. Since time immemorial the Mongols have competed in their games", all of which were necessary to develop skills for Mongolian warriors. There were many festivals among Mongols in past. Today  word "naadam" refers mostly to summer festivals.

Since 1921, when Mongolia /the former Outer Mongpolia/ was liberated from Chinese occupation, the country celebrates its independence as Naadam Festival.  Naadam Festival is held every year on July 11th-12th  in every town and every village. /Note:As you know, after Chingis Khaan and his grandsons, Mongols went to their downfall and they were under Manchu rule for 220 years and Outer Mongols were under Chinese occupation for 2 years/. The festival is extended for another day, on July13th, with a Naadam for horse trainers.  In countryside, preparations for Naadam start a minimum a month before the festival when nomads choose their best horses for training. Training horses for races under sun, winds and rain is a  truly hard job to experience.  I would even say  nomads-trainers and children-riders get often exausted by these routine training days that last more than a month. But the people do this hard job again again untill they are too old for it. The elderly nomads still can by advisors at least.  When the date nears, horse trainers, assitants, rider-children start bringing their best horses closer to Ulanbaatar or to their villages. We can say that  a Mongol lived and lives from one Naadam to next Naadam.  Unofficial Mongolian calendar is from one Naadam to another Naadam. As the Naadam is over, a Mongol start waiting the next one to come. For a nomad, Naadam is the biggest chance to meet most of his friends alltogether. For nomads, it's biggest annual event. Naadam includes wrestling for men and boys, long-distance horse races of  6 different ages and archery for different tribes, men, women and children are the main attractions during the festival that are held throughout the country.  

Horse races, unlike Western horse racing, which consists of short sprints generally not much longer than 2 km, Mongolian horse racing  is always a cross-country event, with races 15-30 km long depending on horse's age. For example, two-year-old horses race for 10 miles (16 kilometers) and seven-year-olds for 17 miles (30 kilometrs). The horses are organized into 5 different races by age and plus a race for stallions.The riders are boys and girls of aged 5-12.  After the races, the top five horses in each class earn the title of airgiyn tav and the top three are given gold, silver, and bronze medals. In addition, the horse that finishes last in the two-year-old class (the daaga class) is given a top-five award, in the belief that that horse will do better in the next race. Only a handful join the "airag's five," the sacred winner's circle. Winning horses and riders are showered with fermented mare's milk, or airag, the national nectar. The losing two-year-old horse is also alloted special attention by being serenaded with a song. Music is very important before the race too, as the audience sings traditional songs and the the jockeys sing a pre-race song called a gingo. Riders repeat an old "ghingo" chant before the start, then push horses to a feverous pace by shouting "goog." The fastest horses are honored with poetic names from Mongolia's glorious past.

In wrestling /bokhe in Mongolian/, athletes meet in a single-elimination tournament that lasts up to nine or ten rounds in bigger Naadams. First, there are no weight divisions. A small wrestler can be pitted against someone two times his weight. This can lead to some very interesting matches. The traditional style of wrestling has its own long-standing ritual. Mongolian wresting has several styles:Halkha, Inner Mongolian/Uzemchin, Hulunbuir and Ordos/ and Oirad. In Mongolia wrestling is based on Halkha style.

Each wrestler wears ornamental knee boots with upturned toes, tight trunks and an open-fronted, long sleeved vest of silk. With arms imitating the flight of a bird, he performs the eagle dance, which symbolises power and invincibility. Supposedly, the vest was changed in design to an open-fronted vest after a woman was found to have taken part in the event and won!
in which wrestlers lose if they touch the ground. Wrestlers wear two-piece costumes consisting of a tight shoulder vest (zodog) and shorts (shuudag). Wrestlers are exclusively male. Each wrestler has a second called a zasuul. The zasuul sings a song of praise for the winning wrestler after rounds 3, 5, and 7. Winners of the 7th or 8th stage (depending if the competition features 512 or 1024 wrestlers) earn the title of zaan, "elephant". The champion, winner of the 9th or 10th stage, is called arslan, "lion". If one wins Naadam twice, he is titled as Avarga and   then Dalai Avarga/"Ocean Champion"/.  If they keep winning, they can only collect new epithets. Certainly the most famous wrestler of all, Khorloogiin Bayanmunkh, born in 1944, has a collection of titles which runs as following: Pleasure of The Leader, The Bright Remarkable, Chief of The Naadam, The Perfect among Ten Thousands, The Great Flame, The Glory of All, The Clear and Beautiful, The Firm and Loyal, The Everlasting Pleasure, The Outstanding Notable, The Invincibly Powerful, The Really Outstanding, The Truly Faithful, The Happiness of Many, The Famous throughout Country and Sea, The Holy Champion.

Little Warrior © mongoliatourism.gov.mn
  The third element of the national competitions is archery, which has been perfected over centuries. Men must stand 75 meters and women 60 meters from the target. Judges, standing near the targets, assess each shot with a traditional cry, called a uukhai, and a raised hand. The archers wear a special glove on the thumb and index finger of the right hand and wrap the left arm up to the elbow in soft belts. The arrow has blunt bone heads. The referees, lined up to the targets, mark each hit. When the target is hit they raise their hands and praise the shooter.

Preparations for Naadam: For example, the training of horses may take months for both horses and nomads.  It's very hard job to train horses for Naadam.  A key to endurance are an empty stomach and the capacity to dissipate heat. For the first, horses are kept on a sophisticated diet while for the latter they have to gallop everyday miles up-hill covered with woolen blankets etc. It's a science.

Naadam in Ulanbaatar:

Pre-Naadam days:

Pre-Naadam horse races are held at four different points on July 3rd and July 7th a little bit away from the city. The wrestling and archery is held in the Main Stadium.Opening ceremony, cultural shows,wrestling and athletic competitions, awarding and closing ceremony are held at the main stadium which is just oudside, at 3km to south from Sukhbaatar Square. A modest stadium for archery is next to the main one. By the way, this archery's land is now given to somebody for construction of a hotel which provoke angry protests from archery masters. For last time, archery will take place at the its stadium. It's terrible. Horse races are of course, held in the countryside. A huge temperary tent city is built overnight on the evening of July 10th valleys next to Hui Doloon Hudag /at 40km out of Ulaanbaatar/, the very valley where races to happen. The majority of horses come from surrounding provinces although some nomads manage to come from very remote areas if they think their horses have chance in the main Naadam.

Unfortunately, Naadam tickets are traditionally unavailable 1-2 day till the very the beginning of the event.

July11th: Naadam in Ulaanbaatar is very, very crowded event, specially during the opening ceremony as well as during final rounds of wrestling in next day's afternoon at the main stadium! Because too many people want to see them at the same time.

July12th: The all events come to end by the evening of second day. The closing ceremony takes place on the second day in the evening as awards to Naadam winners are given.

July13th:There is held a smaller and special Naadam held outside of Ulaanbaatar horse trainers who missed wrestling and archery while engaging their horses. No horse races take place here.

Naadam in the countryside:

It's something special for nomadic Mongols. In village Naadam, most population seems to move around on horseback wearing colourful national costumes-del. There are horse races and wrestling, for sure. Unfortunately, in some areas archery tradition have been lost. As in the main Naadam in Ulaanbaatar, the same little kids are the riders for races here. You feel here as part of festival. A Mongol who grew up in countryside, will always miss these small, less organised Naadams that were taking places during his or  her childhood. These are very personal and best Naadams for them. At least, you can wath everything from close ranges at least.

Other Naadams during summer.