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 For centuries the national
sport of archery has been enjoyed by Mongolian men and women, young and old: in fact it is
not known which came first for the steppeland residents of Central Asia - the wheel or the
bow.Chronicles of the Chinese Tang
Dynasty stated with admiration, "Steppe inhabitants can hit at full tilt a running
hare with a single arrow".
A rather sophisticated
bow, lighter and
more powerful than its European counterpart, became widespread in Mediaeval
Mongolia. It
was considered the world’s best in terms of design and combat
effectiveness. Its
arrows pierced thick shields and armour. Thanks to the long shooting range of their
bows,
Mongolian warriors were out of danger while showering the enemy on tall fortress walls
with lots of arrows.
There is a memorable inscription on the
Chingis Khan Stone, a inscribed monument dating back to the early 13th
Century. It
says that in 1225, a Mongolian archer, Esukhei, took part in a warriors'
competition,
hitting the target from a distance of 335 ald (which means that the bow’s
shooting range which was in excess of half a kilometre).
The Blue Sutra, a chronicle of the
Mongolian Yuan Dynasty which ruled China during the 13th and 14th
centuries, cites a rather typical incident for that period when arrow sharpshooting was
seen as an indispensable quality in a male warrior:
The Merkit ruler Magnagt
and his troops barred the way to Chingis Khan's detachments.
"Even though you
are viewed as the son of the heavens," said Magnagt, "I still have doubts about
the combat prowess of your people. If any one of them hits with a single arrow a tiny red
flag from a distance of 100 num (one num equals the length of a
bowstring,
or nearly 1.5 metres), I will be your ally and friend – if not, I’ll be your
enemy."
On hearing this, Taitsuu, one of Chingis’s
generals,
began to laugh: "You offer us the warrior’s standard exercise." On his
order, archery marksman Chuu Mergen stepped forward and, hardly aiming, hit the
target.
Shortly afterwards, another sharpshooter, Khavt Khasar, said, "It’s no challenge
to hit a motionless target." He raised his bow and with a single arrow pierced the
neck of a drake flying high in the sky. No sooner had the falling bird touched the ground
than Khavt Khasar hit it with another arrow.
On seeing all this, the Merkit ruler voluntarily brought to
Chingis Khan more than 9,000 warriors from his own tribe.
When preparing for a
campaign, every
mediaeval Mongolian warrior would carry a spear, sabre, halberd and cudgel, plus two or
three spare quivers with 30 arrows in each. There were several kinds of arrows differing
in weight, length, thickness and design. Some were meant for powerful bows – their
tips were 15 cm long and 3.5 cm wide. They were capable of piercing thick
armour. There
were also short and long-range, double-tipped, signal, incendiary and whistling arrows
(with holes in the tips to produce a sharp whistle in flight to terrorize the
enemy.)
Ten natural materials were used to
manufacture ancient bows including birch bark, fish glue, bamboo, deer antlers, natural
silk threads and animal tendons.
Legend has it that the Great Khan Munkh
gave an enormous black bow to King Louis IX of France. Two warriors could barely draw it.
He also gave him two arrows – one was decorated with silver and the other was a
combat whistling arrow. The first symbolised peace and the second, war. The Khan was
warning the French monarch that be would do better to live in friendship with the
Mongols.
The Italian traveller, Plano Carpini,
remarked in his notes that the Mongols found archery most enjoyable:
"They all, young and old alike,
shoot superbly. From early childhood children are provided with bows according to their
height and are taught to shoot," he wrote.
Archery competitions were among the Mongols’
traditional amusements at the Khan's court and in nomadic camps. Archery has
survived,
although during the Manchurian reign in Mongolia most of them were officially banned
because their military implications. But for all the Manchurian invaders’ attempts to
uproot the country’s ancient tradition of archery, it has survived, thus manifesting
its vitality.
With the establishment of an independent
Mongolia’s in 1911, it took only a few years for archery to regain its massive
popularity, to the delight of its sincere admirers.
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| The authorities’ determined
efforts were a major contributing factor here. For instance, one of the documents issued
by the War Ministry of Autonomous Mongolia says that all Aimags
(provinces) were
supposed to annually send 336 men to the capital city of Urga (then the name of
Ulaanbaatar) for training at archery school. Russian ethnographer I. M. Maisky visited the
school’s archery competitions during those years. "An archery festival is truly gorgeous – hundreds of white
gers and multicoloured, embroidered tents spread all across a huge meadow at the
foot of the Bogd Mountain range: visiting archers lived there," he
said.
Competitions start every morning. There are
special officials keeping score-sheets which bolster the glory and reputation of aimags
and khoshuuds. Targets are installed - short wooden tubes with a little ball
inside. Placed one on top another, they form a pyramid of sorts. To hit the target means
to knock a tube out of the pyramid with an arrow. Still better is to knock a ball out of a
tube.
"Now a signal is given, the bow is
drawn and the first arrow cuts through the air... A hit! The pyramid is destroyed. Someone
from among the overseers bends and adjusts it. The rest, facing the lucky archer and
stretching sun-tanned hands to him, start singing a hymn of praise, matgaal."
These days the rules of the Naadam team and
individual contests in archery remain almost the same.
Traditionally, the archers wear their
national del. They put leather bracers on the right arm up to the elbow so that
the del's cuff does not interfere with shooting.
Teams of twelve archers emerge onto the
shooting line and in turn launch four arrows each at the targets which are leather
cylinders installed in the ground. The shooting distance is 75 metres for men and 60
metres for women. For those under 18, the distance is set at a rate of three to four
metres per year of age.
Thirty-three hits entitle a team to
participate in the next round where the targets are arranged in a more involved
composition. The winning team is the one that scores the highest number of points.
The Mongol Naadam tournament is
launched by an archer born in the year of the tiger - a symbol of strength and
marksmanship.
The used arrows are picked up by people
born in the year of the mouse, a little animal seen as diligent and industrious. Someone
born in the year of the dragon, the symbol of eloquence, invariably starts singing a song
a praise, the magtaal, in honour of the archers.
Competition participants are normally
awarded the title of ‘mergen’ meaning ‘sharpshooter’.
Depending on the number of wins and other
achievements, this title is supplemented with ‘young and improving
sharpshooter’, ‘diligent sharpshooter’, ‘amazing sharpshooter’
and so on. The title ‘national sharpshooter’ is bestowed on a winner in
individual scoring at the national competition referred to as ‘naadam’. |
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