Celebrating Mongolian NAADAM

Naadam is the biggest festival of the year for Mongolians. Although the event incorporates Mongolia's traditional nomadic, sporting, and military cultures, the three-day festival formally celebrates the Mongolian Revolution of 1921 and the nation's independence from Chinese occupation.
We are in the beautiful town of Erdenet and got to celebrate with our friends and the young missionaries. The town practically shuts down and the three big events are wrestling, archery, and horseback riding. I think the really big event is eating khuushuur and drinking Vodka. We avoided the vodka but we loved the khuushuur (pronounced housher) which are something like a taco with seasoned mutton, beef, camel or horse and then deep fried. The wrestling and archery take place at the large stadium which seems to have been built for this purpose and the horseback racing takes place a few miles out of town.
Thursday we spent the day at the stadium eating khuushuurs and watching wrestling and archery. We tried, but we never could understand how the wrestling worked. Sometimes there was a large man with a little guy which didn't seem fair. The smaller guy never won but there must be a reason they do it that way. Most of the time there were large guys paired with large guys but even then we couldn't figure out how the contest works. They all wear a small speedo type suit and have a band or a strap around their middle. An important part of the ceremony seems to be the strutting and waving their arms around like an eagle. It is very majestic and interesting to watch. 

The archery is really interesting. The target is a line of cork cylinders on the ground about 2 feet high and 6 feet wide and is about 250 feet from the archer. The archer shoots the arrow in a long arch high above the target in order to be able to reach it. It is amazing to watch how accurate they could be shooting into the air. I could see how the ancient Mongolian armies would line up and accurately shoot              at the opposing army by firing into the air.

CountrySide near the Cabin

Deni and I were invited by a family to spend part of our Naadam celebration with their family at their countryside cabin. They picked us up in the morning and first took us to their apartment. On the way to their apartment the husband told us that he had gone out early that morning and bought a live sheep, had it killed and skinned and that we would be enjoying it that day. They have a beautiful apartment and as we entered the front door, there on the floor was a dead and cleaned whole sheep. He proceeded to cut up the sheep while the wife boiled the innards. Deni and I waited there for about an hour as they prepared their sheep and then packed their car and we headed for the countryside. To get to their small cabin we took a dirt road out into the country. As we drove offroading we saw herds of the normal Mongolian animals, sheep, goats, cattle, horses and then we saw three LARGE birds on the hill. We drove over to get a closer look and as they ran for a take off we realized that they were Eagles. They took off and joined 2 others already in the air. We watched them circle the valley for a while. When we got to the cabin they set up a portable stove and proceeded to cook the sheep. We enjoyed a fine meal of mutton and potato salad (they really do make the best potato salad here), cucumbers (they serve cucumbers with most meals) and Chocolate cake (provided by Deni). We had a great visit seeing the beautiful countryside. 
On Friday we spent part of the day at the stadium eating khuushuurs and watching the various cultural events. They had dancing and bands and beautiful singing, etc. In the afternoon we took a 15 passenger meeker squeezed in with 23 other people and went back out to the countryside to the horse races. The Mongolian horses are small and strong and the riders are small and young. They start their riders practicing to race at age 3 and all of the riders are between 6 and 12 years old.
We got to the race just as the horse and riders were leaving the finish line headed for the starting line. They rode out of site for the 10K ride to the beginning of the race. After about an hour the speakers announced that the race had started. I figured that it would take just a few minutes to make it back to the start but it took about 45 minutes before we saw them coming.




                                                                          The crowd lined up along the racecourse to get a good view of the winner.

 We got there early enough to get into the VIP stand and we had the best spot to watch the race from.

After 2 hours of watching the crowd we could see a small dust cloud in the far distant. We watched as the cloud came closer and finally in came the young riders. They looked tired as they continued to whip their steeds and raced to the finish. I am told that there is a prize for 1st - 5th place and then last place gets a prize for trying.  A few horses came in without a rider and I can only guess the rider fell off. I understand that several young riders are seriously injured every year by falling off their horse.
Long after the crowd left and they were clearing off the track and packing up equipment I saw a lone rider slowly make his way to the finish line. He was very young and he probably got lost along the path somewhere but at least he finished. He was the last to finish (as far as I know.
 As we headed back with the crowd to find a meeker ride back to town, I realized that with hundreds of people, there were NO Restrooms, trees or bushes. I had had a lot of water to stay hydrated and now it was no longer needed. I decided to be Mongolian and do what came naturally.

The ride home in the 15 passenger meeker with 26 other people. These are some of our young missionaries who we love serving with.