NY Times: Horseback Wrestling. Bone Tossing. Dead Goat Polo. Let the Nomad Games Begin!

The New York Times just posted article about the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan: For more information see following link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/world/asia/kyrgyzstan-world-nomad-games.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

In particular the author of article wrote:

CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan — The American team that played a brutal version of polo at the World Nomad Games does not expect the sport to get picked up by the Olympics any time soon.

Why not?

“We use a dead goat,” said Scott A. Zimmerman, a team co-captain.

The game of kok-boru, with its headless goat carcass, was the main attraction at the weeklong international sports competition held this month in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan.

And then Neil MacFarquhar continues:

Other highlights included bone tossing, hunting with eagles and 17 types of wrestling, including bare-chested horseback wrestling, where the weaker competitor often clings desperately to the animal’s head as spectators roar in anticipation of him hitting the dirt.

The organizers hope to resurrect nomadic traditions, especially those of Central Asia, whose cultures were pushed toward extinction by decades of Soviet collectivization and then globalization.

While many top-flight athletes competed, qualifying for an event was easy: Basically anybody who signed up online could play. The bulk of the Czech Republic delegation, for example, was a group of male friends who fished around for an easy sport.

They discovered ordo, or bone tossing, which involves eight players using a chunk of cow bone to dislodge two-inch pieces of sheep bone from a large dirt circle. (It’s a lot harder than it sounds.) They could not, however, find the right bone bits in the Czech Republic with which to practice.

So how did they learn to play? They just thought about it, mostly, admitted the Czechs, who went home without any medals.

The outdoor events took place in two stunning venues — a hippodrome built for the Games on a high-altitude saline lake surrounded by the jagged peaks of the Tian Shan mountain range, and the vast meadows of a sweeping mountain gorge, where some 1,000 yurts were erected.

With archers clopping by on horses, and the smokey aroma of grilling meat, the meadow site evoked a nomadic encampment from a bygone era.

After 72 years spent under Communist domination — and more than two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union — Kyrgyzstan and its neighbors are still trying to define themselves.

While the number of Western visitors was relatively small, the Games attracted Kyrgyz spectators from around the landlocked, mostly Muslim country.CreditSergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Teams from Mongolia (in brown uniforms) and Russia (in blue) competing in the sport known as kok-boru, which is “much more dangerous than American football,” a fan said.CreditSergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

In the article there are a lot of interesting information about the Games, nature of Kyrgyzstan, participants and guests of this nomadic event. And at the end he concluded:

While there’s no sign the caber toss will join the roster of official sports any time soon, the Games are expanding beyond Kyrgyzstan’s borders. Turkey will host the 2020 version.

“In a globalized world, people forget their cultures, what sets them apart,” said Mr. Subanov, the visiting accountant. “It is more interesting to live in a world with different nations, different cultures. It would not be good for the whole world to become New York.”