Page 68 - bne Magazine August 2022

68 I Eurasia bne August 2022
Mongolia celebrates the return of Naadam
Antonio Graceffo
“Mongolians should be grateful for their history... it’s a resource of who we are, and what we went through over the years. I believe
all people feel that Naadam is
important.”
Davaasuren, a 25-year-old monk living at Gandagchilen Monastery.
Mongolia’s Naadam festival, a UNESCO-recognised Intangible Heritage asset, commemorates the “three sports of men”: archery, horseracing and traditional Bökh wrestling. Initiated by Genghis Khan in 1206, it became an official holiday in 1922 and has been held almost every year since – until Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 derailed the tradition. In 2020, Naadam was held as usual in the provinces, but the national Naadam event put on in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar was a closed event with few spectators. Most Mongolians had to watch it on TV. In 2021, Naadam was cancelled completely.
Naadam is arguably one of the largest, yet least known sporting events in the world. It is celebrated across the nation and encompasses tens of thousands
of athletes at the district, provincial, and national levels. It is also a time for Mongolians to wear traditional dress, and for city-dwellers to return to their ancestral homes in the countryside. One wrestler explained that Naadam is “an inoculation against modernisation”.
When Naadam was cancelled in 2021, hundreds of protesters on horseback and dressed in traditional deel descended
on the capital to demonstrate in front
of the parliament house. Some felt that Naadam should be held because of its great importance as a continuation of time-honoured customs. Wrestlers, archers and horse racers also wanted the festival to be held because they are dependent on Naadam to earn money or to pick up prestigious rankings which can have a major impact on their lives. Despite Naadam’s importance, there was much online criticism directed
at the protesters, suggesting that the cancellation was necessary to prevent
the spread of Covid, and that the government could better spend the Naadam budget on Covid relief efforts.
Some of the support for the cancellation of Naadam in 2021 also came from
the fact that the 2020 event had cost a great deal of money even though it was only enjoyed by the elites, their families and guests. Some people felt that if the common people were not permitted to attend, it was better to cancel the event rather than use public funds to benefit
a select few.
This year, Naadam will be held from
July 11-15. After two years without a
full Naadam, one might speculate that people had learned to live without it and that enthusiasm for the festival may have waned. At the same time, Mongolia is modernising and globalising quickly with nearly 69% of the population already living in cities. This raises the questions of whether Naadam is largely a rural phenomenon and if city dwellers, with higher levels of education and incomes, and as citizens less likely to ride horses, are still interested in Naadam.
From left to right: Naadam festival visitors and participants gathering for the big occasion (Fan111, cc-by-sa 3.0). Two young riders race cross the finish line in a Nadaam horse race
in Mandalgovi (Marc Fischer, cc- by-sa 2.0). Archery at Naadam may be celebrated as one of the “three sports of men”, but there are archery challenges for women too (Zoharby, cc-by-sa 3.0).
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