Naadam Festival

Naadam means 'entertainment' or 'games' in Mongolian. Its root is the obo worship: early on, a tribal leader presided while honouring heaven, counting his people and livestock, and testing marksmanship and strength. On the steppe, this was how talent was chosen. Centuries on, the inspection has faded; the festivity remains. It opens at the turn of summer into autumn, when grass and water are at their richest, and runs for days.

The three headline events are wrestling, horse racing and archery. Wrestlers wear leather vests and enter with arms spread in an eagle's stance; whoever touches the ground first loses. Racing is divided into gallop and ambling classes, and the riders are mostly children, so low along the horse's back they almost vanish. Archery is both standing and mounted. There is also horse polo and buul — a throwing stick once used for herding, here judged on distance and accuracy. After dark the bonfires are lit, and once the morin khuur starts, long songs and andai dancing carry on past midnight.

The steppe is sparsely peopled and widely scattered; once a year, everyone can gather. Naadam is that gathering — families come by cart and on horseback and spend a whole year's strength and song in a few days. The skills of wrestling, racing and archery, and the arts of the long song and morin khuur, pass from old hands to young ones precisely through these meetings.