This trip offers you most beautiful natural, historical, and cultural places of Mongolia, such as legendary Gobi desert, ancient capital of Mongol Empire Karakorum, first and largest Buddhist monastery Erdene Zuu and many more. One of the main highlights of this trip is Great Naadam festival. Naadam is one of the most important public holidays or ceremonies of Mongolia and annually celebrated on the 11-13th of July. In Mongolian Naadam means the Three Manly Games. The Three Manly Games include wrestling, archery and horse racing, which are the sports of wisdom, courage and strength.
Every year 512 wrestlers compete in the National Naadam. The Nachin or “Falcon” title is given to a wrestler who wins 5 rounds, Zaan or ‘Elephant” is a winner of 7 rounds. The wrestler who wins all nine rounds becomes the national wrestling champion and bestowed with the title Arslan or “Lion”. A wrestler who has been “Arslan” twice, is honored with the title of Avarga or “Champion”.
There are normally six categories of horse racing, depending on the age of horses: for example, a two-year-old horse, called a daaga, will race for 15km, while six and seven-year-old azraga and ikh nas horses race for up to 30km. Jockeys -boys and girls aged between 6 and 11 years old – prepare for months for special races, particularly at Naadam. Horses are fed a special diet for weeks beforehand. The first 5 horses to finish a race are called “Airagdakh” which means that the horses are sprinkled with airag. The title “Tumnii Ekh” is given to the winning horse.
Archery is another Naadam game in which many best archers from all over the country compete. The winner is given a title “Erkhiin Mergen Kharvaach” that means “Archer of Greatest Wisdom”.
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