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A Tibetan Rodeo: Annual Festivities and Games in Naxqu
| Article
# : |
10429 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1993 |
2,869 Words |
| Author
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Larry L. Evans
Larry L. Evans is a free-lance writer and photographer based
in Missoula, Montana. |
With a whoop of excitement, an energetic young man pedals his bike across the bumpy meadow. A throng of people, mostly nomadic herders, watches as he performs a delicately balanced handstand on the handlebars and seat of his bike. A beautiful woman with long, dark braids, Wearing a rainbow-colored apron, cheers loudly for this acrobat as he regains the seat of his bike, pedals a stroke, and bends over to pick a Ping-pong ball off the grounds. As he passes the row of judges, he holds up the ball for all to see.
A second later, another young man is hurtling across the meadow, intent on snatching up another ball and perhaps claiming the new bike that awaits the winner of this unusual contest. This competition, appropriately called the pick up the Ping-pong ball contest, is one of many events that unfold during the two-week-long festival held each year in Naxqu, a small town at the edge of the Tibetan plateau.
Every August, nomadic Tibetans from all over the Kham, Amdo, and U Tsang regions of Tibet converge on Naxqu for the competitions and festivities. Normally, Naxqu is quiet town of thirty thousand people, over half of whom are Chinese. Now things are getting lively, however, as well-heeled Tibetan merchants and politicians arrive by car from Lhasa, along with nomadic yak herders who have walked for days across the rolling, treeless countryside. Poor peddlers come from distant villages, pushing wooden wheelbarrows piled high with their handiwork. Limited numbers of foreigners visit this festival through tours controlled by the Chinese International Tourist Service (CITS). The Beijing agency imposes restrictions so severe that foreign tourists jokingly refer to it as "Comrade, Isolate The Stranger."
Events include target shooting while riding horseback, bicycle-riding gymnastics, dances, races, and courtship. This may be the only chance young Tibetan men and women have to meet each other, as the solitary nomadic life-style allows for little social interaction outside one's family group. The atmosphere is charged with excitement.
Arriving at the rodeo
It is the height of summer, and the countryside is bursting with life. Lush growths of grass and flowers are everywhere. Some local men pass by, dressed in traditional nomadic garb consisting of felt hats and jackets with knee length sleeves. It is a warm morning, so they wear their jackets off one shoulder, with one overlong sleeve dragging behind and the other rolled up to the elbow, in
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