Bajie Abulimajin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He loved horse racing from childhood; after graduating from junior middle school he took up herding work and learned horse training from his father. Within the regional tradition and school record of Horse Racing Festival in Fuyun, Xinjiang: Kazakh horse racing is found throughout the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, the Altay Prefecture, the Tacheng Prefecture, and the Changji area of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; in Fuyun County, races are especially frequent because its summer pastures are flat and broad and herders pass through on migration. Records of Kazakh horse racing are scattered through the oral poetry of the Kazakh people and their nomadic life on the grasslands. Herders celebrated seasonal migrations, weddings, and festivals with horse races, gradually giving shape to two parallel traditions: racing of ambling horses (zouma) and racing of running horses.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Kazakh, born in November 1966, a native of Fuyun County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. A performer of Kazakh horse-racing competition techniques. Horsemanship is the family heirloom of Bajie Abulimajin; growing up in the saddle, he witnessed from childhood the gallant bearing of his elders as man and horse became one, and his racing skills were steadily honed through constant exposure. Each year he organizes and holds horse races in the county, and he often goes to the townships to instruct racing techniques and to organize racing training. Within the documented technical tradition of Horse Racing Festival in Fuyun, Xinjiang: Kazakh horse racing is a traditional sport loved and widely practiced by the Kazakh people, distributed across the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, the Altay Prefecture, and other parts of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Fuyun County, with its flat, broad summer pastures and convenient transport, is a necessary passage for herders of the Altay and Tacheng prefectures on their summer migrations; horse racing is frequent there and is both representative and influential. Kazakh horse racing is generally held on traditional festive occasions such as akin (bard) singing gatherings and weddings. Horses entered in the races must be selected by people specially versed in training and judging horses, and they must be trained for two to three months in advance. Kazakh horse racing is divided into two types: ambling-horse racing and running-horse racing. Ambling-horse racing judges a horse's endurance, steadiness, and beauty of gait. The riders are generally adults; the contest demands superb horsemanship, the ability to hold the horse in check so that it walks steadily, robustly, and gracefully, without letting it break into a gallop. Running-horse racing, by contrast, tests the horse's speed, with victory going to the side that reaches the finish line first; the riders are mostly children of about twelve years of age. For a race, the horse's forelock and mane are braided, owl feathers are tucked into its tail, and its body is covered with a worsted-woven cape so that it is decked out anew; lightweight tack is also used to lessen the weight the horse must carry. The number of prizes is decided by the number of horses entered, and the riders share part of their winnings with relatives and neighbors. Kazakh horse racing is a sport and pastime in which the Kazakh people widely participate, combining horse judging, horse training, and horsemanship, and it has a broad popular foundation. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Pacing and galloping races": Two kinds of race: pacing judges endurance, steadiness and beauty of gait, galloping rewards speed and is ridden mostly by children of about twelve. "Horse selection and months of training": Horses are chosen by specialists in judging and training horses, then conditioned for two or three months so rider and mount work as one. "Owl feathers and woollen blankets": Racing horses wear braided manes, owl feathers in the tail and a knitted blanket, with light tack to spare the animal's back. "Girl-chasing and goat-snatching": Races are usually held together with girl-chasing, mounted games and goat-snatching, forming a cultural space centred on the horse meeting.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of the Horse Racing Festival (Kazakh Horse Racing), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. The racehorses he has conditioned have repeatedly taken placings at local and prefectural-level race meetings. He has now trained nearly fifty apprentices spread across all the townships of the county, powerfully promoting the development of horse racing in the locality.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Bajie Abulimajin · National Representative Bearer Archive