Maqiu
01 · Historical Records
Historically, Tajik polo was played mainly in the upper levels of society; the 11th-century Uyghur work Kutadgu Bilig (Blessing and Knowledge) already mentions polo as a skill that aristocrats of Shule (Kashgar) had to master. A survey team from the China Sports Museum discovered an ancient polo ground with clearly visible outlines on the mountain-foot flat below the Stone City ruins at Tashkurgan; its form matches the polo grounds commonly recorded in historical sources, which were built on open land outside the cities, showing that polo originated very early in the Xinjiang region.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Tajik polo field is 180 meters long and 70 meters wide. The polo ball is a sphere about 12 centimeters in diameter, made by winding coarse wool yarn into a ball and covering it with sewn Mongolian gazelle hide. The mallet is spade-shaped and about 1.2 meters long. Each side fields 12 players, with positions such as forward, defender, and goalkeeper; a match lasts 40 minutes, divided into two halves, and the rules are similar to those of football (soccer). Timing still follows the ancient method of dripping water into a wooden bowl.
Timing by a dripping bowl
Time is kept by water dripping from a wooden bowl, an archaic device still in use in the game.
The ball and mallet
The ball is wool wound tight and sewn in gazelle hide, about twelve centimetres across, struck with a shovel-shaped mallet of some 1.2 metres.
Twelve players, two halves
On a pitch 180 by 70 metres twelve players take the field as forwards, backs and keeper for two twenty-minute halves.
The ancient polo ground
Below the stone city at Tashkurgan investigators found the clear outline of an ancient polo ground, matching historical descriptions.
Polo in the Kutadgu Bilig
The eleventh-century Kutadgu Bilig already names polo among the skills a Kashgar nobleman had to master.
The polo skills of Reheman Kuli Gaxia
Born in Tashkurgan in 1943, he learned the game, its rules, horse training and equipment making from his father and has organised matches locally.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Tajik polo is a traditional equestrian competitive sport of the Tajik people, mainly distributed on the Pamir Plateau in southwestern Xinjiang. Tajik polo is mainly popular in the pastoral villages of the Taheman, Tizinafu, Dabudar, and Kekexiluge townships of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County and in the outskirts of the county seat; it is mostly held at gatherings such as wedding celebrations, the Xiaogongbahar Festival (Spring Festival), and the Pirik Lamp Festival. Venues are usually borrowed mountain-foot flats or grassland outside the village, and events are organized by village elders. The old wooden-bowl water-drip method of timing is still used, the horses, mallets, and wool balls are all made by the competitors themselves, and the players and spectators are mostly herders from the same township.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Tajik polo matches are lively events, and the sport is of great value for strengthening ethnic cultural identity. In addition, studying Tajik polo is of great significance for enriching the content and forms of China's equestrian competitions and for researching the sports history of ethnic minorities — the Tajik people in particular — and the history of polo's development in China. At present, the inheritors of Tajik polo are all nearly seventy years old. The sport has no fixed venue, organization, or source of funding, nor complete documentation, so its transmission and development face great difficulties and timely rescue protection is needed. Reheman Kuli Gaxia (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Tajik ethnicity, born in October 1943, a native of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Polo performer. He learned polo from his father from childhood, and is familiar with the playing techniques and rules of Tajik polo, horse training, and the making and use of competition equipment; he has a comprehensive understanding of the origin, evolution, and endangerment of polo and has collected a large amount of material on polo activities. He has actively organized and run polo matches and related activities in the local area. He actively devotes himself to collecting material on polo activities and to training personnel. He is a representative inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage item Polo (Tajik Polo), included in the third national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Rehemankuli Gaxia 03-1217
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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