Naadam Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Haixi Mongol Nadam originated in the Jihai (lake-worshipping) rite of the twenty-nine Mongol banners at Qinghai Lake. The Jihai rite began in the tenth year of the Tianbao era of the Tang dynasty (751), when the emperor conferred on the god of Qinghai Lake the title of Duke of the Expanses and sent envoys to offer ritual sacrifices. According to the Genghis Khan Stone Inscription, as early as 1225, after Genghis Khan's western campaign defeated the Khwarazmian realm, he held a grand Nadam gathering at the place called Buhasuqihai.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Nadam is a traditional mass festival of the Mongolian people, and the Nadam of the Haixi Mongols in Qinghai Province is held in rotation among Delingha City, Ulan City, Dulan City, Golmud City, Da Qaidam, Mangya, and other areas of the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The Nadam of the Xinjiang Mongols is a traditional festival of the local Mongolian people, popular mainly in Hejing County, Bohu County, and Heshuo County of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Hoboksar Mongol Autonomous County of the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, and some counties (and cities) of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. The Xinjiang Mongol Nadam is held each year on June 23 of the Gregorian calendar and lasts one to three days. The traditional program of the gathering includes folk dance performances, Mongolian long-tune singing, Jangar epic chanting, folk instrumental playing, handicraft displays, ethnic costume performances, and wrestling. As society has developed, the forms and contents of Nadam have been continually enriched; besides the three traditional contests of horse racing, archery, and wrestling, it has added goat-grabbing, ethnic costume performances, Jangar singing, bonfire evenings, theatrical performances, and handicraft fairs and sales.
Taking turns as host
The fair moves each year among Delingha, Wulan, Dulan, Golmud, Dachaidan and Mangya, giving every district its own turn to host and to watch.
Sea worship and the grassland gathering
The festival traces back to Tang imperial worship of the lake deity and to a carved record of a great gathering held after a western campaign.
Racing, archery and wrestling
Racing, archery and wrestling remain the core, joined by polo and equestrian display, with the old rules settling the results.
Long-tune singing and morin khuur playing
Long-tune singing and morin khuur playing belong to the traditional programme, performed by herding households without a formal stage.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The traditional Haixi Mongol Nadam expresses the local people's joy at celebrating the harvest, and the many forms of activity it contains are a microcosm of the production methods, religious beliefs, and folk customs of the Haixi Mongols over the past several hundred years. The Haixi Mongol Nadam adopts a system of rotation, with the event hosted in turn among Delingha City, Ulan City, Dulan City, Golmud City, Da Qaidam, and Mangya, moving to a different place each year. This arrangement is directly tied to the local way of making a living: altitude and pasture conditions differ from place to place, and so do the size and condition of the herds. Horses entered in the body-condition contests and the riders who compete on them alike have to follow the water and the grass, so fixing the event in one place would fail to reflect conditions in any given year. The rotation both gives every locality a chance to welcome guests on its own ground and allows herding households on the grassland to travel to several places in a year to watch the contests and attend the markets.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Naadam Festival · Naadam Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Mongolian Nadam is rooted in traditional Mongolian culture and reflects, from multiple angles and in every respect, the true face of the politics, economy, production, life, folk customs, and religion of the different Mongolian-inhabited regions across the historical periods, giving it research value in ethnology, folklore, history, and culture. From the Jihai rite to the Nadam, the Haixi Mongols have preserved a clear cultural thread on the grassland: in the Tang, the conferral of a title on the god of Qinghai Lake and the sending of envoys with ritual offerings came first; in the Yuan, stone inscriptions recorded the grand gathering held after the western campaign; and from the Ming and Qing onward, the lake-worshipping rite and the racing festival merged with tribal life. On today's festival grounds, long-tune songs, morin khuur and other instruments, and wrestling share the same arena, the trace of this thread being taken up again and again. From Delingha to Mangya, local styles of contest and ways of singing differ slightly, yet what has been preserved is the same set of grassland values: an emphasis on the condition of the horses, horsemanship, and the way guests are received.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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