Bokh
БөхMongolia's national wrestling and one of the three manly games of the Naadam festival. The tournament is held under open sky on grass, with hundreds taking part at once.
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About Bokh
Bökh is Mongolia's national wrestling and one of the three manly games of the Naadam festival, alongside archery and horse racing. It is not an accompaniment to the celebration but its core: the tournament is held under open sky, on grass, with hundreds of wrestlers taking part at once. The kit consists of the zodog, a tight open-fronted jacket with long sleeves that leaves the chest bare, and short trousers called shuudag. The format is straight knockout — lose once and you are out. There are no weight classes, so a small, quick wrestler routinely meets an opponent fifty kilos heavier and has to solve the problem with technique. A wrestler loses when he touches the ground with anything other than his feet; in the Mongolian variant, specifically with anything above the knee or elbow. There are no strikes and no chokes; the whole contest rests on grips of the jacket and belt, on sweeps, lifts and the patient unbalancing of the opponent. A dense layer of ritual surrounds the wrestling. Before and after a bout the wrestler performs the eagle dance, devekh, accompanied by a zasuul, part second and part herald. Winners collect titles in ascending order: nachin (falcon), zaan (elephant), arslan (lion) and the highest, avarga (titan). The Inner Mongolian and Buryat branches have rules of their own.
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Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.