Traditional games of Tibet

Tibet has many traditional games with origins dating up to 5,000 years ago.^[1][2][3]

Traditional games

Rock carrying

There are various rock-lifting competitions in Tibet which center around participants who carry and maneuver rocks that are 150 kilograms (330 lb) or more.^[4][3]

Board games

Gyiren

Gyiren is a popular Tibetan variation of snooker which originated in India.^[5][6]

Sho

This section is an excerpt from Sho (board game).[edit]

Sho ( Tibetan : ཤོ ) is a traditional race game in Tibet, still common today.^[7]

Its name is simply the Tibetan word for "dice".^[7] It is traditionally played for money and by men, with two to four players - three being the most common. With four players, the usual variant is to play as two teams of two, with the partners sitting opposite each other.

Ming mang

This section is an excerpt from Ming mang (game).[edit]

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Starting positions for Ming mang

Ming mang (Tibetan: མིག་མངས, Wylie: mig mangs) is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Tibet. Ming mang is also a general term for the word "boardgame" in Tibet. The correct name and spelling of the game may actually be Mig mang(s) (or Mig-Mang(s)),^[8][9] but pronounced Ming mang or Mi Mang.^[9] The term mig mang is also applied to Tibetan go^[8] with both games using exactly the same board which is a 17 x 17 square board, and black and white pieces.^[9][10] Mig is in reference to the chart (the pattern of horizontal and vertical lines) of the board, and Mangs refers to the notion that the more charts are used on the board, the more pieces are needed to play the game,^[11] but some state that it means "many eyes".^[8][9] The game may also be known as Gundru (or Gun-dru).^[12] The game was popular among some Tibetan monks before the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, and the uprising in 1959,^[13] and among aristocratic families.^[9]

Animal events

Horse racing

This section is an excerpt from Litang Horse Festival.[edit]

The Litang Horse Festival is a summer horse festival held in Litang County, Sichuan province, China. Khampas from all over the Tibetan Plateau come to trade, celebrate and ride. Khampas are Tibetan nomads who are usually herders.

Polo

This section is an excerpt from Polo.[edit]

Players playing polo

Polo or Chovgan (Persian: چوگان) is a ball game that is played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports.^[14] It originated in ancient Persia (modern-day Iran), dating back over 2,000 years. Initially played by Persian nobility as a training exercise for cavalry units, polo eventually spread to other parts of the world. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ball through the opposing team's goal. Each team has four mounted riders, and the game usually lasts one to two hours, divided into periods called chukkas or chukkers.

Polo has been played in Tibet since at least the early eight century.^[1]

Yak racing

This section is an excerpt from Yak racing.[edit]

A yak race

Yak racing (Chinese: 赛牦牛) is a spectator sport held at many traditional festivals of Tibet, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh and Mongolia,^[15] in gatherings which integrate popular dances and songs with traditional physical games.^[16] For Tibetans in particular it is a very special festive occasion.^[17]

See also

• Traditional games of China
• Traditional games of South Asia

References

1. Thomas, David (2019-07-24). "Many ancient sports and games are very popular in Tibet". Tibet post International. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
2. "Development of Tibetan Traditional Sports". en.chinaculture.org. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
3. Dimeo, Paul; Mills, James (2013-10-23). Soccer in South Asia: Empire, Nation, Diaspora. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-27657-7.
4. "The Tibetan sport of rock-carrying _News_TIBET". m.tibet.cn. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
5. "Let´s play Tibetan Snooker -- Gyiren CCTV-International". www.cctv.com. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
6. "Tibetan snooker_Sports & Adventure_TIBET". m.tibet.cn. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
7. Murakami, Daisuke (April 2014). "Aspects of the Traditional Gambling Game known as Sho in Modern Lhasa — religious and gendered worldviews infusing the Tibetan dice game —". Revue d'Études Tibétaines (29): 245–270. S2CID 54691303.
8. Shotwell, Peter. A Form of Tibetan Mig-Mang From the West?. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
9. West, Andrew (4 March 2006). "Tibetan Go". BabelStone Blog. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
10. Walker, Damian. "Ming mang (Leaflet #55)". Cyningstan Traditional Board Games. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
11. Bue, Erberto F. Lo (2011). Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the IATS, 2003. Volume 13: Art in Tibet Issues in Traditional Tibetan Art From the Seventh to Twentieth Century. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. p. 146. ISBN 9789004155190.
12. Winther, Mats. "Tibetan Gundru". Board games. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
13. Botermans, Jack (2008). The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History (1st. ed.). New York, NY / London: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. pp. 619–626. ISBN 978-1-4027-4221-7. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
14. "THE HISTORY OF POLO". argentinapolo.com. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
15. "Yak Races". Life on the Tibetan Plateau. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
16. China Folklore Photographic Association. "Yak Racing". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
17. Mark Pennington (1 September 2008). Teaching Reading Strategies. Mark Pennington. pp. 298–. ISBN 978-0-578-01766-2. Retrieved 1 April 2013.