Ulaanbaatar Then And Now – Part 10

Scott Notes in 2000: I left the stadium after about an hour there and wandered around outside looking at the people etc. The outside of the stadium was ringed in by all sorts of stalls selling anything from Mongolian food, 2nd hand shoes, cigarettes & drinks to cheap plastic toys. One circuit of the stadium was enough before I headed home.

The following day the client took us to the horse racing. Mongolian horse racing is just open countryside racing with no tracks or courses. Depending upon the age of the horse it can be in a 15K race or a 30K race. We arrived at a site which was about 1K from the actual finish line. The crowd barrier was about 150 metres from where the horses actually passed by. The client timed it very well as we were only there for about 5 minutes when the first of the horses appeared in the horizon. We could tell from the cloud of dust. Eventually the leading horses passed us by but from a great distance. For the next 5 minutes about 100 or more horses went by. And that was that! The client then took us back to UB where we had a few beers and lunch. I decided not to go to the closing ceremony. The client told me that day that he hasn’t attended any Nadaam festivities for quite some years and I now understand why. Apparently it is widely promoted for those intrepid traveller who like to visit places like Mongolia but in essence it is a big let down.

Thomo Notes in 2006: Scott has missed the importance of Naadam for the Mongolian population as a whole. Apart from it being a reminder and celebration for independence from China early in the 20th Century, it is a festival that the country folks prepare for for a long time. For the weeks preceding Naadam the countryside around Ulaanbaatar has folks moving in from the countryside with their horses and what have you. At the same time, the big owners and trainers are all exerting great efforts to give their horse the best possible outcome.

And the significance of the wrestling cannot be underestimated as well. A great deal of interest is shown by the Mongolians over the wrestling. National TV coverage is given to all the main wrestling tournaments and the Naadam one is no different. Actually, coverage is also given to the Sumo tournaments in Japan as well, given the number of Mongolians that are wrestling there.