Home » Bhutan » Punakha, Saturday the 6th of August

I wake to the sounds of water and the smell of wood smoke. After a couple of nights here, I no longer feel cut off from the world but protected from it and not particularly anxious to move away.<br/><br/>

After a short breakfast we made our way to the Â“sports areaÂ” of the city to see an archery match. Archery is taken terribly seriously here, so seriously that it is the national sport and every village, no matter how small, has an archery range.
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Punakha, Saturday the 6th of August

Degrubenc
2005-12-09 17:52:26

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I wake to the sounds of water and the smell of wood smoke. After a couple of nights here, I no longer feel cut off from the world but protected from it and not particularly anxious to move away.

After a short breakfast we made our way to the Â“sports areaÂ” of the city to see an archery match. Archery is taken terribly seriously here, so seriously that it is the national sport and every village, no matter how small, has an archery range.

The Bhutanese archers are divided into two sections, the traditionals and the moderns. The traditionals use a Bhutanese version of the Longbow, the moderns have the latest bows and arrows, all made of titanium, with a pulley system and aluminium arrows. The match I was invited to witness was a modern match. There were 4 teams competing on the two main ranges. The range consists of two large mud walls facing each other at 150 meters of distance. The teams consist of 4 members each and are divided, with two members at either end of the range. A small wooden target is placed at the foot of the mud walls, a colourful array of flags are placed on either side, creating a corridor. The sides take turns in shooting, 20 shots approximately for each side, each team shooting after the other. The team on the other side stays worryingly close to the target and watch the arrows coming in. As the archer prepares to shoot, the spectators are encouraged to disturb and irritate the archer. This is done by creating noises of all kinds, dancing and shouting abuse as well as colourful insults, more often than not relating explicitly to the sexual prowess of the archer and the fidelity of his wife and sisters.

The archer is to remain calm while his family, village and manhood are abused, and take his shot, and as soon as the shot is taken he will start running down the range following the arrow, shouting encouragement to it until it lands. If it strikes the target then the other members ...