This little -related winter camel festival presents beauty contests, polo games and ice arc shooting in the Gobi desert in Mongolia

I never thought to describe a camel as hug. Again, living in New York, there are not many opportunities to contemplate the textures of camel. This does not mean that I am entirely unknown: I have met many dromedic camels to a bump during my trips spent in Egypt, Morocco, India and even Australia. But by meeting their Bactrians cousins ​​with two Bactrians in southern Mongolia, pressed against the neck of a particularly shaggy specimen, their cable feels due to the re -evaluation.

I am at Ten Thousand Camel Festival, an annual celebration of the Bactrian camel with soft golden hair, which is almost exclusively on the Central Eurasian steppe.

Mongols from across the country went down to their best in part (The traditional national costume) Participate and specter in camel polo games, camel racing, ice archery, singing competitions and beauty contests for cheeky camels and their breeders ornate festively. There is also a myriad of camel products from miniature toil and genius (Traditional houses of nomadic Mongolian breeders) with camel wool covers and camel dairy products.

Bactrians camels represent only a small fraction of the world’s world’s population – more than 6% (or 2 million) to date. But in the early 90s, the population and the spell were much worse.

Before the 1990 Pacific Democratic Revolution in Mongolia, all the cattle was managed and bought by the State. During the transition to a free market under the new democracy, coupled with the low demand for camel products like milk and wool, breeders found that their camels were worth more for their meat. Many have been forced to massacre their camels to reach both ends, plunging the population at a weak point of 200,000 in Mongolia. Ten Thousand Camel Festival was launched by the Amazing Gobi Tourism Association in 1997 as a way to limit the population rapidly decreasing by promoting camel products and experiences.

Today, the domestic Bactrian camel in Mongolia is a success, more than doubling the number of around 480,000. It is an even greater feat given their slow gestation period: the camels are pregnant for 13 months on average and will only have one baby every two years.

Tourism has played a major role in revitalizing species. Many families across the country have completed their lives by offering a hike to camels to foreigners and selling wool with large sweets for socks, gloves, hats and blankets.

“Before starting the event, there was only one family in the south of Gobi organizing Camel hike,” the founder and director of the festival told T + L. “Now we have a lot. Some families can earn 40 to 50 million tugiks (about $ 11,500 at $ 14,500) each year. Mining is one of the great advantages and challenges that we face in Mongolia. It attracts young people to live in the city and work on mines.

A series of darling calls attracted my attention to a pair of fields marked by the field. Here, Camel Polo’s opening matches started. Men in numbered jerseys and white helmets threatened up and down on the ground on the back of camels with decorative leg envelopes. Leaning to swing wooden mallets, they hammered a bright blue ball slightly larger than a softball from top to bottom on the ground. It is an exciting show to attend, and I spent the next time watching them shake from front to back, sometimes managing to bury the ball in the net of the opponent.

On the other side of the polo fields, a crowd of 10 cascading people in a series of cissers looked at the jockeying runners A camel line on the last one hundred feet of a multi-kilometer race. The drones buzz over the head, nourishing the race live on a jumbotron television in the center of the field.

At midday, the crowd went to thousands. Although its objective is to increase international tourism, overall, it is an event by and for Mongols. I only spotted two dozen foreigners in the sea of ​​several colors in part. It seems refreshing and authentic; A window on the life and traditions of the residents of Gobi.

Beyond the adventures of Camel, the festival is a reason for the inhabitants to meet and celebrate winter traditions. One of the star events is the ice archery, where the competitors draw arrows blunt of bulbous heads and pull them at around 150 feet on a frozen ice field. The objective is to land the projectile on a protective snow bank and hit a set of balls of 400 grams on a second bank. Each competitor is authorized at 20 shots in total and the matches last several hours. The champions receive a medal on their hat and are honored in their province.

“We want to create an American organization,” Byambadorj, vice-president of Mongolia Ice Archery Association, told Munkhjargalj. Voyage + Leisure. “We started the association in 2008, but Ice Archery started over 2,000 years ago. We want this sport to be at the Olympic Games. This is our dream. ”

Next to archery fields, around a dozen rotation are set up for each of the provinces where the camels are gathered. Inside, men pass bottles of tobacco to a prosecut in an exchange to a palmate, and women distribute copper bowls of fermented camel milk known as Airag. After being inaugurated inside a man in a forest green, garnished with fur partI was immediately offered a bowl of acidic and tangy drink. It is an acquired taste, but a must under the encouragement of the surrounded crowd.

Back in the center of the field, more than a hundred people aligned themselves in Corvreary for the official reception ceremony and the camel parade. Groups from each province strut through waiting lines of spectators brandishing mobile phones to capture the show. The camels covered with brown brown with almond-colored fur are decorated with bracelets, stools and flanges of each color of the rainbow. More amazing are their riders. Sheepskin part And vests with elaborate silk patterns, everyone is the dream of a maximalist fashionista. It is a feast for the eyes and the camera.

At the back of the procession, a small crowd gathered in Gawk and posed for selfies with a solid camel adorned with dozens of medals. Acting a family to join them for a photo, they laugh while admiring the majestic creature.

I can’t help but nod my head. It is a good soft camel.