Mongolia-Wisdom of Mongolian Bow Makers

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Script
Mongols celebrate National Naadam festival on every July 11th of each year. During this nationwide festival everyone who is either of both 8 years old children and 80 years old elders broadly participate in celebrations freely taking part in wrestling, archery and horseracing contests.
The contest of archery is an essential part of the Naadam festival and vivid example of traditional entertainment sport of the Mongols. During days of Naadam celebration in nationwide about thousands archers gather in their local stadiums and take part in archery contests.
According to historical sources today’s Mongolia is one of cradle places where were originated bow-making tradition and archery.
It has been broadly testified by rich rock art images of hunting scenes with bow and arrow, and also many archeological findings of bow and arrow found in the territory of Mongolia.
This Stone monument has to be the object that Mongols should respect. The “Stone inscription of Chinggis Khan” was engraved in 1224. This inscription says that “Esynkhe, a grandson of Chinggis Khan hit a target at 335 fathoms (502,5m) distance when Mongolians gathered and shot at target at the place of Bukh Sochikhai. And today Mongolian archers are spiritually praying for this monument.
Bow and arrow are 2 basic equipments of archery. Bow is made from a very flexible material and in history it is written that for the first time the Baikal-Siberian and Mongolian hunters gave the idea of throwing the arrow faraway. And this origin is associated with the place where Mongols inhabited before.
So here in my hand is a bow that was found in the rock burials in 1950s at Ikh Biyenii Ovoo in Umnugovi province. Rock burial is related to XIII-XIV century. This bow has horn eleg in the inner side and sinew in outer side. It is fully possible that this bow was used during Chingis Khaan’s conquest. In this part you see the bow eleg and eleg’s glued piece. Generally bow’s wooden frame consists of 5 parts. First the handle part “Shar khamar”. Wooden frame has handle part, eleg on both sides and 2 khichirs form the 5 parts. These parts are seated on each other.
Although in the process of the evolution and development the form and design of bow have been slightly changed, it bow has kept their main features until today.
For instance, nowadays various types of bow and arrow including Hunnu, Manchu, Buriad and Uriankhai types are still used. During hunting and battles arrows with sharp steel head were used, but in competitions was used arrow with blunted heads
So this wooden bow is from about 2000 years ago. During Hunnu Empire the mongols have invented a bow with a sinew from behind and horn in front. This is the first form of this kind of bow. A bow with very long Khichir and short myatga was used a lot during Hunnu Empire. Here I will explain about the bow that was made by Central Asians. You can see khichir here, myatga here, handle here and shar khamar is glued behind the bow to make it with a shape of a bow. In front is horn, behind is the glued sinew and these 3 layers were invented by our ancestors. Our children from young age used this kind of Alangar bow, which is stronger than one wooden bow. Putting sinew right behind the bow and drying them, children from age 13-14 used this kind of Alangar bow.
On children’s celebtation day my brother and I participated in archery contest. 200-300 and even 500 children participate. There we competed from 10am in the morning to 9pm in the evening.
On children’s celebtation day my brother and I participated in archery contest. 200-300 and even 500 children participate. There we competed from 10am in the morning to 9pm in the evening.
First we are putting sinew on the bow. 3-4 months later after putting sinew we attach the horn. After attaching the horn we dry the bow. The drying process takes a time because the sinew with glue is dried for a long time, the drying of the glued sinew behind the bow takes 5-6 months to 1 year.
For the arrow first wood is drilled and made with pointy edge to hunt, then made rust or (arrowhead) from stones and then bronze arrowhead was made, and currently we still do these arrowheads. This is a bronze arrowhead and it is the latest version with 4 parts and hole in the middle. Uriankhai bow and arrow of western Mongolia was first used in competitions and contests. During breaking time soldiers used to compete their wit through making rolling knot with reins as the target. Also, they would replaced a wooden or horn blunt head instead the iron. It has derived from western Mongolia. As the target. Buriad’s have an arrow with wooden blunt head. It is hollow inside, which shows one of the great skills of our craftsmen. This is an elephant bone head.