Buzkashi

Buzkashi (literally "goat grabbing" in Persian), also known as kokpar,kupkari and ulak tartysh, is the Central Asian sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to place a goat or calf carcass in a goal. It is the national sport of Afghanistan, although it was banned under the Taliban regime. Traditionally, games could last for several days, but in its more regulated tournament version, it has a limited match time.

Buzkashi may have begun with the nomadic Turkic-Mongol peoples who came from farther north and east spreading westward from China and Mongolia between the 10th and 15th centuries in a centuries-long series of migrations that ended only in the 1930s. From Scythian times until recent decades, buzkashi has remained as a legacy of that bygone era.

During the rule of the Taliban regime, buzkashi was banned in Afghanistan, as the Taliban considered the game immoral. After the Taliban regime was ousted, the game resumed being played.

Today buzkashi is played by several Central Asian ethnic groups such as the Kyrgyz, Pashtuns, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, Hazaras, Tajiks, and Turkmens. In the West, the game is also played by Afghani Turks (ethnic Kyrgyz) who migrated to Ulupamir village in the Van district of Turkey from the Pamir region. In western China, there is not only horse-back buzkashi, but also yak buzkashi among Tajiks of Xinjiang.

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Wikipedia