Wrestling Magic: National Wrestling in Buryatia, Mongolia and Tuva in the Past and Today

Abstract

This article presents the historic development of national wrestling styles in three neighbouring Inner Asian countries. In all of them wrestling has been and still is the most popular athletic competitive activity. First, an overview of the general geographic features and history of the area is given. Second, the article outlines the origins of wrestling in these countries. It is shown that wrestling basically has its origins in magic cults with additional roots in hunting and warfare. Evidence for these origins provides ancient petroglyphs, bronze artefacts, myths, folk literature, ancient ritual practices, historiographic literature, ethnographic reports and the rules of the competitions itself. The third part of the article describes how wrestling competitions were functionalised for various purposes – magic, social, military and political – through the course of history. The last part focuses on the post-Soviet period, in which national wrestling has been flourishing in all three countries. In this period, wrestling has been re-traditionalised and utilised for new state cults as well as – to varying extents – for Buddhist ritual purposes. The article shows that general socio-economic developments ongoing in these societies were always clearly reflected by the wrestling competitions as well as by the wrestlers' behaviours themselves.