page_title: Naadam
section_title: Wrestling
hierarchical_section_title: Naadam / Three Games / Wrestling
caption_attribution_description: English: Wrestling in the 2005 Naadam festival.
context_page_description: Naadam is a traditional festival in Mongolia. The festival is also locally termed "eriin gurvan naadam", "the three games of men". The games are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing, and archery, and are held throughout the country during midsummer. Women have started participating in the archery and girls in the horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.
  In 2010, Naadam was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.
context_section_description: A total of 512 or 1024 wrestlers meet in a single-elimination tournament that lasts nine or ten rounds.  Mongolian traditional wrestling is an untimed competition in which wrestlers lose if they touch the ground with any part of their body other than their feet or hands. When picking pairs, the wrestler with the greatest fame has the privilege to choose his opponent.  Wrestlers wear two-piece costumes consisting of a tight shoulder vest (zodog) and shorts (shuudag). Only men are allowed to participate.
  Each wrestler has an "encourager" called a zasuul.  The zasuul sings a song of praise for the winning wrestler after rounds 3, 5, and 7.  Winners of the 7th or 8th stage (depending on whether the competition features 512 or 1024 wrestlers) earn the title of zaan, "elephant".  The winner of the 9th or 10th stage is called arslan, "lion". In the final competition, all the "zasuuls" drop in the wake of each wrestler as they take steps toward each other. Two-time arslans are called the titans / giants, or avraga.
caption: Wrestling in the 2005 Naadam festival
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