Aim...
Draw...
Shoot!
Boys and gals, I am here to tell you that our childhood games of shooting with pea guns and water pistols were a total waste of effort. What we should have been doing, as the boys in Bhutan all apparently do, is practicing our archery!
It won't take many hours for a visitor in Bhutan to hear that archery is a big deal here. Biiiig. And I have landed at an opportune time to witness this national sport, since the archery tournaments and competitions are especially common around the biggest festival of the year, the New Year. In consequence I have been thrilled to run into several jousts on the road. And my lovely new guide Namgay and driver Kinley have the patience of the saints and always oblige my whims to stop the car and go rushing across the meadows to see the show.
The competitors in local competitions consist of the just about all the able-bodied male population of the village in question, so the archers range from young adults to virile old gentlemen. And the weapon of choice is the bamboo bow. It takes a great deal of strength to draw the bow - actually this the main reason there are no women archers (the other reson, no doubt, being women think it's just a silly waste of time). In fact drawing the bow demands so much strength that you have to take aim before you draw the bow - then it's a quick draw and release. This means aiming is much harder than with modern bows, where you can aim with the bow already drawn and just release, when you are on target.
The first archery game we saw was in a field by the road. I galavanted off to meet the locals with my long-suffering guide trailing behind me. These guys were just lovely! They were shouting out cheeky comments to eachother, and laughing loudly at eachother's (and to be fair also their own) failures, but applauding equally loudly if the shot was a good one. And, which is quite rare and rather precious, my turning up with camera didn't bother them or make them self-conscious or uncomfortable. They just went ahead with their fun-making. I was also treated to a big mugful of local warm rice wine. Actually, and somewhat contrary to expectations, it was quite good and did indeed taste somewhat like sake.
And then it was back to the car towards the next - very pretty - village, where a competition was taking place actually up the main street of the village.-
I have to say this: Nobody, and I do believe I mean nobody, shoots in such a bad-ass way as the Bhutanese! Not only do they have the old bamboo bows which make it hardest to hit the target, the targets are very small and also far away. Now admit it, can you see the target in this image below, where the competitors are craning their necks to see how the arrow flies? Or the image above of the village taken from the other end of the range? (Correct answer at the end of this posting).
No, neither could I at first. This may be because whereas the longest Olympic distance is 70 metres, the distance to shoot in Bhutan is 145 metres! And the goal is smaller. On top of which, you only get two points if you have a direct hit, and one point if the arrow falls less than an arrow's length away from the target (and the arrows are quite short as well).
There are targets at both ends of the shooting range (or field, or village). Each competitor has only two arrows to shoot from one target towards the other. Then they wander off to the other target to collect their spent arrows and shoot again in the other direction. In fact the wandering off part seemed a bit death defying at times, since people were carelessly walking towards the next target with the arrows of their fellow competitors whizzing over their heads. And not only the competitors were walking around the range, but also mothers, children and cows. Below a mother and child, who thought it was a good idea to stand chatting on the main street, with an archery competition under way. But my guide claims there are very few casualties, human or bovine.
With bamboo bows, such a long range and tiny target - and the competitors all a bunch of farmers who only get to shoot occasionally on weekends or during festivals - you wouldn't think many points are scored. Well, though all the shots came pretty darned close, admittedly no-one hit the target. Expect one guy.
Here he is in the picture above, trying to look innocent - in fact trying to look like he has his arm in a sling. Yet this humble looking young guy in grey in the background was actually a reincarnation of William Tell! During out time in the village he had time to shoot 6 rounds - that's 12 arrows. Four of these hit the target (though one bounced off and so he didn't get a point for it) and a couple more fell within 1 arrow's length of the goal. Below an image of one of his arrows flying through the air and the competitors holding their breaths in anticipation. Bullseye. People, you do NOT want to mess with this guy!
And every time he hit the target, the fellow competitors performed a little dance and song in his honour. All in all my second day in Bhutan has really made me a fan of archery. When performed by Bhutanese villagers that is - and if no cows, women or children are hit. The competitors can take their chances.
P.S. In case you haven't cracked it, here are the answers to the target riddle:
In top image of the village: In the top left corner of the image there is a tree. About 2 meters to the right of it is a white dot. That's a palace of the underworld (I may get around to explaining what those are in later postings). And about 2 meters downhill from the bigger white dot is a much smaller white dot. BINGO!
In the lower image of the village: In front of the last house in the village is a darker patch of foliage. And in front of that a white dot. BINGO AGAIN!)
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