Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Bhutan - Archery


Bhutan's national sport is archery. In each village I was in, they have an archery field set up. They shoot 150 meters (3 times the olympic distance) onto an 8 inch target. With a traditional longbow. And they hit that goddamn target too. Amazing. The opposing team stands around the target and taunts the shooter. The shooter lets the arrow fly, and the opposing team watches it coming and then at the last second dodges it. No fear of dying by arrow. The women stand next to the shooter and dance around and wave ribbons to distract him. When an arrow hits the center of the target, they do a victory dance in front of the target. I saw several victory dances. The whole village shows up for these matches too; lots of people.
A bunch of dudes in plaid ninja outfits shooting arrows at each other deep in the Himalayas. Beat that for a weekend getaway.

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