Camel wrestling championship 2006 - Bodrum, Turkey
It's a New Years Day Camel Wrestling Extravaganza!
db: Camel wrestling championship 2006 of Southwestern Turkey opened today in Ortakent, Bodrum.
It was ideal day for camel wrestling. Not that your reporter knew that until he heard it from experts. Mild weather [about 15 degree Celsius], cloudy to partly cloudy are ideal conditions for this sporting event, which draw around 3000 spectators and more than 100 competitors [camels] on this very first day of the year.
What is camel wrestling anyway? Well, it's a bit like cricket. While you eventually can figure out the rules by sheer watching, it is absolutely impossible to comprehend scoring system to anyone who is not directly involved i.e. camel owners and/or judges. Probably that is the reason that everyone I spoke to said the competition is rigged. Well, to be honest that adds even more mystery to this sport, because while you can say to the boxer: "In the fifth, your ass goes down. Say it." [Marcellus to Butch in Pulp Fiction], you can't to camel. Actually you can, but the chance that he will understand and obey you is close to zero. I wrote "he" for camel deliberately, because only male camels fight [that just proves something's wrong with that gender in all species]. Anyway, it is important to say that there are categories according to age and weight. Scissors [can be from right and left], hook and hug are some words of the vocabulary of this sport.
The event was due to begin at 10:30 AM, but actually that was the time competitors and spectators started to arrive. So it actually started around noon [it's very hard to be late here]. Since your reporter was punctual, there was a lot of time to get acquainted with some camel owners, and venue. All that was happening whilst the background music played from loudspeakers mounted on a truck which served as a judges platform, at a level one can call torture, mixed with noise, sorry, music of dozens of drummers and zurna players. No wonder camels want to fight after two hours of exposure. I don't know why but I got impression they [camels] especially enjoyed La Bamba.
Proud owner of the most nicely dressed camel of the
event - Erkurt [Aydin]
Finally, the event started with a parade. Watching the parade one can find out that while camels are exclusively males, owners are not, and they are of various ages as well.
Grandpa and granddaughter leading their camel Shahmaran [Gurece, Bodrum]
Some were in hurry not to miss the parade
After parade, before the first fight, there was a moment for prayer lead by the commentator [same truck loudspeakers]. Don't worry this is still secular country - father of the nation is mentioned in every prayer.
Prayer
And then the real action really started. First youngsters were fighting. Since they are "easy" to catch after the fight they are fighting without being lead by the rope.
Not much action among young camels
Some of the camels would rather enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon than fight.
By sheer coincidence the name of this camel is Barish = Peace
Often it takes a lot of persuasion to get them to fight
.. and then to stop them fight [usually the same ones]
And sometimes it's hard to distinguish who is actually doing the wrestling
Example of scissors from the right [I heard it from crowd, one visit
doesn't make an expert. As a matter of fact I don't know which one is losing]
As event was progressing action got hotter.
It is important to stress that it is not a violent sport, and usually nobody gets hurt. Today, there were a few minor accidents, but I doubt that anybody actually sees these things as accidents. First was that one camel set on a fence and the spectators in the first row fell together with their chairs. And the second one was that one camel came to arena through the fence, making his own gate. Well, chicken wire can hardly be seen as a protective measure against few tonnes of meat.
Rigged? Probably, since we heard that betting is going on [not publicly]. Is it annoying anybody? No. Whole thing looks like nice social event.
Ah yeah! Sausages. Well, apparently unsuccessful fighters end up as sausages. Mhhh, very tasty indeed! Take my word for it.
Photos of the process "from camel to sausages" is proudly displayed
I'm waiting for next round which takes place in Aydin in a weeks time. See it first here.
DB Middle East correspondent Bojan B.B.
db: Camel wrestling championship 2006 of Southwestern Turkey opened today in Ortakent, Bodrum.
It was ideal day for camel wrestling. Not that your reporter knew that until he heard it from experts. Mild weather [about 15 degree Celsius], cloudy to partly cloudy are ideal conditions for this sporting event, which draw around 3000 spectators and more than 100 competitors [camels] on this very first day of the year.
What is camel wrestling anyway? Well, it's a bit like cricket. While you eventually can figure out the rules by sheer watching, it is absolutely impossible to comprehend scoring system to anyone who is not directly involved i.e. camel owners and/or judges. Probably that is the reason that everyone I spoke to said the competition is rigged. Well, to be honest that adds even more mystery to this sport, because while you can say to the boxer: "In the fifth, your ass goes down. Say it." [Marcellus to Butch in Pulp Fiction], you can't to camel. Actually you can, but the chance that he will understand and obey you is close to zero. I wrote "he" for camel deliberately, because only male camels fight [that just proves something's wrong with that gender in all species]. Anyway, it is important to say that there are categories according to age and weight. Scissors [can be from right and left], hook and hug are some words of the vocabulary of this sport.
The event was due to begin at 10:30 AM, but actually that was the time competitors and spectators started to arrive. So it actually started around noon [it's very hard to be late here]. Since your reporter was punctual, there was a lot of time to get acquainted with some camel owners, and venue. All that was happening whilst the background music played from loudspeakers mounted on a truck which served as a judges platform, at a level one can call torture, mixed with noise, sorry, music of dozens of drummers and zurna players. No wonder camels want to fight after two hours of exposure. I don't know why but I got impression they [camels] especially enjoyed La Bamba.
Proud owner of the most nicely dressed camel of the
event - Erkurt [Aydin]
Finally, the event started with a parade. Watching the parade one can find out that while camels are exclusively males, owners are not, and they are of various ages as well.
Grandpa and granddaughter leading their camel Shahmaran [Gurece, Bodrum]
Some were in hurry not to miss the parade
After parade, before the first fight, there was a moment for prayer lead by the commentator [same truck loudspeakers]. Don't worry this is still secular country - father of the nation is mentioned in every prayer.
Prayer
And then the real action really started. First youngsters were fighting. Since they are "easy" to catch after the fight they are fighting without being lead by the rope.
Not much action among young camels
Some of the camels would rather enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon than fight.
By sheer coincidence the name of this camel is Barish = Peace
Often it takes a lot of persuasion to get them to fight
.. and then to stop them fight [usually the same ones]
And sometimes it's hard to distinguish who is actually doing the wrestling
Example of scissors from the right [I heard it from crowd, one visit
doesn't make an expert. As a matter of fact I don't know which one is losing]
As event was progressing action got hotter.
It is important to stress that it is not a violent sport, and usually nobody gets hurt. Today, there were a few minor accidents, but I doubt that anybody actually sees these things as accidents. First was that one camel set on a fence and the spectators in the first row fell together with their chairs. And the second one was that one camel came to arena through the fence, making his own gate. Well, chicken wire can hardly be seen as a protective measure against few tonnes of meat.
Rigged? Probably, since we heard that betting is going on [not publicly]. Is it annoying anybody? No. Whole thing looks like nice social event.
Ah yeah! Sausages. Well, apparently unsuccessful fighters end up as sausages. Mhhh, very tasty indeed! Take my word for it.
Photos of the process "from camel to sausages" is proudly displayed
I'm waiting for next round which takes place in Aydin in a weeks time. See it first here.
DB Middle East correspondent Bojan B.B.
posted by exoplanet at 11:54 PM
<< Home