Монгольская борьба
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It's well known that nomadic people in Central Asia were good warriors and wrestlers, including women. During long campaigns when men were out women took care of homes and land, so they had to know how to fight, with weapon or without it. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo describes a Mongol princess named Ai-Yaruk, or "Bright Moon," who refused to get married until she met a man that could throw her. It is likely that during his travels Polo really did see some Mongol women wrestling. Mongol wrestling is jacket wrestling and the ulterior motive is to gain reputation and/or property. Princess Ai-Yaruk, for instance, reportedly won thousands of horses during her bouts with luckless suitors. The Mongolian wrestlers' skills and techniques have been passed on to kung fu practitioners in China as well as later to wrestlers and sambo practitioners in Russia.
Old wrestling traditions are carefully kept in Mongolia. National Mongol wrestling style in which wrestlers use specific technique – grabbing by a jacket ("udak" is mandatory for wrestlers) is very popular in Mongolia and becoming popular among contemporary Mongolian women. The old Mongolian legend tells about a woman dressed as a man who defeated all other male wrestlers in wrestling competition. Since that time men wrestle with bare chest in order to avoid shame being defeated by a woman.
However, times change (rather the old ones return) and women are actively bursting into former men's bastions. Even female tourists visiting outer and inner (China's territory) Mongolia are offered to wrestle against local girls.
There are no weight classes or time limits in a match. The objective of the match is to get your opponent to touch his back, knee or elbow to the ground. In the Inner Mongolian version, any body part other than the feet touching the ground signals defeat. Both versions use a variety of throws, trips and lifts to throw the opponent. The Inner Mongolians may not touch their opponent's legs with their hands, whereas, in Mongolia, grabbing your opponent's legs is completely legal.
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Монгольская борьба - развлечение туристов
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