Traditional & Modern Sports of Bhutan
The people of Bhutan are sports lovers. Traditional sports and games form an essential part of national culture. Traditional games and sports such as archery, degor (somewhat like discus), pungdo (shot put), khuru (dart), soksum (javelin) and keshi (wrestling) form an integral part of Bhutanese life.
Archery, the national sport, is a competitive and favourite recreational sport for young and old alike. It differs from Olymic standards in terms of target distance and atmosphere. There are two targets placed 140m apart and teams shoot from one end of the field to the other. Each member of the team shoots two arrows per round.
Traditional Bhutanese archery is a social event and competitions are held regularly between individual teams, organizations, villages and towns. The tournament begins with traditional ceremony of abundance known as Zhugdrel Phunsum Tshogpa and traditional breakfast. There is plenty of food and drinks with singing and dancing. Women decked in their finest clothes are cheer leaders for the team s at major tournaments. They dance and sing between play and perform brief routines during the shooting. Archery is considered to be an art, mastered to attain physical dexterity, mental strength and above all, the highest spirit of competition.
Khuru is a dart game which is an equally popular outdoor team sport. The heavy wooden darts, pointed with a 10cm nail, are thrown at a paperback-sized target 10 to 20m away. Another popular traditional sport is the degor. A round, flat stone is tossed at a target and the winner is the one closest to the target. Pungdo,the Bhutanese version of shotput, played with heavy round stones is also popular.
Modern Sports
<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
Modern sports such as football, golf, tennis, basketball, boxing, table tennis, badminton, volleyball and taekwondo, are encouraged. Representatives of the country participate regularly in the South Asia Federation (SAF) games and the Olympic Games. Cricket has gained remarkable popularity in Bhutan in recent years while football has always been popular.
