Sports
A catalog of the sports, martial arts and folk games of the Turkic world: modern and ancient sports, by people.
Combat sports (42)
- Aba wrestling — Wrestling of Hatay and Gaziantep, fought in a thick jacket called the aba.
- Alpagut — A modern martial art rooted in the culture of Turan, the Great Steppe.
- Altai kuresh — The national wrestling of the Altaians.
- Alysh belt wrestling — An old Turkic wrestling style in which the opponents hold each other by the belt.
- Bagatur — A modern Turkish martial art created in Türkiye.
- Baranta — The traditional martial art of the Hungarians.
- Bashgoruma — A combat game on foot.
- Bayrak wrestling — Traditional wrestling for a flag at weddings in Kahramanmaraş.
- Beybars — A modern martial art created in Tatarstan.
- Bolbon kurash — The wrestling of the Kyrgyz strongmen, the balbans; it is named in the Manas epic.
- Dayanak (stick fighting game) — A combat game on foot.
- Diradoyma — A combat game on foot.
- Gagauz güreş — Among the Gagauz, wrestling is held together with horse races.
- Kara kaplan — A martial art. In Tatarstan at the end of the 20th century there was an attempt to revive the ancient Tatar martial art under the names Kara Kaplan and Alyptar.
- Kara khuresh — The hand-to-hand combat of the Tuvans, named in the source beside kuresh wrestling.
- Karakucak wrestling — An old Turkish wrestling style of Anatolia, fought standing and without oil.
- Kazakh kures — The national standing wrestling of the Kazakhs.
- Khakas kures — The national wrestling of the Khakas.
- Khalbas khara — An old balancing game of the Sakha (Yakuts), played on a rope.
- Khapsagai — It is in the All-Russian Register of Sports.
- Khara moriton ("black riders") — The mounted fighting system of the Buryats: riding, whip and lasso, wrestling and fist fighting.
- Khuresh — The national wrestling of the Tuvans; it is in the Russian register of sports.
- Kol sanat — An Uyghur fighting system built on strikes with hand and foot, strangles and painful holds.
- Kurash — The old standing wrestling style of the Uzbeks.
- Kyrgys uorege — The old warrior training of the Sakha: the tradition of preparing a boy for war from childhood and the giving of the name bootur.
- Kyrgyz kurosh — The national wrestling of the Kyrgyz.
- Matrak — A combat game; it has a federation.
- Oil wrestling — An old Turkish wrestling style in which the wrestlers oil their bodies.
- Pahlavan wrestling — The national wrestling of Azerbaijan, fought to the sound of zurna and drum.
- Sanguchi — A modern Turkish martial art created in Türkiye.
- Sayokan — A Turkish self-defence system founded by Nihat Yiğit in 1999.
- Shalvar wrestling — The wrestling of Kahramanmaraş: fought standing, without oil, in baggy shalwar trousers.
- Sinsimak — A school of martial art practised to this day in Buryatia.
- Sir sanat — A family teaching assigned to Turkic martial culture and said to have come down from a Uyghur master: philosophy, medicine and a fighting art built on strikes to vital points.
- Sword and shield (kılıç kalkan) — A combat game.
- Taz suzush — A Kyrgyz amusement of the memorial feast: bald men ran at each other and knocked foreheads.
- Turkmen göreş — The national wrestling of the Turkmens.
- Uzbek jang san'ati — A modern martial art created in Uzbekistan.
- Yakalashma — Turkmen wrestling with a hold on the collar.
- Yesüken (Turkic sword art) — The Turkish art of the sword as taught in Türkiye.
- Zhekpe-zhek — A modern combat sport based on the Kazakh tradition of single combat.
- Zhylanach chabysh — A martial art.
Strength sports (10)
- Ködürge tash / Khapchan tas (stone lifting) — The stone-lifting contest of the Altaians and the Khakas.
- Kylyy, ystanga, kuobakh — Athletics. It is in the All-Russian Register of Sports.
- Lobut throwing — Throwing a wooden club far or at a target.
- Mace games — A contest of strength and skill with weapons.
- Mace lifting and kızgıntaş — A test of strength by lifting a heavy mace — a sport and training exercise of the Ottoman period.
- Mas-wrestling — A contest of strength and balance between two athletes pulling a stick.
- Taban-tires — An old Nogai contest of strength: two men sit, brace their heels against a board and pull one stick.
- Tokpok chachary — The Altaians' contest of throwing a wooden mace as far as possible.
- Tug of war — An old contest of strength in which two teams pull a rope each to its own side.
- Zorkhana elements — Strength games with heavy tools and wrestling, performed by pehlevans.
Intellectual and folk games (25)
- Ashyk / Shagai (knucklebones) — An old folk game played with the ankle bone of a sheep.
- Camel wrestling — A festival of the Aegean region at which male camels wrestle.
- Chalagan chardagi, charpapag — Two games named among the national sports games of Azerbaijan.
- Chilingaghaj (tip-cat) — A game of striking a short stick with a long one to send it far.
- Dada boyu — A ball game of Azerbaijani children.
- Dalba — A Kyrgyz contest of calling a bird of prey to the lure.
- Dama (draughts) — A game of intelligence played with pieces on a chequered board.
- Dawaz (high-wire walking) — High-wire walking. Part of China's National Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities since 1953.
- Garabtep / Chiledi — A game of keeping a ball in the air by kicking it with the right and left foot in turn.
- Han-biy, kochhar, tokhana — Knucklebone games of the Karachay-Balkars.
- Mangala — A traditional game of intelligence played in Türkiye with stones on a board with pits.
- Mara (nine men's morris) — An Azerbaijani folk game played with small stones in pits.
- Mayir ball — A game similar to hockey (Khotan). On China's heritage list since 2021.
- Nard (backgammon) — An old board game for two, in which dice are thrown and the pieces are moved round the board.
- Onikitaş (twelve stones) — An Anatolian strategy game played with twelve stones.
- Ordo — A Kyrgyz game of knocking knucklebones out of the field.
- Sabantuy contests — Sack race, pole climbing, sack fighting, pot breaking (chölmək vatu), egg-and-spoon race, finding a coin in katyk.
- Shatra (Altai chess) — Revived in 1960.
- Sini zarf and munjuq — Folk games of the Turkmens of Kirkuk.
- Tepük — 11th century, Mahmud al-Kashgari: a lead ball wrapped in goat hair was kicked with the foot.
- Toguz Korgool — An old game of intelligence and strategy that the Kyrgyz and the Kazakhs play with stones.
- Tomak — A bat-and-ball game.
- Topaldigach — An Azerbaijani children's game in which two teams hit a ball with a stick.
- Turkish draughts — Turkish draughts: played on a 64-square board, with men that move straight and sideways.
- Ýaglyga towusmak — Jumping for a hanging scarf.
Equestrian sports (31)
- Akhal-Teke horse races — The races of Akhal-Teke horses in Turkmenistan.
- Atlı tura (mounted game) — A forgotten Anatolian wedding game in which horsemen strike one another with a plaited rope, the tura.
- Avdarysuv — Nogai wrestling on horseback: two riders on unsaddled horses try to bring each other to the ground.
- Baharband — A Karabakh game: at a gallop the rider throws down his things and then picks them up again.
- Bayga horse race — The old long-distance horse race of the Turkic peoples.
- Choban oyunu — A mounted game: a cloth ball is driven with the shepherd's staff to the other side's goal.
- Chovgan — An ancient team game played on Karabakh horses.
- Dasmal oyunu — A race to pick a kerchief off the ground at a gallop — a mounted game of the Terekeme of Karabakh.
- Emdik ürediş — The breaking-in of an unbroken horse.
- Er sayysh (mounted lance duel) — A lance duel on horseback.
- Er-Enish (mounted wrestling) — An old nomadic wrestling style in which two wrestlers grapple on horseback.
- Great Kurultáj (Bugac) — A festival held every August: horse races, mounted wrestling, kökbörü.
- Horse sledging and traditional sledging — Sled contests on snow and ice.
- Horsemanship skills — Displays of skill in riding.
- Jamby atmay — Shooting through the cord of a hanging silver ingot from a galloping horse.
- Jidir (horse race) — The horse race held at Novruz and at popular festivals.
- Jigitovka trick riding — Acrobatic feats and displays of daring on a galloping horse.
- Kassai horseback archery — The system of horseback archery founded by the Hungarian Lajos Kassai.
- Kechipapag — A mounted team game: a goatskin ball has to be sent through a hoop hung from a tree.
- Kökbörü — An ancient Turkic game of two mounted teams.
- Kyz kuu (catch the girl) — An old game on horseback in which a young man chases a girl, and then the girl chases him.
- Kyzbörü — The wedding form of kokboru: the bride rides off with the kid and the groom's side chases her.
- Mounted archery — The art and contest of shooting arrows at a target from a galloping horse.
- Mounted javelin (Atlı Cirit) — An old Turkish team game in which riders throw blunt wooden javelins at each other.
- Mounted strength trial — Lifting a sheep from the ground at a gallop.
- Papaqaldigach — An old Azerbaijani game in which riders try to take each other's caps.
- Sur-papag — A game of two mounted teams that try to throw a cap through a ring.
- Tenge ilu (picking up coins at a gallop) — Picking up a coin from the ground at a gallop. It is in Kazakhstan's national sports register.
- Tymak uryp zhygu — Knocking down a hat blindfolded.
- Yayliq — An old game in which riders contend for a silk kerchief.
- Yorga amble race — A race for horses that go at the ambling gait.
Archery and hunting (9)
- Altingabag — A contest of shooting an arrow through a ring from a galloping horse.
- Dalla mendetii — A Sakha game of shooting a traditional bow at an arrow's flight; today a contest of the Yhyakh Olonkho festival.
- Falconry and hunting-bird demonstrations — The art of training falcons, eagles and other birds of prey and flying them at quarry.
- Gopug / Piyala and arrow — A game of shooting a golden bowl or a cup off the top of a post from horseback.
- Hunting with tazy hounds — Hunting with tazy sighthounds, an old tradition of the Kazakhs and the Turkmens.
- Salbuurun — The traditional Kyrgyz hunt with golden eagle, hound and bow, and its contests.
- Skiing — Hunting and racing on skis among the ancient Turks.
- Taigan race — A race of hunting dogs.
- Traditional archery — The art of shooting with a traditional bow on foot, at a target and for distance.