Chovgan
An ancient team game played on Karabakh horses.
Names among the peoples
- çovqan (Azerbaijanis)
- eğir oyunu (çevgan) (Turks of Türkiye)
- çavqon (Uzbeks)
About
Chovgan is a traditional horseback game played by two teams on a flat, grassy field. Each team has five riders: two defenders and three forwards. Mounted on Karabakh horses, players use wooden mallets to drive a small leather or wooden ball into the opposing goal.
Play starts from the centre of the field to the sound of cəngi, a traditional folk tune. Players traditionally wear tall fleece hats and long, fitted coats.
Chovgan keeps alive an identity rooted in nomadic culture, where the horse is part of everyday life. In 2013 UNESCO inscribed it on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
History
As F. Bayat writes, the picture of chovgan on a glazed vessel found in the excavations at Örənqala shows that the game was known in the city of Beylagan in the ninth century. In the eleventh century Mahmud al-Kashgari spoke of the game and its rule in his Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, and his contemporary Yusuf Balasaguni mentions it too. By the sources, chovgan contests among the horsemen of the Middle Eastern lands were held in Baghdad from the twelfth century; the Safavid and Ottoman courts kept specially trained players.
In the sixteenth century the Baburids took the game to India; in the nineteenth it was brought from there to England, spread with new rules through Europe and America, and under the name polo entered the programme of the II Olympic Games in Paris in 1900. A chovgan player was called chovganbaz, the one who struck the ball chovganzan, and those who served the teams chovgandar.
Rules in brief
In the general description F. Bayat gives, the game is played between two teams: the riders try to drive the ball through the opponents' goal with a stick curved at the end — the chovgan — and the side that puts through more balls wins. The stick is 120 to 150 centimetres long; the ball is made of willow or another wood. The field is 200 to 240 metres long and 120 to 160 wide; the goal posts stand three to six metres apart. In some countries a net is tied to the end of the stick and the ball is carried in it and thrown at the goal; there the side that scores seven wins.
Federations and competitions
UNESCO (2013), national federation.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept