Dasmal oyunu

A race to pick a kerchief off the ground at a gallop — a mounted game of the Terekeme of Karabakh.

Names among the peoples

• Dəsmalgötdü (Azerbaijanis)

About

Dasmal oyunu ("the kerchief game") is one of the mounted games of Karabakh: at a gallop the rider leans out of the saddle and picks up a kerchief laid on the ground. It stands among the "Terekeme games" that the Folklore Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences recorded in the village of Shahsevan, Aghjabadi district, next to the papag game, kechipapag and the shepherds' game.

As F. Bayat writes, in Azerbaijan, Karabakh included, the game is also known as Dasmalgotdu. He puts picking a kerchief or a coin off the ground at a gallop first among the mounted games shared by the Turkic peoples: among the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz the same game is called after a coin. It asks the rider to handle the horse fast and neatly and to be agile in the saddle.

Rules in brief

According to Rafail Aliyev, a resident of the village of Shahsevan in Aghjabadi district, the distance is measured out beforehand — a hundred metres, say. Each team has five players. One rider from each team sets off and has to pick the kerchief off the ground at a gallop; the quicker one wins. If neither manages it, they ride again.

F. Bayat gives another rule as well: the game is played singly or in teams, with at least three riders in a team; every kerchief picked up earns a point and every miss loses one.

Peoples

• Azerbaijanis

Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept

Sources

1. Qarabağ: folklor da bir tarixdir. II kitab (Bərdə və Ağcabədi rayonlarından toplanmış folklor örnəkləri). Bakı: Elm və təhsil, 2012, s. 171–172 («Tərəkəmə oyunları»)
2. Füzuli Bayat. Şamandan səmazənə: oyun və oyunçu. Bakı: Elm və təhsil, 2017, s. 136, 148
3. İllüstrasiya: süni intellektlə hazırlanıb, Komitə təqdim edib