Mayir ball
A game similar to hockey (Khotan). On China's heritage list since 2021.
About
Mayir ball is an ancient Uyghur game from the Hotan area: the players strike a tightly woven ball with wooden sticks. In 2021 it was added to China's national list of intangible cultural heritage.
The Xinhua news agency likens the game to field hockey but also notes the difference: there is no goalkeeper, and neither the size of the field nor the number of players is strictly fixed — a few people can play, or dozens. The team of Keriya (Yutian) county first appeared at the 11th National Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities of China in Zhengzhou in 2019 and again at the 12th Games in Sanya in 2024; its captain is Umarjan Memetmin, a middle-school teacher.
Metrozi Imin, a retired sports official of the county, has worked for more than twenty years to keep the game alive, and the local government plans to bring it into schools. According to China Daily, in April 2025 villagers played mayir ball at the opening of the 29th grassroots games of ethnic groups.
History
By China's Intangible Cultural Heritage portal, the game is more than 900 years old; it is found mainly in the lowland villages of Keriya (Yutian) County in Hotan Prefecture, and it was on this county's submission that it entered the national list. It is first of all a farmers' pastime: it is played in the slack season and at festivals and calls for no special equipment or expense.
Rules in brief
The players divide into two sides; a side may have from two to twenty players. Everyone plays with a wooden stick about a metre long whose end is bent like the figure 7; metal sticks are forbidden. The ball of the daytime game is wound from cotton or wool and sewn into cloth, about 8 centimetres across. In the night game a dried bracket fungus from a willow or poplar is set alight and struck as a "ball of fire".
The field is laid out on level ground and the goals are marked with wooden stakes or stones. Catching the ball with the hand, kicking it, striking a person and blocking an opponent are not allowed. Older players play for 15 minutes, the young for 30.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept
Sources
- Uyğur davazı və mayir topu — Xinhua
- 曲棍球（维吾尔族曲棍球）— Çinin qeyri-maddi mədəni irs portalı (ihchina.cn), V milli siyahı, 2021
- İllüstrasiya: süni intellektlə hazırlanıb, Komitə təqdim edib
- Ancient Uygur sport shines at China's National Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities — Xinhua / People's Daily Online, 26.11.2024
- A unique sporting celebration — China Daily, 26.04.2025