Papaqaldigach
An old Azerbaijani game in which riders try to take each other's caps.
About
Papaqaldiqach, or the "cap game", is one of the oldest mounted folk games of Azerbaijan. Eight or twelve riders take part, one of them a girl. The girl may not be touched, and she tries to take the men's caps. A rider whose cap is taken is out; the one who collects the most caps wins.
The logic of the game is simple: a man who cannot guard his cap will not guard his head in battle. So a rider has both to protect his own cap and to take the caps of others. The game is best known in Karabakh.
Rules in brief
The game has two halves of 10 minutes with a 5-minute break. Moving slowly and pushing an opponent or his horse are forbidden. If the score is level, 5 minutes of extra time are played until the first cap is lost; if that does not decide it either, lots are drawn.
In the papag game that stands among the "Terekeme games" recorded by the Folklore Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences in the village of Shahsevan, Aghjabadi district, the rule is a little different: each team has five riders, and the team that takes more caps from its opponents' heads in fifteen minutes wins. A cap that has been taken may not be hidden — it must be either in the hand or on the head. If a team-mate has lost his cap, a player holding a spare one has to give it to him.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept
Sources
- Azərbaycan döyüş sənətləri və oyunları — Vikipediya
- Füzuli Bayat. Şamandan səmazənə: oyun və oyunçu. Bakı: Elm və təhsil, 2017, s. 139–147
- İllüstrasiya: süni intellektlə hazırlanıb, Komitə təqdim edib
- Qarabağ: folklor da bir tarixdir. II kitab (Bərdə və Ağcabədi rayonlarından toplanmış folklor örnəkləri). Bakı: Elm və təhsil, 2012, s. 171–172 («Tərəkəmə oyunları»)