Taban-tires
An old Nogai contest of strength: two men sit, brace their heels against a board and pull one stick.
Names among the peoples
- табан тирес (Nogais)
About
Taban-tires is an old Nogai contest of strength. Two men sit on the ground facing each other, brace their heels against a board laid across between them, take hold of one stick and pull it towards themselves. The name means "bracing with the heel". The winner is the one who pulls his opponent up and over to his own side, or takes the stick out of his hands.
Today the game lives on at Nogai feasts and festivals. At the festival of nomadic culture held on 29 May 2021 in Terekli-Mekteb, in the Nogai district of Dagestan, both men and children played it. It has also been shown at the Sabantoy feast in the village of Kunbatar in the same district, and at the Sabantuy held in May 2016 in the aul of Erken-Khalk in Karachay-Cherkessia. People say that in this contest the weight and build of the opponents do not matter so much.
Taban-tires is akin to mas-wrestling of the Sakha (Yakuts): there too the opponents sit facing each other, brace their feet against a board between them and pull a stick towards themselves. The journalist Olga Mironovich introduces taban-tires in these words: "in today's terms, mas-wrestling". The difference is that mas-wrestling is now a sport with a federation and written rules of its own, while taban-tires lives on as a festive game of the Nogais.
History
In the words of Adler Turkmenov, author of a project to revive Nogai national sport, in the old days the opponents were separated by a two-metre board set on its edge: they braced their feet against it and took hold of the stick together. The stick had either to be torn out of the opponent's hands or the opponent thrown over oneself; at the same time each in turn struck the other across the back with a whip held in one hand.
He says that among the Nogais this contest was a kind of duel, since it was forbidden to injure or kill an opponent. The journalist Olga Mironovich likewise calls it a civilised way for two men who had quarrelled to settle the matter. As I. Abakarov writes, in such a contest it was not so much the strongest as the most enduring man who won.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept
Sources
- И. Абакаров, Земля кочевников — «Молодёжь Дагестана», 2021
- И. Текеев, Дуэль на нагайках, борьба на лошадях. Как состязались народы Кавказа — «АиФ-СК», 30.10.2019
- О. Миронович, Курлеме с ароматом полыни: первый ногайский Сабантой — «Национальный акцент»
- На Сабантуй в КЧР съедутся ногайцы Дагестана, Астрахани и Ставрополья — «Это Кавказ», 13.05.2016
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