Naadam runs every year from 11 to 13 July. Wrestling, horse racing and archery, the three games of men, played out in the National Stadium in Ulaanbaatar and on open grass in every province in the country. Here is how it works and how we choose which one to take you to.
Where it comes from
The three games are far older than the modern festival. Armies of the Mongol empire trained through them. Monasteries and princes held them at gatherings. The date, 11 July, marks the 1921 revolution, and the national Naadam has been held in the capital on it since. The opening ceremony is a full-stadium production of horsemen, costume and music. The games underneath it have barely changed in centuries.
Wrestling
There are no weight classes and no time limit. Two wrestlers in tight open-fronted jackets, short trunks and boots meet on the grass. The first to touch the ground with anything above the knee loses. The winner performs the eagle dance around the flagpole, arms out, before his next bout. Five hundred and twelve wrestlers begin at the national Naadam and the rounds run over two days until one man is left. Titles are earned by rounds won: falcon, elephant, lion, and for a repeat champion, titan. Watching the crowd around the eighth round teaches you something about what this country admires.
Horse racing
The horse races are held not in the stadium but at Khui Doloon Khudag, on the steppe west of the city. Horses race by age, from two-year-olds up to stallions, over distances between roughly 15 and 30 kilometres in a straight line across open ground. The jockeys are children, most between about seven and twelve, chosen for their light weight. They sing to the horses before the start. The finish is the moment: thousands of people at the line, dust on the horizon, and then the leaders. Sweat from the winning horse is considered lucky, and the crowd surges to touch it. This is the part of Naadam we never skip.
Archery
Archery is the quiet game. Men shoot from 75 metres and women from 65 at a low wall of small leather cylinders on the ground. Judges stand close to the target and sing a short rising call, the uukhai, and raise their arms to show where the arrow landed. Bows are composite, horn and sinew, and the draw is heavy. It is the one game where women compete fully at the national level and have for decades. Knucklebone shooting, played indoors nearby with a flick of the finger at sheep ankle bones, is the unofficial fourth game and worth twenty minutes.
National Naadam or countryside Naadam
This is the real decision, and we help every guest make it. The national Naadam in Ulaanbaatar is the spectacle: the opening ceremony, the best wrestlers in the country, the scale. Tickets to the opening are limited and we secure them for our guests, but the stadium is full, the day is long and hot, and you are one of tens of thousands. A countryside Naadam, held in a province or district centre in the days on either side of the capital’s, is the other thing entirely. A few hundred people on a hillside. Wrestlers who are also the herders you met yesterday. Horses ridden by children whose parents are standing next to you. You can walk to the archery line. Many of our guests do both: the opening ceremony in the city on 11 July, then a Land Cruiser out to a district Naadam and a night at a ger camp or at Big Sky Lodge in Terelj.
Practical notes
Naadam is the busiest week of the Mongolian year. Hotels, domestic flights and good guides are booked months ahead, and we plan these journeys from the previous autumn. The city empties after the 13th as families go to the countryside, and the days that follow are a good time to be on the road. Bring sun protection and a hat for the stadium, and be ready for rain at the races. July showers are short and hard.
Talk to us
We design private journeys only, and Naadam is one where the private part matters most: your own vehicle, your own guide, your own seat. Write to us and someone who lives here replies within four hours in office time. No price list until we have talked.
