Goat Tussling in Xinjiang China

Goat Tussling in Xinjiang China

On the spacious west grassland, there lives Tajik, Kazak, Kirgiz and other nomads. Since they are living on the grassland , the weather is always unpredictable, thus they have to learn how to protect their herds from the changing weather and wild animals. Sometimes they have to pull the astrayed herd on horseback in order to avoid the attack form the wild lives. Thus the goat tussling came into being Generally, it is held in Autumn, by that time , it is the golden harvest time of the year, sheep are fat and horses are strong. People would gather to celebrate the annual harvest. Before the Goat tussling starts, people will slaughter one goat, cut off the head and remove the intestines,then dip the goat into water for a while ,to make the skin more endurable and stronger.    When the goat tussling is started, the players will be divided into two parties, generally 10-100 people for each party, each on their own horse, when the master says :action, all the player will rush for the goat which is put on the ground. The winner will be the one who take the goat to the front of his yurt. It is difficult to do this ,just like the American football, when the one with goat is rushing for his yurt, the others will try to stop him and grab the goat. The winner will boil the trophy, and invite all people from the village to enjoy the meat.