1, celebrating the bumper harvest
People entertain themselves through the Jockey Club, celebrate the harvest, show the courage and ferocity of young people, and sacrifice to the gods of the earth and snow-capped mountains. Among them, Dangxiong and Naqu are the most lively and have the longest history. The annual Naqu Qiangtang Qiaqing Horse Racing Art Festival is one of the biggest festivals of this nomadic people. "Qiangtang" refers to the northern grassland in Tibetan, while "Qiaqing" means routine in Tibetan.
2. A feast of love
Horse racing festival is also a season of love, and euphemistic Han people are used to seeing it as "romance". Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that people in pastoral areas attach more importance to the horse racing festival than the Tibetan New Year. Before the Horse Racing Festival, herders from all over Fiona Fang, hundreds of kilometers away, marched all the way on the grassland like a sea of flowers with tents, gorgeous national costumes and their own jewels.
3. Grassland horse racing
Grassland horse racing is divided into long-distance running, sprint, horse racing shooting, horse skills and other projects. There are three kinds of long-distance running: big running, trotting and race walking. The distance of long-distance running is about 3 10 km, and the riders are mostly teenagers, so the light weight does not affect the speed of the horse. The horse is bare-backed, so at most, a thin blanket should be laid. Before the race began, a venerable Lama on the grassland blessed all the riders. As soon as the gunfire rang, dozens or hundreds of horses in northern Tibet rushed to the finish line, and thousands of shepherds dressed in festive costumes cheered for the riders on both sides.
4. Perfect life in grassland.
Equestrian performers are mostly skilled adult riders. They leaned against the saddle and let the horse run while fishing for hada and coins on the ground. Another man lit a cigarette. The first one threw edelweiss on the ground, and the last one had a foot-long pipe in his mouth. He suddenly leaned down, picked up edelweiss and lit his pipe, then looked around and smoked proudly. There is also horse racing shooting, in which a row of targets are planted on one side of the field and riders are urged to rush into the target area from the other side with guns. At the same time, the Jockey Club is also a display of herdsmen's wealth. Most herders use the income from selling livestock products, cordyceps, Fritillaria and musk to make gorgeous tents and buy clothes to dress up their wives and daughters.
5. Material exchange
The Jockey Club is also a material exchange meeting. Herdsmen who help the old and carry the young set up dense tents, selling their own meat, ghee, lake salt, Cordyceps sinensis and Fritillaria, and buying their own daily necessities for the whole year.