The first-ever International Archery Association (IAA)-Bhutan International Traditional Archery Tournament ended on Thursday with Hungary taking the most medals from 4 different categories of the tournament. Bhutanese archers bagged 15 medals making Bhutan the second-highest medalist during the tournament.
Competing in the long-distance flight shooting of 400 metres to classical target shooting in the forest above National Scout Center in Paro, archers from 10 countries competed for 4 days to promote and preserve traditional form of archery.
With the modern form of archery and archery equipment, preserving traditional archery to many countries has become a challenge.
“Western-style archery is also played in Korea and we are very famous for that. We have International Olympic Champions for women archers but for traditional one it is still not so common. So we need to promote and I think this kind of opportunity gives us the chance to let them know we will do very good internationally as well,” said Joenguen Kim, a Veteran Archer from South Korea.
Hungary is hoping to make Archery their National Game by 2030 and this traditional archery tournament is one of the means to encourage people to take up the traditional form of archery.
82-year-old Dengo, the oldest player in the tournament who is used to playing archery at the distance of 140 metres says such tournament helps Bhutanese archers better themselves with techniques and skills.
Bhutanese archers had difficulty shooting the short distance targets.
“We went to the forest above Uma and there were 36 different targets. We got lots of new knowledge. There are some targets that are near. If we have practice, we can do it. Because we are not used to it, we have some difficulties. But over the few matches, we learned the techniques and did quite well,” said Dengo, from Paro.
“And the Long-distance flight shooting is more suitable for Bhutanese. But talking to our own archers over the last four days, our archers are very intelligent. Many of them were telling me that through the experience they know that for short distance, they will have to use low poundage bows. Because our bows are two pieces, ‘Tap-Zhu’ is high poundage,” said Kingzang Dorji, the President of Bhutan Indigenous Games and Sports Association (BIGSA).
While archery serves the purpose of identity to Bhutanese, it is one of the ways for Hungarians to have a family bonding. There were teams of families participating in this competition.
“As is said before, I see other values of adopting, the disciplines, and the categories that we have promoted here. For example, the family values, I think that’s the most important lesson to take in because of Bhutan’s very rapid progress, changing lifestyles, and today everybody is busy. They are either working, doing their own job and then the family gets very little time,” added the BIGSA President.
BIGSA hopes to organize such tournament every two to three years in Bhutan.
Sangay Chezom
