Bhutan Indigenous Games and Sports Association (BIGSA) has stopped compound bow archery players from practising at the Changlimithang archery range. Bhutan Olympic Committee issued a notification to the Association last month asking the association to allow only traditional archery practice at the range for now. The committee came to the decision following several archery accidents at Changlimithang.
Players, young and old from across the country take pride in playing at the Changlimithang field. But the otherwise crowded archery range has been empty for almost two weeks now. BIGSA stopped the practice from the end of March this year.
Bhutan Olympic Committee’s notification asked the association to identify available state land for the establishment of the new compound archery range.
The association was even asked to explore the possibility of relocating its office and all forms of archery away from the Changlimithang National Stadium.
“Because there are risks associated with a compound bow, we stopped the archers from practising here. But we don’t see the reason to relocate the range for traditional archery. Traditional archery is our culture and our identity,” said Tshewang Namgyal from BIGSA.
The association says it is still possible to make the range safe. They say training people and introducing a licensing system to authenticate trained players can make the archery range safer.
“Although we have been training archers, sometimes we get Amateur archery players here. They cause accidents sometimes. No trained players have caused accidents so far,” said Tshewang Namgyal, BIGSA.
“The moment we hear that there is an archery match, old people like us call each other, order food here and we enjoy the game. But now without it, it feels our world has ended,” said Kalay Tshering, a spectator.
On the other hand, the news came as a big relief to the Bhutan Volleyball Federation. The volleyball field is located just behind the archery range.
It was last year when a young volleyball player was hit by an arrow during one of the volleyball tournaments.
“Even during the tournaments, we have to be cautious. Now we can expect more people to come for coaching and we can even conveniently conduct tournaments,” said Pema Dorji, Coach of the federation.
As per the National Referral hospital’s data, on average the hospital received three patients every year from across the country who were injured by an arrow.
However, since the hospital doesn’t keep a record of the place of the accidents, the number of mishaps at Changlimithang is unknown.
Samten Dolkar/Phuntsho Namgyal
Edited by Sangay Chezom
