Buzkashi: Afghan game of carcasses and power

SHAMALI PLAIN: In a muddy field outside Kabul, 50 sweating men on horseback are battling for possession of a beheaded calf’s carcass during a game of Afghanistan’s national sport, buzkashi.
The brutal winter pastime, governed by few rules, draws large crowds to watch rival teams battle in snowy conditions over several hours to be the first to grab the carcass and drop it into a small circle.
This is the personal pitch of warlord-turned-politician Mohammed Qasim Fahim, Afghanistan’s vice president, and he watches the game from an elevated position above the crowd.
Experts on Afghanistan draw parallels between buzkashi and how the country itself is ruled, arguing that a rough and tumble atmosphere and pumped up show of might are common to both.
Politics is a tough game in Afghanistan, where there are currently around 140,000 foreign troops fighting a nine-year insurgency led by the hardline extremist Taliban, who were ousted from power by US-led forces in 2001.
Western allies cite governance as one of the biggest challenges in ending the war in a country with a complicated mix of ethnic and political factions and where election results are bitterly disputed by rival sides.
Fahim’s buzkashi players, or “chopendoz,” are battling it out for victory on Afghanistan’s stunning Shamali Plain, a green, fertile area surrounded by snow-capped mountains north of Kabul.
Riders use whips filled with lead on both horses and other players, while some players slide down between the animals’ flanks, perilously close to the ground, to get a better shot at scooping up the heavy carcass.
For protection, all they have is a heavy fleece jacket and trousers, worn with leather boots, although some have replaced the traditional fur hat worn during the game with a tougher Soviet army helmet.
Buzkashi originated in central Asia, reputedly around the time of 13th century emperor Genghis Khan.
Legend has it that the sport was initially played by warriors using the corpse of a defeated enemy.
It is now played mainly in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban, whose powerbase is in the south, are not associated with buzkashi.
Whitney Azoy, author of the book “Buzkashi: Game And Power In Afghanistan,” argues that the game has key parallels with politics in Afghanistan, a country that has seen numerous power swaps and invasions over the course of centuries.
He says the sport embodies the “unspoken ideal” for all leaders of Afghanistan: “To hold on to power until you die — and nobody has done it since 1901.”The game is also seen as a symbol of prestige and power for “khans,” or leaders, who alone are capable of buying the best horses, paying for the best players and funding their own pitches.
In recent years, the “khans” have been figures like Fahim and General Abdul Rashid Dostum, another warlord who is now chief of staff to the military’s commander-in-chief.
Both are accused of building up fortunes from criminal activity.
At Fahim’s game thousands of Afghanis, equivalent to hundreds of dollars, were on offer as prizes for the victors — huge sums in the desperately poor nation.