HAIXI MONGOL NAADAM

Mongols in Tsaidam, Qinghai China

By Kim Lau

August 25^th, 2017

haixi mongols

West of the famous Qinghai Lake (青海湖) is Haixi (海西), meaning Western Sea. The area is the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where Mongols and Tibetan form the majority. These Mongols has costumes that shares characteristics as the Tibetans, making them flamboyant with all the colour and ornament. August 3rd 2017 was the opening ceremony of the 7th Haixi Mongol Naadam and 14th cultural festival “孟赫嘎拉 Meng He Ga La”, were Mongols in the prefecture gather for a three days gathering at the famous Chaka salt lake. The scene was mesmerising, reconnaissance of a Mongol tent city. Like many other Mongol gatherings, different divisions of the community presented sheep and dairy-based offerings to the festival, and taking part in the different games : horse and camel racing, wrestling, archery, traditional singing, traditional costumes design, and tug-a-war. The event also had a large-scale stage production where famous Mongolian musicians were invited to perform. This is a true-blue events for the Haixi Mongols, and a very colourful one.