Strength and Tradition: Bone Twisting Among Torghuts and Kazakhs

Among the Torghuts, numerous traditional forms of entertainment have been passed down through historical times. One such activity involves twisting livestock femur bones after dinner to test each other’s strength. A noteworthy instance of this game occurred during the communal era between Torghut Mongol horse herders and Kazakh herders from Tarbagatai. At that time, the Weixing Commune was grazing its horse herd on the Hobogsair Tarbagatai border pasture and herds frequently trespassed into the Kazakh herders’ winter pasture due to a lack of grass on the other side and an overpopulation of horse herds in one area. Unable to avoid these incidents, one day the Kazakhs invited Torghut herders and prepared a delicious meal featuring cattle femur and shoulder – the former being the most respected Kazakh food, while the latter is Mongolian. After the dinner, the Kazakhs proposed a game based on a shared tradition between the Kazakhs and the Torghuts: twisting cattle femur bones to break them. They requested that Torghuts refrain from grazing their horse herds in their pasture if they failed to outperform the Kazakhs. Tsoohor Namjav, one of the Torghut horse herders, successfully twisted the bone, while Bayanjavin Zodov knocked out the head of a cattle shoulder bone. In the end, the Kazakhs changed their stance and permitted the Torghuts to pasture their horse herds in their lands. This is a true story witnessed by my father when he was a commune horse herder. I also observed one of the herders, Pugulda, twisting a sheep femur bone at a communal sheep dipping event, while other herders failed despite their attempts. It remains the most traditional game through which individuals test each other’s strength. ; Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.