Ambassador Jawad Inaugurates First Historical
Buzkashi Match in California
The Embassy of Afghanistan
11/07/2005
Washington, D.C. - Ambassador Said Tayeb
Jawad inaugurated the first historical Buzkashi match at the
Robertson Park in Livermore, California, on November 5, 2005.
The ceremony began with the national anthems of Afghanistan
and the United States, and more than four thousand Afghan and
American Buzkashi fans attended the exciting match organized
by the Horse Ox USA Inc.
Addressing the crowd, Ambassador Jawad said his
dream of watching Buzkashi to be played someday in the US alongside
other American extreme sports had finally come true. The Ambassador
praised the strenuous efforts of the President of the Horse
Ox USA, Inc. and a visionary Afghan entrepreneur, Sony Amin,
for introducing Buzkashi to North America. “I want to
congratulate Mr. Amin for this great achievement. I wish to
thank him, members of his family and many others, who have believed
in Mr. Amin’s vision, to share our national sport and
rich traditions with you and our friends here in the US,”
said Ambassador Jawad.
While overthrowing the Taliban regime in 2001,
the US Special Forces became the first Americans to enjoy riding
Buzkashi horses and even participating in the local matches
in northern Afghanistan. The Ambassador said this demonstrated
that US-Afghan partnership to fight terrorism is not the only
bond that ties us together. “Buzkashi could be a new bond
between our people. We, Americans and Afghans, like our sports
to be fast, thrilling, rough and exciting. Buzkashi has all
of these characteristics. Buzkashi may take off at a gallop
speed and become America’s new favorite extreme sport,”
added Ambassador Jawad.
Famous classic sculptor Sami Nadi presented to
Ambassador Jawad a sculpture of the Buzkashi scene at the inauguration
ceremony, which was held around Eid-ul Fitr and Thanksgiving
celebrations featuring many Afghan and American fun activities.
Pop Star Ehsan Aman sang from his recent albums, and was joined
by an American band which played great country music. Dressed
in national clothes, boys and girls paraded by the stage in
solidarity and displayed an atmosphere of cross-cultural harmony
with common values of friendship, thanksgiving, and love for
the nature and outdoor sports.
The term Buzkashi means “goat-grabbing”
or “goat-dragging.” There are two main genres of
Buzkashi in Afghanistan today. One, commonly called tudabarai,
which means “emerging from a mass.” The other, known
as qarajai, takes its name from the “black place”
or sense of spatial demarcation that characterizes the newer
sport form. In tudabarai, the aim is to carry the calf free
and clear from everyone else in whatever direction before letting
it fall uncontested to the ground. In qarajai, players seek
to carry the calf around a standard (generally a flag) and to
return it to a scoring circle (close to where the play started),
at which point the calf is dropped. The California match featured
a slightly modified version of qarajai played by surprisingly
well-trained Buzkashi riders.
Contact:
M. Ashraf Haidari
(202) 483-6410, (Ex-811)
[email protected]
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