Traditional Mongolian Wrestling in Mankhan Soum, Hovd Aimag, during the 2005 Naadam Festival.
Mongolians love to wrestle. The object of the match is to have your opponent drop their knee(s), their backside, or just their back.
The Naadam festival gives everyone the opportunity to photograph tense, dramatic scenes and document traditions that have been going strong for centuries.
I would recommend a generous wide angle lens (15mm) for your camera if you are at all interested in photographing the people or the landscapes of Mongolia. The people won’t mind posing for pictures, but you should ask first, when possible: (phonetically phrased, “Bee zurich, aavj bolth-oh?”
The vastness of the landscapes you will witness are difficult to capture in a single shot. Without the wide angle format, you will find yourself winging it and taking panorama shots in succession, with hopes to stitch them together with Photoshop back at home.
Ikh Burkhant, Buddhist sculpture
Case in point, Ikh Burkhant. It’s hard to capture this with a camera, but it can be done.
