Adventure sports you never heard of: Yak Polo

James    trekkingholidays     Adventure Sports, Adventure Travel, Afghanistan, pakistan, Polo, Yak

In a new, occasional series by James from Untamed Borders Ltd, he explains the basics of less well-known adventure sports. Using the classic journalistic trick of a fake interview, he explains the history of ….Yak Polo

So what is Yak Polo?

It’s polo, but instead of horses, the players ride yaks.

Why yaks?

In the high mountainous areas of the Hindu Kush and Pamir ranges in southern Tajikistan, north east Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, horses struggle to cope with the rarefied air in altitudes over 3500 m. The local people of these regions have taken to using yaks to play polo rather than horses.

Yak Polo - popular in the Hindu Kush

People play polo in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Sure. Polo comes from the mountainous regions of northern Pakistan and was adopted by the British Army to keep the cavalry fit. The matches are a far cry from the Hurlingham Club. There are no champagne tents, high heels or blokes in blazers called Tarquin. Just huge, dusty polo fields with tea tents and samosa stalls.

The rules are different too. Pakistan polo, also known as frontier polo, allows players to check each others sticks and each team has designated chuckers who restart the game if the ball goes out. It is not uncommon to have pitch invasions and general mayhem with players and horses coming off injured.

If I wanted to watch some of this frontier polo, where should I go?

The Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan and Jammu & Kashmir in India both hold many competitions during the summer months. The most famous of these is the annual Shandur Cup in Pakistan. This is played between the inhabitants of the ancient kingdoms of Chitral and Gilgit on a 3800 m high mountain pass that separates the two kingdoms.

The festival lasts for three days and attracts tens of thousands of spectators. What is usually a barren mountain pass becomes a temporary town with bakers, barbers, restaurants and souvenir shops all built specially for the event.

Sounds great but back to the yaks?

Well, the people of the very high valleys also wanted to have their own polo teams but as the horses struggled to cope with the altitude they used their yaks to play each other at annual summer festivals such as the Broghil festival in Pakistan and the Wakhan festival in Afghanistan.

Are these festivals easy to get to?

Not really. The Wakhan festival takes place near Sarhad, which is 4 days travel from the nearest international airport and the Broghil festival is not much easier to reach. However, the journey to either will take you through the remote valleys of the Hindu Kush, through some of the world’s most incredible mountain scenery inhabited by some of the most hospitable people in the world. Best of all, you’ll see very few other tourists. Watching sport has never been so exciting.

About the author

James Wilcox wrote 7 articles on this blog.

I work as a tour guide in Central Asia for Untamed Borders Ltd. My patch is Afghanistan, Pakistan and sometimes India leading cultural, ski and trekking tours. Despite working in areas of the world that are 2000km from the sea I also love Scuba diving in the ocean.

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