Buzkashi© isafmedia
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Carl Hoffman at ESPN The Magazine (via WorldHum) gives a fascinating history of how U.S. invasion has changed Buzkashi, the national sport which involves men on horses battling over a dead goat.
The game is a microcosm of the country, a tangled web of patronage and allegiances, of great wealth, chaos and brutality. It is anything but simple…What was originally a pickup game played at weddings and festivals has become a game of one-upmanship between rich big men getting richer and bigger every day. Who has the most horses? The most expensive horses, which can cost $50,000 in a country where the average annual wage is $370? The best stable of chapandazan? Players have always been sponsored — given good horses to ride for the glory of the horse’s owner and small profit for the rider — but now a few have made themselves the world’s first professional, full-time buzkashi players.
Check out the excellent full article for much more.