国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

?
中文USEUROPEAFRICAASIA
Culture

Checkmate, Mongolian style

By Wang Kaihao and Yang Fang in Abag Banner, Inner Mongolia ( China Daily ) Updated: 2013-07-02 10:48:55

Checkmate, Mongolian style

Norbu, 60, works on a Mongolian chess piece called shatar, an intangible cultural heritage of the Inner Mongolian autonomous region.

It is like chess, but this Mongolian cousin of the Western board game is different.

Norbu wears presbyopic glasses and stares at a tiny piece of wood. Beads of sweat ooze from his forehead when he focuses on carving the wood.

The 60-year-old ethnic Mongolian says he has been emotionally attached to the small pieces of wood since childhood.

"I was not allowed to touch the chess pieces when I was a child. The adults were afraid I would break these treasures," he recalls. "The shatar sets were antiques passed down through the generations because not many people knew how to make new ones."

But Norbu's eagerness to play shatar motivated him to try to make his own set, and he proved good at it. With a knife and a drill, what started off as hobby became an adventure of promoting the age-old tradition.

Shatar has ambiguous roots in the 13th century and is generally believed to derive from shatranj, a Persian game, which is also the embryo of modern chess. Shatar still keeps some of the original rules of shatranj. What distinguishes shatar from other chess variants are its chess pieces and slightly different rules.

Queens in shatar are shaped like lions or tigers. Bishops are replaced by camels. Pawns are carved into hounds while rooks look like carts.

"These are reflections of lives on grasslands," Norbu explains. "But there is no uniform shape for each piece. I can thus create a diverse variety of chessmen."

He says each handmade piece is unique because of the details, adding that he does not draw a blueprint before carving. Instead, he lets his imagination fly.

"Being a carver, I have to have brilliant eyesight. Details are of extreme importance. If I don't seek perfection, the shatar pieces will look rough, like those easily found in the market."

He sources his wood from old furniture because the price of some luxurious timber like red sandalwood is too expensive.

A set of handmade shatar will take more than two weeks to finish. He is overjoyed to find many collectors who are willing to spend more than 20,000 yuan ($3,200) per set.

Checkmate, Mongolian style

Checkmate, Mongolian style

 Former Residence of Hu Xueyan: beautiful and luxurious Shanghai intangible cultural heritage showcased in Taipei 

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

 
Editor's Picks
Hot words
Most Popular
 
...
...
醴陵市| 揭东县| 曲阳县| 南通市| 青岛市| 九台市| 建阳市| 宁波市| 东乌珠穆沁旗| 阿城市| 石城县| 南靖县| 金门县| 喀喇沁旗| 灌云县| 出国| 永靖县| 定安县| 云和县| 平顺县| 周至县| 丰都县| 宝应县| 台中市| 谢通门县| 南岸区| 姜堰市| 武定县| 茶陵县| 库尔勒市| 平塘县| 乐清市| 吴堡县| 万载县| 夏河县| 缙云县| 岗巴县| 赣榆县| 麻江县| 溧水县| 红河县|