Along with today’s unveiling of Street View imagery, the Google Cultural Institute is proud to present over 200 new cultural artifacts and 20 new exhibits from three new Mongolian museum partners, the National Museum of Mongolia, The Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum, and The Bogd Khaan Palace Museum.

The most famous event in the Mongolian calendar is undoubtedly Naadam, the annual summer festival celebrating the traditional Mongolian feats of wrestling, archery, and horse racing. You can learn more about this occasion from the interactive exhibitions curated by the three museums. Let’s take a closer look at this colorful extravaganza.

Horse racing
It’s no exaggeration to say that most Mongolian children can ride before they can walk. At Naadam, children aged 5 to 10 compete as jockeys in a cross-country horse marathon race at breakneck speed, covering distances of up to 30 kilometers.
[Image] Our Street View Trekker operator, Ari, with a young Naadam jockey riding bareback (!) Mongolia’s proud equestrian tradition dates back centuries, as this early 20th century exhibit from the Bogd Khaan Palace Museum on the Cultural Institute shows.
[Image] Detail from A Journey of Big Caravan, a traditional scroll showing an equestrian procession Traditional Wrestling
Wrestling is the most important and revered of all Mongolian games. Up to a thousand men from across the country participate at a chance for national stardom at Naadam ever year. Their costumes might look exotic to the uninitiated, but have a practical dimension to them — and their leather boots prevent them from slipping.
[Image] Ready, get set, wrestle: a picture of Mongolia’s Naadam wrestlers from the National Museum of Mongolia Archery
While only men can compete in wrestling, both men and women can enter the competition for archery. To this day, the marksmen and women wear Mongolian national costumes, known as deel, to compete. They shoot from distances of 65 to 75 meters away and must compete together in teams of ten.
[Image] Archery photograph, from the Bogd Khaan Palace Museum Fun fact about the Mongolian national dress deel: it was the inspiration for Star Wars’ Princess Amidala’s regalia. See if you can spot the similarities between this exhibit and these pictures of Amidala’s costume.
[Image] A picture of traditional Mongolian dress. Note the princess-like regalia on the left—look familiar? Victory Song
At Naadam, songs of praise to the champion horses, wrestlers and archers are sung and accompanied by Mongolia’s national instrument and symbol, the Morin Khuur (or “Horsehead Fiddle”). It only has two strings: a “male” string made of the hair from a stallion’s tail, and a “female” string made from the tail hair of a mare.
[Image] A horsehead fiddle dating from the 1800s, National Museum of Mongolia We hope these items will inspire you to visit Mongolia during Naadam so you can soak in all the sights and sounds for yourself!

Posted by Dennis Dizon, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute