When the Picture Comes in

Abstract

This article sketches out the conditions in which winning (türüüleh) may be achieved in Mongolian wrestling tournaments. Fieldwork carried out before, during and after the yearly competition of Naadam in the summer of 2019 suggests that these conditions are indeed rather diverse in nature. Getting ready for a contest requires wrestlers to be tending to several aspects of their personhood, as their strength, power (byar) or the success of their techniques (meh) depend not only on their physical preparedness, but also on a delicate balancing of social, technical and cosmological skills. Winning in Mongolian wrestling seldom relies on an individual performance only: following contenders in district, regional and national Naadam tournaments as they prepare for, take part in and reflect on these, we want to show that coming out on top requires a plan, or a ‘picture’ (zurag), which might or might not prevail, i.e. ‘come in’ (oroh), over that of other wrestlers. This plan involves enlisting the support of competing wrestlers, and therefore mobilising such resources as kinship, autochthony or money in order to convince them to do so. It is indeed a delicate balance between physical strength, cosmological caution and political strategy that a wrestler must strike for his plan to prevail in a competition, and it is perhaps no wonder if their person and their success should be given such a political importance in Mongolia today.