Mongolian ox-horn bow making technique

Inner Mongolia
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The Mongolian people are famous for their excellent cavalry and archery. Making bows and arrows is one of the most important handicrafts of the ancient Mongolians. The traditional Mongolian horn bow making skills are widely distributed in various Mongolian tribes. In the past, every Mongolian man could make bows and arrows, and the skills were passed down from generation to generation. The making of Mongolian traditional horn bows mainly includes four steps: material selection, material collection, processing, and combination into bows. The selection and collection of materials for horn bows is the premise and basis for making good bows. The raw materials include buffalo horns, cattle tendons or cattle back tendons, and materials with good elasticity such as bamboo, birch, and thorn wood. These raw materials are processed by artists to make important parts of horn bows, and then glued and packaged with animal glue. Making a bow takes a lot of time and energy, including more than 100 processes. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Mongolian bows and arrows have gradually changed from weapons and hunting tools to tools for sports and entertainment activities such as Naadam. In the 1950s, Mongolian athletes mostly used traditional horn bows to participate in various domestic and international competitions. But by the 1980s, with the death of old artists and the requirement to use fiberglass bows in archery competitions, the horn bow making skills were almost gone. Since the 1980s, Nuomin and others have been committed to the protection and inheritance of the traditional Mongolian horn bow. They have visited horn bow making artists in Hulunbuir, Chifeng, Tongliao, Alxa, Xilin Gol, Hohhot and other places, actively learned the Mongolian horn bow making skills, and finally mastered the complete making skills of the Mongolian traditional horn bow. Nuomin founded the "Inner Mongolia Mengkegala Bow and Arrow Making Base" and is committed to the protection and inheritance of the traditional Mongolian bow making skills. The traditional horn bow competition event that disappeared for nearly half a century has been restored in Inner Mongolia. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)

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