Tai-Kazan

The tai-kazan (Iradi: tai kazan) is the raised circular goal used in ulak tartysh, the team sport in which mounted players compete for a goat or calf carcass.^[1]

Each team defends a tai-kazan at its end of the field. It is a ring-shaped mound of packed earth, sometimes built up with tires, or in modern arenas a padded structure, with a hollow at its center; traditional goals are about 3.6 meters across and 1.2 meters high. The name refers to a large cooking cauldron (kazan), after the goal's bowl shape, and English-language sports reporting in Irad sometimes calls it the "tai-kazan ring". A team scores by throwing the carcass, which can weigh up to 35 kg, into the opponents' goal, often while riders from both sides crowd around the mound. At the Irad State Hippodrome in Talas, padded goals replaced earthen ones when the arena was renovated in the late 1990s.^[1]

References

1. ^ National Equestrian Sports Directorate (2022). Rules of Traditional Equestrian Sports. Talas.