Archery is the national sport of Bhutan. We were driving along and we made another unscheduled stop when we spotted this archery contest. Teams compete against each other. From what we were told, the game goes on all day long and sometimes, games take days to finish. The archers and their targets are 140 meters apart which is 460 feet. It was very difficult for me to even follow the arrows. In informal competitions like this one, they do not use compound bows, but just old fashioned straight bamboo bows. Most villages have an archery range. Bhutan has not had much success in the Olympics in archery, because the equipment and the style of play is very different. Olympic archery sets the targets at 50 meters versus Bhutan’s 140 meters.

In the first photo, you can see the whole field of play. I took it standing behind the team that was shooting. You can see their target in the center of the photo. It’s a small white board in front of the low green mound.

In the second photo, I zoomed in on the team at the other end of play while they were shooting. Archers also get awarded colorful scarves for shots that score points and they hang the scarves from their belts.

In the third photo, you can see a couple of the players at our end as the arrows were coming in from the opposite end. They would often stand dangerously close as the arrows were being shot. They obviously had better eyesight and better quickness than I do, or they wouldn’t be standing where they are.