Archery is the national sport of Bhutan, and by far the oldest. Traditional bows can be as tall as an average man, but the recent modern ones are less than half that size. Archery is always professionally played by men. The Bhutanese tradition of archery consists of two teams, taking turns to shoot at the target. The target is usually very far away and I’ve seen one that was 5 km from the archers. The archery performed is very, very dangerous. The team which is at that time not playing (it is not their turn) dance cheerfully in front of or very near the target (!) while the other team is shooting! A father of one of my classmates is an archer, and he often goes to other dzongkhags for the matches.
Kuru is a heavy dart, adorned by a great variety of colourful feathers, and again, the game consists of two teams, taking turns to shoot at the target. One difference is that Kuru is commonly played by women in official matches, while men often play it on holidays as a hobby.
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