Polo Players' Edition is the official publication of the U.S. Polo Association. Dedicated to the sport of polo, it features player profiles, game strategy, horse care, playing tips, polo club news and tournament results.
Issue link: https://polo.epubxp.com/i/31965
INTERN A TION AL SPO TLIGHT Beneath the furthest ridge runs the road to the Khardung La, possibly the highest motorable pass in the world, leading to China and Pakistan. army divisions around the nation also have polo teams, such as those in Delhi, Jaipur, and Manipur. But Ladakh is so remote, cut off from the rest of India by the Himalayas, that these potential opponents are several days of travel away. The Scouts haven’t played any other army team in over a decade. Luckily they have some local competition. There are small civilian teams in Tartok, a remote village in Indian-controlled Baltistan, directly up against the Line of Control with Pakistan; in Dras, a town near the valley of Kashmir; and, most notably, in Chuchot, traditional heartland of Ladakhi polo and home of the Scout’s principal opponents, the polo team of the Indian Government Department of Animal Husbandry. Led by team captain Abdul Karim, this team of 12 hard-working civil servants, most of them in their 40s and 50s, valiantly takes on the Scouts at several festivals each year, and has for decades, though the Scouts always win. Since opening to foreigners in 1978, Ladakh has changed dramatically. Young people, all wearing western fashions, have seen both worlds. My 25-year-old interpreter described his house as the only one on the hill during his childhood. We were standing in his small field now surrounded by new homes and hotels. Leh has become a modern tourist destination, with internet cafes and camera shops and video production classes advertised on flyers hung around town. Technology and tourism are testing Ladakh’s traditions. This is why the Ladakh Scouts play polo. Polo was originally a war game. Ladakh, in opposition to all its incredible beauty and religious tolerance, is a land at war. Military bases cover the region, army convoys rule the roads, and armed soldiers stroll the streets. At the polo matches, soldiers with machine guns were posted throughout the crowds and along the surrounding rooftops. At half-time during a practice game one day, I asked captain Nima and team manager Ibrahim if the experience of playing the world’s oldest war game had any effect on their experience as modern warriors. They laughed, their bright white teeth gleaming in the sun at the edge of the polo ground at the foot of the pass. Polo is just a game, they said modestly, like football. Then they took back to the field, dust from their ponies lit by the sun. Along the wall men had gathered to watch, fathers with sons, and groups of teenagers, and behind them spread the upper Indus Valley, a community with a rich cultural tradition, only recently, but now rapidly, confronting the modern world. And behind the polo ground rose the jagged icy mountains just beyond which lurked China and Pakistan. POLO PLAYERS EDITION 47
