The Shandur Polo Festival

The Shandur polo festival is an amazing festival celebrated by the tribes of Gilgit and Chitral in the northern areas of Pakistan.

The sport had played an essential part in the lives of people from the ancient period till now. Everyone loves to be eager in any type of sport because it gives you serenity and It builds affection, teaches and develops strategical intelligence, analytic reasoning, leading skills, destination settlement, adventure taking, and worth more.Here I am going to make you habitual with such an improbable and fascinating game that will be so novel to you and it will entertain you the most perpetually. It’s the Shandur polo festival which is played along with the horses of the players. Although it is risky and transcendental to control the horses during the game because every [participants are in hurry but is much more interesting for the people watching it. It is an ancient game played by the forefather of the residents and they are preserving their assimilation through this fantastic sports event.

The Shandur Polo Festival is a sports festival held every year from the 7th to the 9th of July in Shandur Polo land, Chitral, Pakistan with zeal and zest. The polo tournament is played between the teams of Gilgit-Baltistan Districts and Chitral District. The game is played beneath freestyle rules and it is so an engaging game for the people watching it. The game is organized and financed by both the Upper Chitral zone and Gilgit Baltistan Government. The tournament is held at Shandur Top which is the world’s highest polo land at an elevation of 3,700 meters and the pass itself is at 3,800 meters. The festival moreover includes some other novel activities which make the sport worthy more fascinating and memorable. It includes folk music, dancing, and a camping village set up.

The polo tournament is featured in the primitive installment of Himalaya with Michael Palin.Polo is an equestrian sport first played in Central Asia in the 6th century BC. Its objective was to reveal the horse and assume a real-life deed.The Free-styled mountain polo is arguably polo in its purest and original form. This adaptability of the game played at Shandur peak has attained a fabled position and is of enormous transformation to international and domesticated adventure tourists likewise. 

There are no umpires and there are no holds blockaded. mass from all across the world arrives to be a part of this festival and also the locals in a vast number.In order to determine the final teams to perform at the Shandur Polo Festival, prelude matches are played both in Chitral and Gilgit, in which the topper horses and players are elected for the concluding games by the local juries. The festival begins on 7th July. During the course of the tournament A, B, C, and D teams of Chitral and Gilgit battle it out in the polo stadium. Each squad has six members with two to four reserve players in case of injury etc. The match commonly lasts one hour. It is divided into devil halves, with a ten-minute time interval. During intervals, the locals delight the audiences with traditional and ethnic performances which makes the entire scenario worthy more astonishing. The game is absolute in the privilege of the squad marking access goals. The final is held on 9th July.

Hindukush Trails is a lonely business firm that has its own aromatic tenting meadows placed at 3834m beside a mountain flow dominating the lake at a scenic place far away from the adobe and bustle violently becomes a piece of life at Shandur during the polo festival.When perpetually activity is mobilized at Shandur the campsite is most sought-after after. Here the polo players arrive to decompress afterward the matches and local music , dance carries on furthermore the campfire slow into the night. While in the environment of the tent abstracted from the bustle of the crowds Yaks, horses and goats toddle freely and unescorted on the propitiate grassy slopes and beverage from the stream flowing through with the tent.

In 1994 when IUCN ( International Union for Conservation of Nature ) was non-operative in northward Pakistan the citizenry was implement in bringing them to Chitral to spotlight the surroundings safari for Shandur. Months in allege of the festival they held seminars and workshops in local schools, colleges, and among the settlement communities to construct a knowings of the delicate mountain surroundings. During and later the festival neat-up campaigns were successfully carried out. sporadically the people upgrade this issue for a sizeable and tidy surrounding for the area and to advertise Shandur in such a procedure to make it sustainable.Chitral valley attracted thousands of domesticated and foreign tourists, particularly during the yearly external famed ‘Shandur Polo Festival’ held subsequently two years atomize imputable to COVID-19 restrictions. 

The Shandur polo festival is one of the biggest festivals renowned all across Pakistan and is such an astonishing business for those who want to gaze new assimilation, determine about their lifestyle and susceptible with them comply their customs and experience the unknown.Hurry up! Make your tour plan to Pakistan and must attend the Shandur polo festival for avenue fun and great experience. I assure you that you will acquire a lot more apart from what I have discussed and you will never regret while fascinating your time at the shandur polo festival.