Camel Wrestling Festival - An Ancient Festival

Camel wrestling is an ancient traditional festival in the Aegean Region of Turkey. Today, camel wrestling is popular mostly in Aydin. It is also seen in the cities of İzmir, Manisa, Muğla and Denizli.

In Selcuk Camel Wrestling Festival is organised every year in January. In this hub I wrote about the festival, added youtube videos so the readers can see a camel wrestling.

These camels are bred with a great deal of care and are trained for wrestling. The contests are held in the winter months of December, January, February and March when the tülüs are in heat.

Every wrestling camel has a name. Sometimes the camel’s owner gives it a name, and sometimes the spectators find a name for the camel inspired by how it behaves during wrestling matches. Some camels are named after popular characters from TV shows, such as American detective Columbo..

Each year in January Camel Wrestling Championship is held in an historical Aegean Town, Selcuk which is near to Ephesus Ancient City.

The event puts together two bull (male) camels with a female camel on heat nearby. The camels fight it out for the female, leaning on each other to push the other one down.

There are an estimated 1200 camel wrestlers (or Tulu) in Turkey, bred specially for the competitions.

A camel can win a wrestling when:

By making the other camel retreat, scream, or fall.

The owner of a camel may also throw a rope into the field to declare a forfeit if he is concerned for the safety of his animal.

Camels wrestle with others in their same weight class. Camels have different tricks, and contest organizers match camels with different skills. Some camels wrestle from the right and some from the left;some apply tricks.

A camel wrestling event involves considerable pomp and ceremony. The camels are decorated, and participate in a march through town followed by musicians on the day before the event. The actual wrestling can be somewhat underwhelming to someone not familiar with the intricacies, although onlookers must often flee from an oncoming camel that is retreating in defeat from his opponent.

In the heat of the tournament, camels spew foamy saliva in their excitement. Additionally, camels are retromingent animals, and so spectators would be advised to beware not only of flying saliva but of flying urine as well.

Popularity of the sport is declining, as the relative costs of caring for such an animal rises, as well as concern for the animals' welfare.

The festival begins with the "Kervan Molasi" event during which camels will walk and viewers will be offered traditional foods. .

On the second day of the festival, a competition will be organized and the best-decorated camel will be selected. The winning camel will win a "Golden Mortar."