#mongolian traditional dressings

[salialenart]

AU Lyanna Stark lives and spends time with her niece Arya and her beloved son Jon (Aemon)

commissioned by @arxyaaa

Northern fashion inspired by Mongolian and Sakha (Yakut) traditional dressings.

[holidaysincambodia]

Kyrgyz girl in traditional jewelry

[queercontrarian]

A New Home

@morweekofficial day 2: home

after mor is found at the autumn/winter border the high lord of night initially agrees to let her stay in the family home in velaris until she is healed. when tensions between him and keir start to escalate over his errant daughter's whereabouts, the high lord chooses his steward over his niece and sends mor into exile in the winter court. while she is not allowed to return to the night court or see her family as long as the old high lord still lives, she finds a new purpose in winter.

staying with one of the high lord's closest advisors, she is finally allowed to pick up a sword herself and train with the warriors of the winter court army, which has always allowed females to join. she learns to master her powers and finds her true strength. in the war against hybern she fights for her new home, the winter court, joining the alliance of day, night and dawn on the continent. when she returns, she is legend. she is the morrigan. every child in winter knows her name.

in winter, she also finds one of her closest companions outside of the night court in viviane, her host's young daughter whom she gets to see grow up after the war and whom she loves like a sister, as well as viviane's friend kallias, the younger brother of the winter court's general.

she only returns to the night court after her uncle, aunt and cousin die and rhysand, now high lord of night, asks her to come back and help him rebuild their court of dreams.

mor's dress here is inspired by some traditional mongolian clothing. i pull most of my inspiration for winter court styles from inuit, sámi and mongolian culture. i see her picking up red as her signature color in the winter court specifically because of how much the red stands out against the white snow.

[saffron-rays]

Clothing Concept Art for my World Building

Inspired by Mayan, Palestinian, Cameroonian, Mongolian, and many other indigenous groups’ traditional dress :)

[15-lizards]

hello, my dearest! yes, it me again! *kneels and heavy sigh* I must know my beautiful Rhaenyra fashion. she was recorded in Fire and Blood to dress very lavish in colors, and have a lot of jewerly.

and I keep thinking of her wearing Valerian braiding, and gold hair jewelry in her braids, and beautiful silks, and pearls—- AHHHH. the show did her dirty!!

Emma is a gem, and gorgeous! And they deserved to be dressed in full on Rhaenyra attire. I even imagine Targaryen women wearing facial jewelry, like back in old Valyria, nose piercings.

She is Westeros’ It Girl, where is the luxury??? THE GAWDY BAD BITCHERY OF IT ALL???

Although I absolutely adore the wedding head piece she wore, but her dress….. I just knowwww, traditional wedding attire for Targaryens are so much more. Especially since Targaryens’ culture takes inspiration from the Byzantine empire, and Mongolian culture, and another culture!

You should’ve been in the costume department for show, we have been FAILED.

I can also imagine her in comfort furs. Especially when she would be pregnant, mamas needs to be comfy, and still serve cunt.

Yes justice for Rhaenyra 🫡 (also again with the immaculate timelines for the real life eras I gave to these time periods but this is just spitballing for fun)

Baby Rhae my Renaissance beloved. Very light colors, she doesn’t always wear red quite yet, she likes to dress in a rainbow of the finest silks merchants have to offer. A high waist and gowns that are not super tight or defined gives her a more youthful look. In my head she likes to match with Ali so they both wear similar gowns, though Rhae’s are noticeably more grand. In her youth her hair was long and loose, covered with a cap during casual situations, braided and looped and covered with netting and pearls during balls/feasts/tourneys

Freshly married Rhae starts wearing a lot more red, trying to really cement her claim as her fathers true heir. She still sometimes wears the gowns she used to match with Ali, however they’re more fitting to a married women, with dark colors and being slightly more fitted to her figure. Her hair is now up too, becoming for a married princess, but she still likes it to be rolled and braided, still covered with pretty things. She’s in a middle ground between childhood and womanhood

War time Rhae is when she starts becoming very “maegor with teats” she only wears red and black, loathing the color green. Her gowns are now high necked and long sleeved, stern and serious and fitting for a mourning mother. Her hair is often hidden by a hood and veil, but underneath its tightly braided and practical. No longer any signs of the youth she once was

[jointhearumanati]

HETALIA HEADCANNONS

🇺🇲 Alfred is a not the best in the kitchen but on the Grill he makes the best BBQ I'm talking southern style meat smoked for 12 hours, Brisket, bacon, ribs, steak, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, pork, his cookout parties are the best he can bake casserole in the oven though

🇮🇹 🇩🇪Romano and Germany are best friends when black out drunk much to Romano's horror once he sobers up

🇨🇳 China cross dresses in secret the only one who knows is Poland and are secret besties

🇫🇷 France is the best cosmetologist around you need your hair or nails done he's your guy some nations even pay him and make appointments on the regular

🇬🇧 🇨🇳England and China dated once upon a time it didn't end well but England still has a small crush on him though he won't admit it China moved on

🇵🇹 🇨🇳Portugal and China had a one night stand once

🇷🇺 🇨🇳Russia has had a crush on China since he was a kid under Mongolian rule he was the only one who was kind to him he thought he was a woman even when he found out he was a man it didn't change his opinion of him

🇻🇦🇨🇳 Rome and China were in a romantic long distance relationship once upon a time it took so long to visit but Rome always made the journey when he had time China didn't find out about his death until years after he died

🇬🇧 England can play the electric guitar 🎸 and writes music notes and songs it helps him relax he lies on the floor of his room and plays for hours

🇷🇺 Russia went to therapy and came out a lot more stable he even went on a apology tour to apologize to those he wronged if he unnerves anyone it's just teasing now

🇩🇪🇧🇪🇨🇭🇱🇮 Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein are the best bakers around they make the best sweets

🇮🇹 Italy and Romano have an Vegetable and Herb garden so they always have the freshes ingredients

🌍🌎🌏All Nations have a big food party after world meeting everyone brings food from around the globe so everyone can try any food they want

🇨🇳 China is actually the best in bed he knows ancient tricks that leave his partners staring at the ceiling contemplating their existence

🇬🇷 Greece is second best in bed it's like he puts every bit of energy into pleasing his partners he falls asleep immediately after

🇬🇷 Greece is the best at giving advice though few nations actually know that

🇪🇸🇮🇹🇺🇲🇱🇹🇰🇷🇰🇵🇭🇰🇷🇺🇬🇷🇹🇷S pain, Romano, America, Lithuania, the Korea twins, Russia, Greece, and Turkey are the best dancers around Spain and Romano are good at Salsa, Flamenco, Tango, Argentine tango, and Tarantella. America and Lithuania are the best at Swing. The Korea twins are good at more modern dancing freestyle even throwing some break dancing and acrobatics into their routine. Hong Kong is the best break dancer even throws acrobatics into his routine often dances with the twins. Russia is the best ballet dancer and does traditional Russian dances it's impressive with his size. Greece and Turkey are the best belly dancers.

🇰🇷🇰🇵 The Korea twins meet once a year at China's place they make up for lost time with a bit of bickering, speaking at the same time, and finishing each other's sentences

🇭🇰 Hong Kong is the best clothing and jewelry designer you'll ever meet he makes all his clothes and even has his siblings model his designs he even has either Japan or Taiwan take pictures for him with lights props and everything and puts it on Instagram he sometimes gets commissions from other nations they pay him and make appointments sometimes even modeling his designs he even teams up with France for hair nails and makeup he has a whole studio he's also a great DJ

🇨🇳 China is the best babysitter around he gets payed by the hour and China adores children he missed the pitter patter of tiny feet on his floor the kids always come back full of good food and toys and presents to take home they aren't his kids so he can spoil them rotten even snacks for the road because growing children need to eat

🇨🇳 China always brings tons of snacks to world meetings he even gives America and Germany extra because they are the youngest

[bijoumikhawal]

Talking about the Qabā'. Again.

The last time I talked about the Qaba was in another post where i was very excited to have found a miniature from either Syria or Egypt that matched an extant piece of fabric from a close time period. Today I'm going to talk about the garment itself more, and it's relatives. The impetus for this is that a few months ago, I was scrolling through hanfu blogs- if you've read the article I published in Egyptian Migrations, you know I have an interest not just in Egyptian fashion, but how other cultures navigate fashion, both in their unique subcultures and traditional styles. While doing so I came across the tieli (貼裏), and quite liked the look of it, so I searched up the garment and began looking more at it. As I was scrolling through the many pretty pictures, I realized hey- I've seen this before. This looks a lot like that coat with the red foliage pattern!

Turns out this was because they're related.

They're not the only ones either- the Qabā' (as both Farsi and Arabic call it), the Tieli, the Indian Jama, the Korean Cheolik, and more, all bear a resemblance to each other. Covergent evolution happens plenty of course, but in this case there's something of an established link. In fact while doing my research, I found a paper specifically about this garment family (The Dress of the Mongol Empire: Genealogy And Diaspora of the Terlig by Woohyun Cho, Jaeyoon Yi, and Jinyoung Kim), though without explicit mention of the Qabā'.

The name and garment Tieli come from the Mongolian Terlig and Jisün (also called a Zhama (诈玛 or 詐馬), establishing a possible linguistic connection to the Jama) during the Yuan dynasty. Like many Mongolian traditional garments, it's well suited to horseback riding, which which what many Mamluk depictions also show the Qabā' being worn during. It could be round or cross collar (the combination of the two is unique to the Qabā'). The key features of the garment were a knee to calf length skirt that was gathered or pleated, a close fitting bodice cut separate from the skirt, close fitting sleeves, a corded waist which usually lead into the ties that closed the garment. According to the aforementioned trio, the garment was originally made of hides, and the waist detail found in the original Terlig, lost in other cultures renditions, is an indication of this. The Terlig, known before this point, was introduced to China, India, and Korean when the Monglian Empire was an active political entity in the 13th century and onwards, and this is the case for this style of Qabā' as well. During the 13th century, the Ilkhanate was established in the former territory of the Khwarazmian Empire, after a political incident where the Shah ordered the execution of a group of merchants sent by the Mongolian Empire lead to a long military conflict. The Ilkhanate went on to control large portions of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and the Caucasus, as well as Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan. Ultimately the Ilkhanate tried, but never did, conquer Egypt, which was ruled by the Mamluks at the time.

However, it did leave a cultural influence behind. Reference to this origin for this style of qaba can be found in one of the two names for the Qabā': al-aqbiya al-tatariyya or qabā' tatarī, meaning the Tatar coat or Tatar way of wearing a coat. Tatar, in this instance, is being used to refer to Mongolians. A similar distinction can be found in the Jama, where Muslims fasten it on the right in the Mongolian style (brought to my attention by the paper mentioned before). The tatarī is fastened in the same way, ties on the wearer's right of the body. The other style of Qabā' (al-aqbiya al-turkiyya) is the same, but fastens on the opposite side of the body. The Mamluks preferred the tatarī, but it was not the exclusive style worn. Along with this, some Qabā' fastened in the center front.

The Jisün was a type of Terlig, made of one color of silk and gold, worn as a robe of honor by officials during the Yuan dynasty. During the later Ming dynasty, it became the dress of certain military officials. It had different varieties for seasons and social status. It also progenitated the Yesa (曳撒), which was longer and more widely worn than the Jisün. The Feiyufu (飞鱼服) was a Ming variant of the Tieli, and another type of honor robe. The Qing dynasty Chaofu also seems to have taken the terlig into account when it was designed.

The Cheolik has a crossover collar, pleated skirt, and may have quite long, wide sleeves. Political marriages with Mongolian courts likely helped this garment take root. This garment is still worn today as Korea, like China, has revitalized its traditional clothing. It is mostly by women today as far as I can tell, though historically it was a masculine garment. It has a longer hem than the Terlig. It also sometimes had a higher waistline.

The Jama was introduced by the Mughal dynasty, and unlike the other garments listed here which typically used rectangles and triangles for constructing clothes, the one pattern I've seen for it taken from an extant garment (as opposed to being a guess) shows a skirt made of gores and set in sleeves with a gusset. Another example, laid flat, shows rectangular sleeves with a gusset, but the skirt cannot be determined. It was later renamed to sarbgati. It typically has a crossover fastening, though I have seen one that closed in the center front. The ties are especially prominent and decorated, which overall is not the case in the rest of the garment family. Gold bands on the sleeves and collar are sometimes found as decoration. It also has a longer hem and higher waistline than the Terlig.

In my previous post I noted a similarly to this robe and the Central Asian and Persian robes I'd seen from a different century, but was hesitant to connect them. Now I'm sure of a connection. The waist seam is confirmed! There are still several stylistic differences, though:

1. The Qabā', in Syrian and Egyptian depictions, typically combines a round neckline with the cross over collar. The Persian Qabā' typically does not have a round neckline.

2. The Qabā' usually has what looks like a gathered skirt, not a pleated one, as the Tieli does. The Terlig sometimes has a gathered skirt as well, as does the Jama.

3. The Syrian and Egyptian Qabā' is decorated with strips of gold, not with a cloud collar. The Persian Qabā' often has a cloud collar, which it inherits from the Terlig, and I have seen an Angarkha from Lahore with a cloud collar as well. It sometimes has bands. The Seljuk Qabā' sometimes has bands, and sometimes has a rank badge (more commonly found in Chinese court dress). As an aside, I recently found a British drawing (from life, presumably) of an Egyptian envoy in a garment similar to an Angarkha as well...

4. The Qabā' in Syrian and Egyptian depictions often retains the knee or calf length good for horse riding that many other garments in this family moved away from.

5. The Qabā' most likely does not have the corded waist found in the Terlig. There is a gold band around the waist in some depictions that could be a braided waist, but could also be a belt. Unfortunately I don't know of any extant examples from Syria or Egypt that would clarify matters. There is an example which might be Persian that does show this corded waist. Most depictions have no waist detail other than an indication of a waistline.

As far as I know, while this robe spread a little into the Balkans and Eastern Europe (the cloud collar has appeared in some Christian Iconography and a few examples of Terlig like historical garments exist), it did not spread much further west or south of Egypt. However, given the Qabā' has been excluded from discussions of the Terlig's many sons already, it's possible I simply don't know about it, as further iterations in Africa would be excluded as well. As always, I welcome people bringing their own findings to the table.

Further reading: The Dress of the Mongol Empire: Genealogy And Diaspora of the Terlig by Woohyun Cho, Jaeyoon Yi, and Jinyoung Kim

Mongol court dress, identity formation, and global exchange by Eiren L. Shea

https://sartorialegypt.wordpress.com/2022/12/03/a-brief-discussion-of-a-mamluk-robe/ - prev post

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O480307/gown/ - the cloud collar angarkha

https://www.newhanfu.com/6021.html - Discussion of the tieli and yesa

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41917645 - Terlig discussion

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43957434 - general discussion of Yuan clothing with a nice example of a terlig

https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-themes/mouvable-heritage-and-museums/robe-decorative-braided-waist-band-0 - Terlig example

A Preliminary Study of Mongol Costumes in the Ming Dynasty by Luo Wei

https://m.terms.naver.com/entry.naver?cid=46671&docId=563301&categoryId=46671 - Cheolik

Arab dress: a short history; from the dawn of Islam to modern times by Yedida Stillman

https://lugatism.com/outer-garments-in-the-mamluk-sultanate/#3-_Qaba_qba - the Qaba and other dress in the Mamluk era

https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/collection/artifact/robe-AKM677 - a robe which may be Persian or Central Asian with the corded waist

Additionally, blogs like @ziseviolet and @fouryearsofshades post about hanfu, including the tieli and yesa.

[beehunni62]

Married Mongolian Women’s Hairstyle in the Yuan Dynasty

Mongolians have a long history of shaving and cutting their hair in specific styles to signal socioeconomic, marital, and ethnic status that spans thousands of years. The cutting and shaving of the hair was also regarded as an important symbol of change and transition. No Mongolian tradition exemplifies this better than the first haircut a child receives called Daah Urgeeh, khüükhdiin üs avakh (cutting the child’s hair), or örövlög ürgeekh (clipping the child’s crest) (Mongulai, 2018)

The custom is practiced for boys when they are at age 3 or 5, and for girls at age 2 or 4. This is due to the Mongols’ traditional belief in odd numbers as arga (method) [also known as action, ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠤᠯ, арга] and even numbers as bilig (wisdom) [ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ, билиг].

Mongulai, 2018.

The Mongolian concept of arga bilig (see above) represents the belief that opposite forces, in this case action [external] and wisdom [internal], need to co-exist in stability to achieve harmony. Although one may be tempted to call it the Mongolian version of Yin-Yang, arga bilig is a separate concept altogether with roots found not in Chinese philosophy nor Daoism, but Eurasian shamanism.

However, Mongolian men were not the only ones who shaved their hair. Mongolian women did as well.

Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer, William of Rubruck [Willem van Ruysbroeck] (1220-1293) was among the earliest Westerners to make detailed records about the Mongol Empire, its court, and people. In one of his accounts he states the following:

But on the day following her marriage, (a woman) shaves the front half of her head, and puts on a tunic as wide as a nun's gown, but everyway larger and longer, open before, and tied on the right side. […] Furthermore, they have a head-dress which they call bocca [boqtaq/gugu hat] made of bark, or such other light material as they can find, and it is big and as much as two hands can span around, and is a cubit and more high, and square like the capital of a column. This bocca they cover with costly silk stuff, and it is hollow inside, and on top of the capital, or the square on it, they put a tuft of quills or light canes also a cubit or more in length. And this tuft they ornament at the top with peacock feathers, and round the edge (of the top) with feathers from the mallard's tail, and also with precious stones. The wealthy ladies wear such an ornament on their heads, and fasten it down tightly with an amess [J: a fur hood], for which there is an opening in the top for that purpose, and inside they stuff their hair, gathering it together on the back of the tops of their heads in a kind of knot, and putting it in the bocca, which they afterwards tie down tightly under the chin.

Ruysbroeck, 1900

TLDR: Mongolian women shaved the front half of their head and covered it with a boqta, the tall Mongolian headdress worn by noblewomen throughout the Mongol empire. Rubruck observed this hairstyle in noblewomen (boqta was reserved only for noblewomen). It’s not clear whether all women, regardless of status, shaved the front of their heads after marriage and whether it was limited to certain ethnic groups.

When I learned about that piece of information, I was simply going to leave it at that but, what actually motivated me to write this post is to show what I believe to be evidence of what Rubruck described. By sheer coincidence, I came across these Yuan Dynasty empress paintings:

Portrait of Empress Dowager Taji Khatun [ᠲᠠᠵᠢ ᠬᠠᠲᠤᠨ, Тажи xатан], also known as Empress Zhaoxian Yuansheng [昭獻元聖皇后] (1262 - 1322) from album of Portraits of Empresses. Artist Unknown. Ink and color on silk, Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368). National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan [image source].

Portrait of Unnamed Imperial Consort from album Portraits of Empresses. Artist Unknown. Ink and color on silk. Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368). National Palace Mueum in Taiper, Taiwan [image source].

Portrait of unnamed wife of Gegeen Khan [ᠭᠡᠭᠡᠨ ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ, Гэгээн хаан], also known as Shidibala [ᠰᠢᠳᠡᠪᠠᠯᠠ, 碩德八剌] and Emperor Yingzong of Yuan [英宗皇帝] (1302-1323) from album Portraits of Empresses. Artist Unknown. Ink and color on silk. Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368), early 14th century. National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan [image source].

To me, it’s evident that the hair of those women is shaved at the front. The transparent gauze strip allows us to clearly see their hairstyle. The other Yuan empress portraits have the front part of the head covered, making it impossible to discern which hairstyle they had. I wonder if the transparent gauze was a personal style choice or if it was part of the tradition such that, after shaving the hair, the women had to show that they were now married by showcasing the shaved part.

As shaving or cutting the hair was a practice linked by nomads with transitioning or changing from one state to another (going from being single to married, for example), it would not be a surprise if the women regrew it.

References:

Mongulai. (2018, April 19). Tradition of cutting the hair of the child for the first time.

Ruysbroeck, W. V. & Giovanni, D. P. D. C., Rockhill, W. W., ed. (1900) The journey of William of Rubruck to the eastern parts of the world, 1253-55, as narrated by himself, with two accounts of the earlier journey of John of Pian de Carpine. Hakluyt Society London. Retrieved from the University of Washington’s Silk Road texts.

[irithnova]

Naadam - and how Mongolia celebrates it.

What is Naadam in Mongolian culture and how would Mr Mongolia celebrate it?

Naadam is a traditional sports festival in Mongolia. It includes Mongols adorning themselves in national dress, mounted soldiers in uniform, music, dancers, and of course, the "Three Manly Sports":

Horse riding, wrestling and archery!

Naadam is a 2000 year old event, however, the term "Naadam" was coined in the 13th century by Chinggis Khaan (according to the secret history of the Mongols) and has been celebrated ever since.

Naadam used to be a preparation/practices/training for war. Competitions such as this would take place just before major battles in order for the war commanders to select which soldiers would be in which division.

Individuals who demonstrated exceptional strength, speed, and flexibility in wrestling, keen eyesight and precise hand-orientation in spear-throwing and archery, and also patience and skill in horse training/horse racing were carefully selected during the competitions.

Naadam takes place around mid-July in the heat of the summer, and is considered one of the biggest and most important festivals in Mongol culture along with Tsaagan Sar.

National Naadam is celebrated in the capital - Ulaanbaatar, in the national sports stadium. However it's not just restricted to the city! It takes place all across the country.

The Naadam festival kicks off with a ceremonial transfer of the symbolic "Nine Banners of the Great Mongol Empire" from the Government House to the Naadam stadium, escorted by honorary guards.

After a speech by the president or a representative, the games officially commence. In Ulaanbaatar, the capital, the event assumes a grand scale, drawing the most talented wrestlers, horse trainers, and archers from all corners of Mongolia!

As I've previously mentioned, Naadam takes place in the countryside too! In the countryside, herders journey to towns not only to partake in the festivities but also to reunite with friends and relatives, they may not have seen in a while.

Mongolia also has a bit of a reunion - with different Mongolic ethnic groups and other ethnic groups who's people participate in Naadam coming over to visit. Buryat and Uriankhai people are an example, and they (So, Buryat Mongols, Uriankhai/"forest people" as Mongols call them, usually denoting the likes such as Tuvans and Yakuts) have their own archery competitions. It's basically like one big get together!

Wrestling

Mongolian wrestling has no time limit and one objective - avoid touching the ground with anything other than your feet, or else you lose the match.

It also has no weight classes!

The National Wrestling Championship takes place during Naadam , however even before this, there are previous stages.

First is Soum (village) Naadam. Soum Naadam showcases wrestlers from various villages vying for the opportunity to represent their respective villages at the regional level.

Wrestlers who win at the Soum Naadam progress to the Aimag (province) Naadam, where they contend against other wrestlers within their own province to win the opportunity to represent the province.

The ultimate challenge awaits the winner of the Aimag Naadam at the National Naadam in Ulaanbaatar, the grandest and final tournament. Here, the aimag representatives vie for the prestigious title of national champion!

Mongol wrestling painting, 16th century

I definitely think Mr Mongolia is an avid wrestler/quite sporty himself (jock™) however he is a nation and so his nation strength and... Many, many years of experience would mean that it would be unfair for the most part if he went against humans. And besides, he absolutely risks outing himself if he participated in Naadam, especially with how popular wrestling is and uhh, considering the wrestling outfits... The lack of anonymity with that comes with it hahah.

However I think he participates in his own way. I think occasionally he helps with being with being a referee. Another thing: music. During Mongol national wrestling matches, you can often hear someone singing a Mongolian long song in the background. A long song is well, a song, which doesn't actually have a lot of words, but the the words are drawn out by the singer and emphasis is put on reaching impressive notes and putting power and volume in the voice. I think he does musical performances during naadam!

Archery

The Mongols are famous for their archery. There are many different types of Mongol archery.

There's Khalkha Archery, the most practiced one (seeing as the Khalkha Mongols are the majority ethnic group in Mongolia), spanning across a remarkable duration of 48 hours.

Those who triumph in this contest earn the esteemed distinction of the state archery title.

There's also women's archery! As for the women's archery tournament, they display their prowess by releasing 20 arrows towards a 60-meter target, while their male counterparts take aim with 40 arrows at a distance of 75 meters. The target itself comprises a symmetrical arrangement of diminutive leather cylinders, artfully positioned in rows of two and three.

Two red cylinders occupy the center of the target, but hitting them doesn't earn extra points. Each hit on a target gives one point, but merely hitting isn't enough for a score. The target must move a set distance from its starting point to count towards the final score.

There's also Uriankhai archery and Buryat archery - with Uriankhai archery only being practiced by men, and is practiced by the Uriankhai ethnic groups (this is a name Mongols give to what they consider Northern "forest people" like Tuvans or Yakuts). It has ties to religious ceremonies related to their culture. Buryat archery is practiced by the Buryat minority ethnic group of Mongolia. Both of which take place during the national Naadam festival.

They even have child archers!

I definitely think Mongolia is very passionate about archery, and watches the archery competitions intently. I think he helps with setting up the targets and prepping some of the archers when he can. He finds it fascinating to watch them display their skills and techniques with such precision and accuracy - and he wishes he could participate himself! He believes it is a testament to the level of dedication and hard work that athletes put into their craft and loves the satisfaction of the perfect hit - he'll always appreciate a good archer. Further, he puts time aside to go and watch the Buryat and Uriankhai archery with Buryatia and the others as its quite important to them all.

Horse racing

Over a thousand horses gather from all corners of the region to partake in this grand event. Diverging from Western traditions, these races traverse immense distances, spanning a remarkable range of 15 to 30 kilometers. The length of each race is intricately tied to the age of the horses, with the seasoned contenders gallantly competing over the longest stretches.

Curiously, the jockeys who guide these horses are not seasoned professionals, but rather children as young as 5 years old, with the oldest among them being 13. Yet, it is the horse's prowess that truly determines the outcome, as the race serves as a testament to their remarkable skills.

Age and gender play crucial roles in the classification of horses within the realm of horse racing. For example, in the case of geldings, they are divided into distinct age groups, spanning from 2 years old up to 6 years and older.

The races commence in a distinctive manner. All the horses gather behind a standard-bearer, cross the finish line together, and then follow the guidance of the official rider to reach the starting line.

In each class, the top 5 performers are crowned as "airgiyn tav," and the top three champions proudly claim gold, silver, and bronze medals. People joyfully sing their praises while showering them with fermented mare's milk (airag) on their rump, neck, and cheek.

The victorious jockey ascends to the esteemed title of "tumny ekh," signifying their leadership over a multitude of ten thousand.

Multiple races are showcased during Naadam. Stallions, specifically those known as Azarga, have a race of their own, while geldings partake in a minimum of three races. Further, a special race is organised specifically for pacing horses in Ulaanbaatar.

Remarkably, even the horse that crosses the finish line last in the two-year-old category is bestowed with a special appellation: "bayan khodood," meaning "full stomach." A heartfelt song resonates through the air, expressing good wishes and luck for the humble competitor to emerge triumphant in the following year.

The subject of child-jockeys seem to be somewhat contested amongst Mongols themselves. I'm not going to touch on that debate, however it should be noted that safety measures have been implemented in order to make sure that the race is as smooth as possible, but I understand that this can be a point of controversy. I definitely think Mongolia does his best in making sure the riders are well prepared/equipped for the races to ensure that have the best chances of coming out uninjured/relatively unscathed as possible. I think he puts extra time and care into this aspect of his Naadam participations considerably. He enjoys it to an extent as it reminds him of when he was a very young horse rider, and he does enjoy the celebrations afterwards, however the safety of the riders is at the forefront of his mind.

Other Naadam headcanons:

-Because Mongols usually wear their best clothes to Naadam, Mongolia definitely does too! He has a different outfit planned for each day.

-He uhh definitely enjoys all the food that's about 🤤 (khuushur, buuz)

-Probably floods his social media with pictures during this time

-Overall, it's quite an exciting yet busy time for him, he is involved in both the preparations for Naadam and participation in some aspects of Naadam, whilst also making sure to keep socialising with all the people he's invited over! But he manages it well.

[uroboros-if]

Hello!! If it's not too much trouble, do you have any sites you'd recommend for fashion/outfit visuals besides Pinterest? I'm trying to cobble together some fashion visuals for the deity of eternity template but I've honestly just been fighting for my life during the past *checks clock*...... four hours 😔✊🏽

Underneath the readmore, I include both:

Fashion resources (links to posts with even more resources, lists, etc.)

How to find better images on Pinterest (Best done after looking at fashion resources!)

Resources

GENERAL resources - I was vehemently looking for a post I reblogged with stock free photos sites, but it's poofed ;; but I remember Pixabay, Unsplash and FreeImages being mentioned! Something very similar to Pinterest, but not copyright free, is WeHeartIt. These sites are very general, though, so it might be hard to find any actual fashion inspo.

European period-accurate fashion - Here is a post about a HUGE site where you can find period-accurate fashion! It also includes a link to an extremely extensive post on period-accurate fashion with resources such as books, blogs, sites, etc. My only gripe is that a majority of these resources are very eurocentric, but the post included a small non-western section for resources.

Uroboros-specific - I made a post all about the fashion of Uroboros here! This is good for finding fashion that is actually within Uroboros, but it is also great in general for finding keywords / search terms for fashion. You find the best resources by knowing the specific time period/fashion you want.

Hanfu - Traditionally worn by the Chinese, but it persists today! This is one of the fashion inspos of Uroboros. The sites suggested in this post will be more modern/inspired than period-accurate, but they are gorgeous! My preference is to use Taobao, a Chinese site for buying hanfu, but currently, I am unable to access it. Hence, this post has a list of non-Taobao shops.

Deel - traditional Mongolian clothing, also one of the inspiration for Uroboros (desert region). Mongulai is a Mongolian shop founded by a Mongolian man!

Once you find all the kinds of dresses you want, though, you might consider looking for them in Pinterest. You only need a general idea of what you want, not extensive knowledge on it--so you might not want to sift through actual books!

For that, equipped with knowing what you want, the best way to get a lot of images quickly is by

Finding things on Pinterest

Finding things on Pinterest is great for general ideas, but the best things you get on Pinterest is by being specific. I already know I want Rococo, Song style hanfu, and some paintings/vibes/aesthetic, so I'll start searching up those things.

Once I find an image I like and save it, Pinterest learns what I like and starts recommending me things through my feed that are even more accurate to what I'm looking for. And of course, clicking on that Pin will suggest other Pins like it, which sends you down the rabbit hole of finding things. This is how I get 90% of the images I have, with only 10% of it being directly searched.

Here's an example of just searching for vibes/aesthetic. I start my search with "ethereal aesthetic", nature aesthetic, and "marble statues aesthetic":

It took a couple of minutes of scrolling to find these after looking through the search results, since my search terms were relatively general.

After saving only a few images, I went back to the feed and it started suggesting me some pretty similar things:

However, when you know SPECIFIC things you want (after looking at the resources I suggested), you get even better results just from searching (in addition to having amazing suggestions from your feed).

Here, I looked up "Rococo paintings," "Mediterranean aesthetic," and "Song style hanfu":

These are pretty specific things, so they find specific things that I want! And after saving them, here is what my feed looked like--chockful of everything I wanted!

(Tip! If you want board-specific suggestions, aka only finding suggestions from a Pin board you made, go to that board and find "More Ideas"! ✨)

Closing thoughts

I hope this was all useful to you! ♥️♥️ I know it included a little more than you wanted, but I hoped it helped anyway! If you want me to help you look for things, drop me a DM, de-anoned ask (which I can answer privately to you), or even just an anon ask again, and I can help you find some keywords and resources to find. I love doing research!

Thanks for sending an ask 💕💕💕✨

[vartamin]

i will say that i think kiawentiio is a great casting choice for Katara, she's a great fit for the character and im super excited to see her perform. i will also say however (and this is no fault of kiawentiio's) that im rly disappointed in the costuming choices regarding Katara specifically

Out of all the pictures of the cast so far, Katara definitely feels the most "costume-y" and unrealistic

The design of the patterned pieces on her coat do not resemble any type of Inuit or otherwise indigenous embroidery that I know of, in fact they aren't embroidery at all (which I find personally offensive because embroidery would've looked SO much better and more natural and would relate it more solidly to the Inuit and indigenous clothing it should be based off of) but they are reminiscent of water tribe designs in the show so I would give them a pass on that technicality. However, it's just so bad looking I really can't let it go. It's ugly! There! I said it! I have no real reason to dislike it other than my own personal preference! So what!

Moving on from the coat, the absolute lack of Inuit inspiration is a lot more apparent in the inner layers/traveling clothes. I understand that the Southern Water Tribe being inspired by Inuit/Inupiat/Yupik culture is a cultural outlier in the rest of the show, where the other nations draw from an amalgamation of East and South East Asian cultures, and the Northern Water Tribe of Mongolian and various Siberian cultures. Katara and Sokka's traveling clothes (both in the og show and the netflix adaptation) seem to be inspired more by East Asian clothing in order to bring their designs more in line with the rest of the show, but the lack of Inuit and indigenous inspiration in any of these new designs (that we've been shown so far at least) really annoys me

To my knowledge, even the inner layers in Inuit garments are commonly made of skins, not cloth, but there are other cold climate cultures that will use fabrics like cotton, wool and silks in their clothing, so I could forgive them (again) if they drew accurately from those designs instead.

Katara's outfit appears (to me) to most likely be based off of the Mongolian Deel, but I think an argument could be made for Qing Dynasty Chinese dress as well as they both wrap around the body to clasp to the side of the chest (the look of the clasps however do not seem to have any basis in anything whatsoever)

However, netflix seems to have gone the same way as the shyamalan movie in choosing what looks like a linen(??) fabric? which really stumps me because, to my knowledge, linen is not a fabric often used in cold climate cultures. While it does have thermoregulatory qualities and works well for insulation, it is much more well known for its cooling capabilities than its warming ones. I understand that, to be true to the show they needed to use fabrics not common in traditional Inuit fashion, but even the Mongolian Deel is much more likely to be made of cotton, wool, silk or skins, so the decision to use it seriously throws me for a bit of a loop.

Katara's iconic "hair loopies" are a reference to a traditional Inuit hairstyle (Nunavut Inuit specifically), but the way they have the braids start so far from her part with those plastic beads just makes it look so unnatural. It might be more accurate to the look of the show but spirits it doesn't look good (also just realized now writing this that her necklace pendant is white too it looks like a plastic bottle cap what the fuck EDIT: you see the difference between the faux fur lining her hood and inside it??? CHEAP OLD NAVY DOLLAR STORE LOOKIN ASS COAT)

Even Kanna, who wears the same hairstyle, has her loops integrated more naturally and they look so much better in general

the beads in Katara's hair are not culturally Inuit as far as I know, and instead seem to resemble Tibetan beaded and braided hairstyles. You can see here, though, that they somehow manage to not look like absolute shit and out of place like netflix has Katara's looking (and also are not plastic dental floss white they aren't even white in the show why would they do this to me specifically??)

Somehow, the studio producing a franchise live action show cannot make Katara's hair look better than one of those cheap cosplay wigs you can get off aliexpress

It's not hard to make a show-accurate Katara hairstyle work, though. Silvousplaits on YouTube has a great tutorial for a realistic Katara hairstyle that, in my opinion, is somehow better than the multimillion studio hair they've given Katara in the live action

https://youtu.be/tXP-7ja6J_k?feature=shared

Cosplayers are great and devote so much time and talent to making their costumes, but there is absolutely no reason that professionally produced costuming should look worse than something handmade by amateurs that can often only devote so much time to a craft they've picked up outside of their actual careers.

It's ridiculous.

I don't want to prejudge the ATLA live action before it's even out yet, but I already know I'm going to spend the whole time lamenting every single design choice they've made regarding Katara, and the lack of care that I see in her design makes me reticent to watch it.

[dracocheesecake]

Can you describe Kai parents appearance from your headcanons more detailed pls? If you describe their costumes that would be great. So if me someone would ever draw them they'd match your headcanons :> if it's fine to you of course

In your last writings you mentioned that Kai's son has his granfather eyes it was so💔🥹 I personally had a headcanon of his mother having blue eyes but father instead is cool too! If I got it right his father is (technically?) chinese and in terms of humans it's still possible for them having blue eyes way more rarely than mongolian and other turk people though

"IF IT'S FINE WITH YOU?!"- YES IT'S FINE WITH ME YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO ASK I'M HONORED DHSHSGSHDH😭💖😭💖😭💖😭

Hemhem anyway:

Yes, Kai and Yuelong both have blue eyes inherited from Bingwen, Kai's daddy. Bingwen is Chinese, but because they're animals and not humans I figured they're allowed a little more diversity in eye color (Tai Lung's gold eyes, Po's green eyes, etc).

I sadly don't have access to many good sources about traditional Chinese clothing during the warring states era, but from what I could glean I think Bingwen would have been wearing something like this:

However, Bingwen was not a peasant but a scholar, but not a particularly well-known one during his time; however, like I said, I have no great sources for how a scholar would have dressed then. He was alive during the middle/late warring states period (perhaps about 250 BC?) and lived in the Qin state, so that might also factor into his clothing choice. I'm sorry I don't have more details than that, and that what I do have isn't very historically accurate. ;-;

His overall appearance, however: he was a Chinese Black-pied bull, had no mane, and wore round-framed glasses. His head was black, save for a white mark on his forehead that had four points resembling a star (something else his grandson inherited from him). The rest of him was covered in black and white splotches as a typical cow. Kai got his horn shape as well as eye color from him:

Khaltmaa is much easier: she's basically a female Kai (or, in this headcanon, Kai is a male version of her) with longer fur, brown eyes, different horns, and her mane actually tied up into neat braids instead of unkempt and loose like her son's. Her horns were like a typical mongolian yak's:

And she wore a deel:

Probably something like this (as both men and women wore deels at the time), but again, I have no good sources of historically accurate information, so please do forgive me if this is wrong!

I'm not certain if anyone would be able to get any coherent picture out of what I provided here, so honestly just use it as lose guidelines and have fun with it. If you do draw these two though please do show me!!!! I will absolutely explode with happiness! 😭💖🩷💖🩷

[mokachikoshi]

Drawing my best wife with her country traditional clothes >w<)) (she so pretty, sniff T T)

I'm already drew it few weeks ago but i just put this now.

Maybe i'll drew her in turkish traditional dress if i had some time. (Since most people still debating attila origins to this day, but mostly is hungarian or mongolian, so i just draw both)

Plus with caeneus, i drew them in greece traditional clothes for male.

[paintedscales]

formal: What's your OC's formal look? Do they like dressing up? Do they have different looks for different occasions?

Hiiii! Thank you for the ask!! Much appreciated! \ o w o / I hope your week goes well!

OC Asks: Character Design Edition

Nomin doesn't have too much in the way of formal clothing... • w •

Sometimes she likes dressing up because she finds the experience of trying on new clothes and styles to see how it looks on her, but overall, encumbering herself with clothing and fashion is not high on her list. The most she's really done is dressing up for events in Eorzea so far. She never really had too much of the opportunity to dress up when she was on the Steppe because she generally had other things on her mind (but this can change! I still have so many more experiences to write! :> ).

Here's a small collection of some of the things I've made for her that fit the criteria, though. :D

The first outfit is actually the first ever formal outfit I made for Nomin. Just something I thought looked nice.

Second outfit is probably the closest I can get to traditional Mongolian formal wear without mods that she can wear on the Steppe and to celebrate her roots? So I'll mark that as a win in my book since it's really hard to actually make a proper looking deel with what we have available.

Third outfit is a hanfu mashup. As I stated, it's really hard to make proper looking Mongolian clothing. From what I understand, pending on locale on the Steppe, there are some clothes for formal wear that kind of look like a hanfu? It's not terribly ideal for me, though I went with it.

Last outfit is what I kind of imagine Nomin to wear for hers and Estinien's cultural exchange of Eternal Bonding. I have the Steppe version, but I'm not wild about it. So I'll probably sit down and try to tweak it. But this is the Ishgardian version that I chose. Dress mod can be found here.

[iseo58]

Mongolian traditional dress

[gravedigg]

If you're comfortable with it, I'd love to know your inspiration for the clothing design in your recent art piece :> I really love Dorian's outfit in particular!

Hi, of course! I don’t do outfit designs very often but I did have some inspiration for each character.

For Dorian I was looking at traditional Indian menswear, specifically a sherwani, dhoti pants, a dupatta stole, and some pretty shiny mojari shoes.

For Iron Bull I looked at some Mongolian traditional clothing, since I feel like there’s some similarities to Bulls in-game armor. I was looking at some deels, especially fancy fur-lined silk ones.

For Adaar I was going mostly off of the Antaam-Saar in-game, since that’s what I imagine him wearing most of the time, and he’s kinda stubborn about not wanting to dress up so I think they compromise with a slightly fancier version of his normal clothes. I also imagine his day-to-day armor being a lot like the Asaarash horse armor, you can’t get him to put a shirt on but he keeps tying more little armor plates to himself like a lunatic.

And then for Lavellan I was looking at baroque and other 17th century fashion, since he’s an Orlesian bard, and I was trying to play with pairing differently gendered clothing pieces to create something playful. (Also was just so excited to get to draw a ruff and codpiece lol)

I don’t know much about outfit designs or historical fashion so I probably made many mistakes but I wanted them all to look dapper :-)

I hope that’s helpful?