"Kite Flying" An Outdoor Sport

Why Kite Flying is an interesting outdoor hobby or sport in Afghaninstan?

Let's get to know that!

KITE

( Gudiparan or Patang )

People have been flying kites in Afghanistan for more than 100 years, kite flying is a common hobby of many Afghans throughout the country. It is a form of outdoor sport that many took into the status of art. From the designs and sizes of kites to the making of unbreakable tar (wire), for many this became a matter of honor to compete in who's who among the best kite fighters in their neighborhood. This addicting outdoor sport absorbed many young Afghans, even during the war.

Before the war kite flying was part of Afghans national games For those who missed out on this great Afghan past time, here is the nuts and bolts of Afghan kite and kite fighting in a nut shell. I have compiled this article to preserve this aspect of the Afghan culture. Unfortunately the kite flying was banned by the Taliban, it was against the law for several years but after the collapse of Taliban government it,s legal again and everyone loves to fly kites specially on the weekend (Friday). The type of kite which people fly is a fighter kite, it's because that when you compete with the other kites, you should cut the other kite and it's easy to move from one direction to the other. Kite cutting is when your kite's string severs the string of your competitor, launching the loser's aloft, on the battleground, there is a fate worse than losing. If your opponent should find your kite, well, the humiliation is doubled. But until then, a champion is like a rock star. Winter is one of the most great season for the kids to fly kites because the winds are strong and the schools are closed because of the cold weather but autumn is a good season for adult kite flyer's.As Kite flying is a favourite sport and everyone loves it and enjoy doing it.While it brings mostly smiles but kite flying sometimes can be dangerous, many people are injured when they fall from roofs chasing for free kites or when they lose concentration during a heated battle. Before the Taliban, people used to fly kites in a place called Chaman-e-Babrak [in northern Kabul], and the kite flying competitions were held there. Kids, teenagers, adults and older people from all over Afghanistan and Kabul City were get together for kite competition, they used to lay wagers on fighting kites. For the first-time visitor, the skies above Kabul appears to be filled with fluttering birds or pieces of paper caught in the wind. A closer look reveals hundreds of brightly colored kites soaring high into the air is really fun. When an opponent's kite is cut free, it flutters like a colorful, dying bird into the far reaches of the city. Such kites are said to be "azadi - rawest," or "free kite," and can be retrieved by neighborhood children to fly another day.
The 2004 NY times best-selling book "The Kite Runner" by Khalid Hosseini, which adopted into a screen play and DreamWorks Company made a movie out of it in 2007 describes more about the kite and it's popularity among Afghans. Here's how Khalid Hosseini describes the kite tournaments that were held before the war in Afghanistan and how kids were staying awake all night counting every minutes till morning of the tournament.

"Every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. If you were a boy living in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season. I never slept the night before the tournament. I'd roll from side to side, make shadow animals on the wall, even sit on the balcony in the dark, a blanket wrapped around me. I felt like a soldier trying to sleep in the trenches the night before a major battle. And that wasn't so far off. In Kabul, fighting kites was a little like going to war" (Hosseini, The Kite Runner, P.43)

As I said earlier the kites come in different sizes, the smallest is the size of magazine but there are also kites from 30 cm to 120cm and it depends the piece of paper they you use in the kite which is called (parcha) or piece like (3 parch, 4 parch, 5 parch and 7 parch) 3,4,5 and 7 piece, but the average size is 95cm. The kites are made out of bamboo sticks which are cut very thin to reduce the weight and fly easily even if there is no winds and the actual skin is made of thin paper like a colorful tissue paper. The Afghans got many ways to make it very flexible and strong by hand. The most important thing is the "Tar" which stands for string, it's made very strong and Sharpe with fine crushed coat of "Shisha" on it. "Shisha" is the combination of glass fragments or glass powder with homemade glow powder, a little bet ink, the white part of the egg and a few secret ingredients, then they put it on the string to make the string Sharpe to cut the other but this glass can make angry scars in their own hands.

As I remember my childhood flying kites, I have cut my fingers over hundred times when I was running for a free kite or free string or even flying a kite myself in a windy day, but I have always accepted all these troubles otherwise I wouldn't become a kite flier. When I was a kid I loved to run for the free kite and free string, it was really fun but in mean while it was dangerous too. First when I was running for the free kite I was usually looking to the sky to follow the direction of the kite that where it falls and the ground was mostly rocky because in three decades of war in Afghanistan all of the hills changed to grave yards and people fly kites on those grave yard hill due to luck of open space. Second when I was running for free string, it was possible that my fingers could be cut with the sharp string because when the kites get cut all the kids run for the free string and the kite and everyone tries to get the kite or more string and never cares about the person who has the next side of the string. When you fly a kite or run for the free string you usually get the sharp string with your pointing finger and as I said it's possible that your finger could be cut by the string but despite all that cutting fingers, falling off the roof...etc, still people loves it. "Gudiparan bazi" or Kite flying needs at least two people. One who holds the string holder "Charkha" which the other "drives" the fighter kite.
The kite fighters with the best teamwork, skills and materials will win the fight but winning and losing depends to the techniques of the kite flier, the string holder "Charkha Geer" and mainly on the wind and the fights can take seconds up to an hour depending on the wind direction and skills, basically the one who releases the line on the right moment will win the fight. The skilled Afghan kite maker Noor Agha son of Bejoo is the top kite maker in Kabul, his father was a famous kite master in his time but now this trade has continued by his son Noor Agha the top kite maker in old city of Kabul "Shur Bazar". After the Taliban he started his trade by selling kites to make a living. In fact, business is so good that he has taught his two wives, his son and trained his six year old daughter to do so as well. Noor Agha's traditional Afghan kites are so authentic and precise that they were selected for use in the filming of the movie "Kite Runner" Khaled Hosseini's best selling novel. As I was the props buyer and casting assistant for the Kite Runner I have purchased and shipped a large quantity to China where the movie was filmed in different sizes, shapes and colors. The kites were seen by millions of people around the world on the big screen.
Noor Agha's factory is his living room, where he has put his two wives and 11 children to work, cutting, shaping and gluing the intricate tissue-paper mosaics that make his kites stand out for their beauty and superior handling. The secret is in the glue, he makes, holding up a pot of evil-smelling green paste. "No one knows his recipe for making a glue that stays perfectly flat when it dries, without rippling the tissue paper". Business is so good these days that Agha has had to teach his wives how to make kites. He proudly calls one of them "the second best kite maker in Kabul," although he insists that she will never be as good as he is. "he has 45 years' experience and she'll never be able to catch up" but his 6-year-old daughter may have a better chance. Already she is making her own kites to sell to neighborhood children. Noor Agha had to take his business underground in order to make kites during the Taliban days, but now his work can be sold openly and easily.
'Kabul has changed a lot compared with how it was in the Taliban time. During their regime, if a child was even caught flying a kite even a (cheap) plastic kite, his father would be thrown in jail, but fortunately now, that dark time has over. Not only Noor Agha's traditional kites craft has reached to a level of excellence, he still flies them once a week on Fridays for competition with other kite fliers. He continues to experience the sheer joy of controlling a darting kite and battling with opponents for supremacy in the skies. The last thing I heard from Noor Agha on the last day of (Khalid Abdullah) Amir's kite lessons that he said I love my Art of kite making and flying "Making kite is my job and fighting it, is my disease."

This was a brief information about Afghan's famous traditional outdoor sport " Kite Flying. Please check out my blog frequently for more information about the Afghan culture and tradition. In the next page I will have a glance on Khalid Hosseini's best-selling novel and about the memory of the kite runner that how it's made in china and who are the main actors and from where they have been casted. If you would like to know more about Kites or if you are in America and Europe looking to purchase Afghan kites, Please contact me via email for more details and I will be more happy to assist you.