Between Heaven and Hell

POLO BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL visibly. In the Himalayas, it often seems that fans care about the game more than about the players—and the horses—who play it. Welcome to polo in northwest Pakistan. EACH JULY, thousands of pilgrims, almost exclu- sively male, make the perilous trek through the Shandur Pass, a flat seam of rock near Pakistan’s borders with China, India and Afghanistan, to watch one of the world’s most violent sports. Add the challenges of altitude—at 12,500 feet, this may At first, the crowd is silent. From benches, be the highest “stadium” in the world—to a virtu- stands and the bare ground, some 40,000 fans ally lawless match, and you’ve got something close crane their necks for a better view of the patchy to the X2 Games. But today’s match is more than a grass field. Behind them, snow-covered peaks seriously extreme sport. For 70 years, two ancient loom, a disconnect from the 80° summer heat. tribes have used this game to settle disputes with- In front of them, Team Chitral’s star player, out (much) bloodshed. You think Bama-Auburn is Mohammad Hussain, lies motionless on the dusty heated? Chitral-Gilgit makes that rivalry seem like goal line, a miniature Koran pendant dangling a post-Thanksgiving-feast round of flag football. from his neck, blood pooling from his head. He Sports, of course, have always been a proxy for looks dead. And then the yelling begins. war, but polo’s martial pedigree is legit. Central The crowd: Get him off the field! Asian tribes used the game as cavalry practice The players: Start the game! some 2,500 years ago, making it the oldest team Moments earlier, Hussain had been poised to and ball game. (Polo means ball in the local Balti score. But as he and his horse closed in on the red- language.) Back in the day, animal skulls or and-white goalposts, the animal bucked. Hussain, enemies’ heads served as the ball. Genghis Khan tossed 15 feet into the air with enough force to rip himself organized matches, with the sport passing his helmet off, came down on his head. As the into Persia and India as his kingdom spread. And shouting continues, three scrawny medics arrive when the British colonized the subcontinent, they to drag him off on a tattered white stretcher, wip- learned the game from their Indian subjects. By Back in the day, animal skulls and enemies' heads served as the ball. Genghis Khan organized matches. ing away evidence of the accident faster than the late 1800s, British army officers had added sweat can be wiped off a basketball court. rules and structure to the game. They exported In most countries, an injury this severe at a polo back to the manicured lawns of Victorian sporting event would cause players and fans to England, and it soon became a genteel pursuit in quickly go silent. Strangers would pray together Europe and in North and South America. and the hush would end only when the injured But while polo was becoming “civilized” in the man was taken away to the sound of hopeful West, its Himalayan version was staying true to its applause. But here in the brutal mountain region roots. In 1936, an English colonel named Eveyln of Central Asia, carnage is such a part of daily Cobb decided to use the game as a form of diplo- life on and off the field that a crumpled player macy, and he organized a match between two rival with likely head trauma is no big shake. As reli- local kingdoms under British rule. The idea was gious as fans are in these parts (most are devout to keep the perpetually warring Chitral and Gilgit— Muslims), no one prays for Hussain, at least not whose territories were neatly divided by the 74 C M Y K POLO BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL Out on the pitch, Skander ul Mulk, thing in line. In Pakistan, refs are nonexistent. Chitral's 49-year-old captain and its Not that it's complete anarchy. After one Chitral most experienced player, mounts his player died from a mallet to the skull a few years horse. Skander, a land-owning back, both sides agreed to a no-intentionally- prince whose status is indicated by swinging-at-your-opponents rule. Then again, the the fact that he is one of the few definition of ªintentionallyº is still up for debate, players to wear a helmet, has played so mallets start flying from the moment today's in the festival since 1982. In that match gets under way. time, he has seen six horses and one Musharraf, wearing a baseball cap that says player die from overexertion. The air ªPresident,º throws the ball onto the field to get is thin up here, and charging 300 things going. As he jumps back, 12 mounted yards at full speed is hard on a players knot in a scrum before the ball eventually horse. When one dies, as one of flies toward the two-foot-high stone wall that Gilgit's did in 2004, the game is runs the length of the pitch. Players use the wall paused and the players turn pall- the same way hockey players use the boards, to bearers, hoisting the animal above direct the ball to teammates or send it to other Shandur PassÐpacified with an annual tournament Chitral's star is out cold after being parts of the pitch. Someone hits the ball over the that came to be called the Shandur Polo Festival. thrown from his horse (above left). wall, and a player and his horse leap over it. Locals describe the pass as ªbetween heaven and Despite its genteel rep in the West, There is no protection for the crowd, so the first hell,º because so many people have died trying to polo is the people's game in Pakistan. three rows scatter. reach the beautiful but treacherous location. The For good reason. pass continues to be dangerous, but since the two It's hard to describe the terrifying jolt of tribes began settling their disputes with polo, most their shoulders, walking 100 yards to a glacial lake adrenaline that shoots through the crowd as the of the violence has stayed on the field. behind the stands and tossing in the dead horse. stone-like polo ball rockets toward them and Today's marquee matchÐa culmination of Skander, an affable Tom Selleck look-alike, leans several 1,000-plus-pound horses come close three days of playÐbegins casually, at least by down and strokes his horse. He says that once play enough to reveal blades of grass wedged in their local standards. Three hundred Pakistani soldiers starts, there is no way to know if a horse will hold rough iron shoes and a lingering smell of barn. In toting machine guns scan the mountains for ter- up: ªYou cannot tell until just before they col- pursuit of the ball, three of the massive snorting rorists. The show of force is to protest Pakistani lapse.º To be safe, Skander (like most players) spent beasts slam into each other, their riders flailing president Pervez Musharraf, who arrived earlier by 10 days before the match acclimating his ride to mallets wildly. A pipe-and-drum band kicks in, helicopter. When Musharraf came to this part of the altitude. providing a shrieking sound track to the chaos. northwest Pakistan in 2003, suspected al-Qaeda In the Western version of polo, each team has Izad Manshah, a 26-year-old from Chitral who operatives tried to kill him (twice). The area, four players, and players can change horses during traveled six hours on foot to lend his support, dubbed ªbin Laden's lairº because of the numer- the match. The game has six periods, or chukkers, cracks a smile. The music, he claims, keeps the ous Islamic radicals believed to be hiding here, which last seven minutes each. In Pakistan, it's horses in a trance and helps them perform in the recently made the news when it was tabbed as a six-on-six with two 25-minute chukkers. In the thin air. ªIf the music were playing yesterday,º likely hideout for Osama himself. West, a ref and two mounted umpires keep every- he says, ªno one gets hurt.º He is referring to a 76 C M Y K POLO BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL and unpredictable animal flesh. As the horses die, and families lose husbands and fathers. Who thunder up and down the pitch, spittle flying from will raise the animals then?” their mouths, the ground shakes and rumbles. It’s Although Chitral takes an early lead after both majestic and scary (the-first-time-you-saw- Hussain’s accident, Gilgit reels off four unanswered Poltergeist scary) as they reach full speed, necks goals before the chukker is over. At halftime, as extended, haunches churning, riders swinging. Gilgit captain Bulbul Jan dismounts, a coach Polo was an Olympic sport until 1936, when it hands him a lit cigarette and a Coke. There’s good began to lose its international appeal. But in reason for Jan to relax. Hussain was Chitral’s best Pakistan, the game is as strong as ever. There’s a player and rode its fastest horse. With both side- polo pitch in every city and village, and even in lined, Gilgit should cruise the rest of the match. Later, Hussainwill be wheeled to the trophy ceremony unconscious, his dayÐand his polo careerÐcut short.

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