Simple question about the three types of mongolian hornbows.

Sinsigel · Post by **Sinsigel** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:24 am

I've read in one of the articles about mongolian archery in the atarn homepage, and heard about the three types of mongolian bows: the khalka, the buryat, and uryankai.

If possible, I would like to know about the difference between their constructions, length, etc. (One korean book about history of Mongolia claims that the khalka type bows were 120 centimeters long, but it seems to be too short for mongolian bows.)

Sorry for thrwowing another annoying(-_- ;) question, and I hope the members here may have another good day.

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:51 pm

It depends whether you are talking about modern or ancient bows. In the pre-Qing period, Mongolian and Chinese bows were shorter than they are now.

The Buriat and Khalka bows I have seen seem to be descendants of Manchu military bows though they can be distinguished from each other by differences in proportion and decoration.

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:40 am

As per Bede's reply.

The Uryankhai bow is not a horn bow. It's a bit of a joke, really. It's made from an enormous pole of birch wood, very roughly cut, and with a draw weight of around 60-70#. It is just made for competitions and then discarded.

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:39 am

Stephen, thanks for that info on the Uryankhai bow.

Sinsigel; Taras published info on Buryat bows years ago with Thomas D. He had a Buryat bow which was blueprinted there. It is a straightish bow with very gently arching recurves, there is no abrupt angle at the joint of the limbs and the siyah; the handle is in line with the limbs and is straight. 1395mm tip to tip in a straight line. The overall look is like a Turkish longbow with tall Chinese bridges.

In an accompanying article, he illustrates another of these bows, about 5 feet. They do have tall bridges like a Qing bow.

The Novgorod bow shares many characteristics.

Primitive archer V5 #4 has an article illustrating such a bow, 55", 61" along the curve.

By default, the third type should be a Qing bow with cutdown siyahs. Jack

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 1:21 am

See also http://www.atarn.org/mongolian/buryat_bow_r.htm (but it's in Russian).

Sinsigel · Post by **Sinsigel** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:49 am

Thank you for answering, Mr. Bede, Mr. Selby, and Mr. Farrell.

In this article, I was talking about the pre-Qing period Mongolian

bows.

However, Qing and modern period bows also interest me.

If the Qing period bows were longer than before, would it be

partially due to the influence of long Qing hornbows?

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:55 pm

One bow in the earlier style that survived thought it was probably made in the Qing period is the Omnogorov bow which has been mentioned on this site. There is an article on it in the Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries.
This bow has small ears and a long ridged section. It looks more Middle Eastern than the Qing-style bows. It has been discussed on this site in the past.