Spring Festival of Mongolians takes place in Tokyo

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Spring Festival-2014 was held May 4-5 in Hikarigaoka park in Tokyo city’s Nerima district. The 14th festival was organized by the Union of Mongolian Students in Japan (UMSJ) with support from the Mongolian Embassy in Tokyo, the administration of Nerima district and Japanese public organizations cooperating with Mongolia. A chief of the UMSJ J.Tserenchimed made the opening remarks of the festival, and greetings were delivered by S.Khurelbaatar, the Ambassador of Mongolia to Japan; and H.Ozaki, a foreign relations service head of Nerima district. At the opening event, a Japanese long-song singer M.Ito, and a khoomii singer (throat song) K.Murakami performed a long-song with khoomii. Following them, a group of Mongolian folk arts including A.Bat-Erdene, a Morin Khuur player; A.Dolgion, a khoomii singer, and other artists gave a small concert. Exhibitions showing Mongolian history, culture, economy and social achievements were mounted. Mongolian students explained these exhibits to Japanese people. A small area for Mongolian traditional games and Mongolian script calligraphy was a part of the exhibitions as well. One of the biggest parts of the event was a tournament of Mongolian traditional wrestling. It was attended by 32 wrestlers, and a wrester Damba won this competition, being followed by Jarandoloo from Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China. It was auditioned by Yokozuna Hakuho M.Davaajargal, Kakuryu M.Anand and other sumo wrestlers of Mongolia. A contest for hand painting was organized with a theme “Japan and Mongolia through my eyes”. A photo contest was held under the same title among amateur photographers as well. In addition, a seminar themed “Mongolian college” on education, economy and social development issues was organized in a scope of the spring festival.