Where To See Kushti (Traditional Wrestling) In Lahore

Searching For Tradition In Lahore

Wandering through the labyrinth and alleyways that cut through the walled city of Lahore as an experience in itself. Everywhere you turn in the sprawling bazaar, you will get a candid look at daily life in Pakistan. Exploring the deep recesses of Lahore is exciting in itself. But there are certain traditions that are not so easy to simply stumble across.

Adopting traditions from Pahlevani in Iran and Malla-Yuddha from India, Kushti is a sport with deep religious roots. In Pakistan, this form of wrestling is closely associated with Sufism. From waking up to train before the morning prayers and the mere act of entering the ring (khala), every action in Kushti has a specific meaning.

Getting one sold on wanting to witness this thousand-year-old form of wrestling is easy. Actually finding where it is played, however, may prove to be far more difficult. Kushti is very much a dying sport. Although it has seen a revival in India due to the movie Dangal, there is only a small sub-culture of people who follow Kushti in Pakistan and Iran.

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Where To See Kushti In Lahore

Due to the sport waning in popularity over the years, it is difficult to find an arena (akhara) where Kushti is regularly practiced. While wandering through the markets and alleyways of Lahore, you may be lucky enough to stumble across a circular muddy field. It is in a khala such as this where you can find athletes from all over Lahore arriving in either the morning or evening to train, exercise, and wrestle.

Two of the best places to find Kushti akharas are right around the Badshahi Mosque. The first of these is the Muslim Health Club which is located between the Lady Willingdon Hospital and the Badshahi Mosque. Down a small lane connecting Fort Road to the parking lot of the mosque, you can find both a dirt and padded khala where wrestlers train for upcoming fights.

The other training ground is located at a Sufi shrine called Baba Nathay Shah Bukhari Darbar. Heading east on Fort Road, you will find the Kushti akhara on the right-hand side directly after Ali Park. Out of the two gyms, this darbar has a more traditional feel to it and is well known for producing some of the best wrestlers in all of Lahore.

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Exploring the Darbar

Throughout the land once claimed by the great Mughal Empire you can find many shrines, or darbars, which houses the remains of Sufi saints. While Data Darbar in Lahore is the largest of these shrines, holding up to 1 million devotees, Baba Nathay Shah Bukhari Darbar is far more humble. Consisting only of a few pink petal adorned tombs shaded by large trees, this darbar is often frequented by some local kushti champions and young aspiring athletes.

Much of the chipping concrete of this shrine is hidden behind colorful posters depicting past kushti champions and their trainers. With their golden club trophy resting over their shoulder, the champions on these rainbow-colored posters keep a close eye on the wrestlers practicing in front of the darbar. Some of the former stars can even be found training the next generation on the kushti field and will be more than happy to pose in front of their poster.

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Training Future Champions

These young and old athletes start arriving at Baba Nathay Shah Bukhari Darbar as early as 5 am. Not all of those at the kushti stables are training to fight in future matches. The rigorous fitness regime also attracts locals in Lahore seeking to simply exercise and keep fit. From dumbells to benchpresses, these oiled up men exercise in such a way that goes back hundreds of years.

Everything from the equipment to the exercises themselves has roots stretching back to the beginnings of kushti. Many of the wrestlers will do a form of traditional pushups known as sapate. The athletes will stand, jump, and then crouch before finally throwing themselves to the ground. After being oiled and warmed up in the early morning, the wrestlers are then finally ready to jump into the khala.

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Fighting In The Pit

Even after the long and strenuous morning routine, the wrestlers then have to prepare the pit to practice. After watering the field with a hose, it is one of the athlete’s job to take a plow and mix up the mud. Afterwards, the same wrestler will flatten out the mud of any mounds before the khala is finally ready to be used.

After the grounds have been prepared, the competitors slowly make their way to the ring. After rolling around in the dirt and patting each other down with the mud, the wrestlers begin to hurl each other into the ground. When stuck in a deadlock, the trainer will approach the two wrestlers and continue to pile dirt on both of the competitors. Usually, the heavyweight competitors will go first and match by match work their way to the light-weights.

If you are not willing to wait around for hours for the matches to start, you best arrive between 8:00 and 8:30 am. If you are coming from Mall Road a rickshaw should not cost more than 150 Rupees (1 USD)

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Reviving Ancient Athletics

Many of the regiments found in kushti and pehlwani have laid the foundation for modern western athletics. From the dumbbell to the dand, there are many aspects of traditional South Asian exercises that influenced the way people workout all over the world.

More importantly, seeing kushti in Lahore is a way to witness a time long gone. For centuries, this sport has been passed down from generation to generation. In a place such as Baba Nathay Shah Bukhari Darbar, one could only imagine that the wrestlers’ ancestors have fought on the very same ground. Due to lack of interest and being banned by hardline Muslim extremists, kushti can only be found in small pockets of Lahore and Pakistan as a whole.

For now, the best option you have to witness kushti is to take that early morning rickshaw ride out to Lahore Fort and watch a group of men preserve a tradition that is on the verge of going extinct.