Traditional Bhutanese archery is shot over a distance of about 145 metres — which is longer than one and a half football pitches. The target is a painted wooden board just about 30 centimetres wide. Hitting it from that distance requires incredible skill and years of practice. Modern Bhutanese archers also compete with compound bows (a high-tech style of bow with pulleys and cables) at international competitions, where they have represented Bhutan at the Olympic Games.
What makes Bhutanese archery famous is everything that happens between shots. When a teammate scores a hit, the rest of the team breaks into a celebratory dance and song on the spot. When a rival team misses, there might be good-humoured singing and jokes directed at the shooters. Archers wear traditional dress — the gho, a knee-length robe tied with a belt — to compete. The atmosphere is festive, with food, music, and families watching from the sidelines.
Every village in Bhutan has an archery range, and competitions happen throughout the year at festivals, village gatherings, and national holidays. The sport is so important that when Bhutan's first athletes competed at the Olympic Games in 1984, they entered in archery. The sport is also changing — more young women are taking up archery in Bhutan, which has traditionally been a male-dominated activity, and national programmes now support girls in competitions.