Tightrope Fact Box

From a demon in the sky to world records.

2010.07.15
Tightrope walking, or Darwaz, is a traditional Uyghur art often performed at festivals. These performances not only feature tightrope walkers walking on the rope, but also performing various daring tricks, done high in the air, including the Rope Balance, the Crane Stance, the Rope Drop, the Headstand, Sleeping on the Rope, and Walking Blind.

The Rope Balance

The Rope Drop

Walking Blind

The Crane Stance

The Headstand

Sleeping on the Rope

Famous Walkers

  • Adili Hoshur (Adili Wuxiu’er): Set his first world record in 1997 when he crossed the Three Gorges strait, set another in 2000 for his walk between two peaks of Hengshan mountain in Hebei province, and most recently set a record for living 60 days on a rope above the Olympic Stadium in Beijing. Darwaz has been passed down in Adil Hoshur’s family for 430 years, and he is currently training his daughter.
  • Samat Hasan (Saimaiti Aishan): Set a record for steepest long-distance walk, which he performed on a 700-meter-long rope at a 39-degree slope in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, in April 2009. Samat Hasan is Adil Hoshur’s nephew and student.
  • Ablet Mejnun (Abulaiti Maijun): Set a record for steepest gradient on a tightrope walk, which he performed on a 58.24-meter long rope at a 34-degree slope in Xinjiang in August 2007.
International Attention
  • Ugyhur tightrope walking has been featured in several international documentaries, including "Kings of the Sky," "On a Tightrope," and "Darwaz: La Fun sul Mare."
  • In 2007, three Uyghurs competed in the World Highwire Championships in Seoul, South Korea, and became the first Uyghurs to participate in an international wirewalking competition. Uyghur Abdusattar Ghoja Abdulla won first place.
History

Yengisar.jpg
Yengisar County, Kashgar Prefecture
  • The original home of darwaz is said to be in Yengisar county, Kashgar prefecture, in the west of Xinjiang. Today, a school in Yengisar county continues to train both boys and girls in the art of darwaz.
  • Legend has it that in a Uyghur city haunted by a demon who lived in the sky, a man named Obul once set up two pillars reaching up to the clouds, strung a rope between them, and defeated the demon by wrestling him on the tightrope. Other legends tell of darwaz acrobats who fought off Han invaders.
  • The word “darwaz” is first recorded in the lexicographer Mahmud al-Kashgari’s Compendium of the Languages of the Turks, which was written in 1072-1074 and defines darwaz as “doing tricks on top of a rope.”
  • Images of tightrope walking are depicted on the walls of Cave 77 of the Qizil Grottoes, a Buddhist cave complex in Aksu prefecture from between the 3rd and 8th centuries.
  • Among the ruins of the ancient Uyghur city of Turpan from 7th and 8th centuries, archeologists found a pair of statues placed on a level rod with their feet pointing upward, representing acrobats on a tightrope.
  • Descriptions of darwaz in the Uyghur region appear in the Tang monk Qiu Chuji’s Travels to the West of Qiu Chang Chun and the 11th-century Persian masterpiece the Qabusnama, among other works.
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