Jumabay Mirzmehmet in a practice game in the Tashikurgan Tajik autonomous county. (HU HUHU / XINHUA)

URUMQI－Amid loud cheers from spectators, 33-year-old Jumabay Mirzmehmet, with his head held high and a big smile, waved a club on a galloping horse. With a score of four to three, his team had once again won the county-level polo game held to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in late June.

Jumabay plays advance and is the captain of his team that consists of locals from the Daftar township in Tashikurgan Tajik autonomous county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Located on the Pamir Plateau, Tashikurgan is the country's only Tajik autonomous county, with about 81 percent of its roughly 41,000 residents belonging to the Tajik ethnic group.

The recent championship has added to Jumabay's long winning streak. Their team has claimed almost all of the top polo prizes in the county on the Pamir Plateau, where polo is a long-standing tradition for local ethnic Tajiks.

Jumabay learned the skills from his father and started playing polo when he was 14 years old. "It's thrilling and full of fun, requiring a lot of horse-riding skill and teamwork."

Polo is like field hockey on horseback, during which two teams use clubs to drive a ball into the opposition's goal. It is a popular sport among Tashikurgan's Tajik people and is usually played to celebrate weddings and other festive occasions.

The sport faced challenges in the 1990s when fewer villagers raised horses as local transport conditions improved. "Motorbikes and cars replaced many families' horses," Jumabay says.

However, new life was breathed into polo in 2008 when the unique Tajik version of the sport was named a national intangible cultural heritage. The local government started organizing county-level polo games in 2009 as part of its efforts to revive the tradition.

Polo games are held regularly in Tashikurgan, with at least one game each month. Polo is also played on special occasions such as traditional festivals and tourism promotional events.

These games, usually with prizes awarded to top performers, have drawn many competitors from local villages. Jumabay's team now has 18 members, with the youngest being 20 and the oldest 44.

"The contests have made the sport more exciting, and we undergo targeted training before each event," says Xianbi Ghulam, 20, the youngest member of the team.

Tashikurgan shook off poverty and made to the top national tourist destination list in 2019. More than 1.1 million trips were made to Tashikurgan in 2019. The burgeoning tourism market is expected to boost polo's preservation and promotion.

Jumabay became a prefecture-level inheritor of polo in 2014. Working as a taxi driver, he has made playing and promoting polo a long-term goal.

"I bought two horses earlier this year. As tourism grows, horses will be of greater use in performances like polo," says Jumabay.