The first shots from the 2012 Kırkpınar festival, featuring Turkish Oil Wrestling.

Per Wikipedia, "Kırkpınar" is the name of a Turkish oil-wrestling tournament, accompanied by other events. The Turkish name for "oil wrestling" is, we are told, "yağlı güreş". Kırkpınar is held annually, usually in late June, near Edirne, Turkey, and has been since 1346.

I did not realize, until I read he articles in Lightbox, below, the religious meaning of the tournament and associated events. Images of the event should be treated with a certain respect. The photographer who took the Lightbox images is Pari Dukovic. The images below are filled with care and honor, and are, in my view, respectful.

From Inside the World of Turkish Oil Wrestling - LightBox

The sport of yağlı güreş, or oil wrestling, is at the heart of Kırkpınar, a festival in the Turkish city of Edirne. Thousands of people will come to see these wrestlers—slick with olive oil—compete in the 651st annual games on July 2. It’ll be a familiar sight for Turkish photographer Pari Dukovic, who attended the event in 2010 and 2011.

“I saw that the sport had an Old World charm to it—the festival, the prayers, the music, the instruments, the outfits,” says Pari, who used to watch the festival’s coverage as a teenager. “I am drawn to subject matter that makes you feel as though you are traveling through time and Kırkpınar fascinated me with its history and how it has remained an integral part of Turkish culture.”

As the festival begins, drum and horn players parade through the city with the sports’ grand prize—the Kırkpınar Golden Belt. The community then meets in the grand 16th century Selimiye Mosque, where the imam gives a sermon in honor of competitors past and present. For the young boys participating in the traditional Turkish coming-of-age ceremony known as Sunnet Dugunu, it’s desirable to celebrate it at the same time as Kırkpınar, as the festival represents to many the ultimate in male achievement. The boy in the mosque in slide #10 wears the ornate cape associated with the ritual.

After the sermon, wrestlers pray at the graves of legendary sportsmen and proceed through the streets to the competition field, singing the national anthem. The master of ceremony introduces the wrestlers to the audience, reciting their names, titles and skills in verse. Very few of the wrestlers, who range widely in age, make a living from the sport. Nevertheless, Pari says he got the clear sense that being a part of this event is a dream come true for them. “They train for a whole year and often travel from villages all over Turkey to participate, so becoming a Kırkpınar wrestler is an achievement they take great pride in,” he says. The wrestlers, wearing nothing but short leather trousers, get rubbed down with olive oil. This makes the goal of the match—to throw one’s opponent on his back—all the more difficult. The matches last about 30 minutes each, while the final bout can last up to two exhausting hours.

“I think the dedication that goes into what they do is amazing,” says Pari. “I hope that my photographs stand as visual documents of this tradition and that my respect is captured in these images.”

Pari Dukovic is a New York City based documentary photographer. See more of his work here.

Two men compete in the Kirkpinar oil wrestling festival in Edirne, Turkey,

which will soon celebrate its 651st anniversary

A group of young competitors take in the view from the edge of the grass field.

Two wrestlers in the Kirkpinar festival make contact.4

Wrestlers waiting their turn watch the competition from the sidelines.

A crowd which includes the wrestlers waits for the prayer to start at the Selimiye Mosque

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/07/05/inside-the-world-of-turkish-oil-wrestling/#ixzz20HWveZnK

From Today's Zaman: "Gürbüz wins title of 'Başpehlivan' at Kırkpınar for second time." The title means "best of all."

From Wikipedia:

From Oil Wrestling 2012 | Fethiye

From Charles and Fred

Today's Zaman

The blogs and images following probably are from earlier years. I include 'em because I like 'em. As more come in from 2012 I'll repot 'em.

Images from WAFF | Greece & Turkey Defence Forum, presumably homophobic; and if so, the choice of images is curious. He who doesn't acknowledge the sensual aspects of this serious and honorable tradition is willfully blind. For prurient images of Christian Art see here and here and, for those who don't objet to Christian bondage and violence, here.

World's Armed Forces Forum: Turkish traditional Oil Wrestling Festival begins, 1,248 Homos are ready. [The authors perhaps mean to say "wresters". Durell]

And then the uauthors of the blog produce these two pure (?) images: