Chinese invented skis?

[W.G.Ewald]

Deep In China, 'Cowboys' Have Skied For Thousands Of Years : NPR

Jenkins went to the Altai Mountains in Northwest China, about where Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia come together — "kind of dead-center Central Asia" — where the Tuvan people have been skiing for at least 4,000 years.

"Their skis are remarkable," he tells NPR's Arun Rath. "They cut them from red spruce. They bend them by heating them and steaming them, and then they nail on horse hair on the bottom of the skis, which is very slick to glide forward but then grabs when you go uphill."

 

[Ray]

Tuvan people, who are Turkic ethnic group living in southern Siberia, are the ones who could be the first ski-ers.

Traditionally Tuvans divided into nine regions called Khoshuun, namely the Tozhu, Salchak, Oyunnar, Khemchik, Khaasuut, Shalyk, Nibazy, Daavan & Choodu, and Beezi. The first four were ruled by Uriankhai Mongol princes, while the rest were administered by Borjigit Mongol princes (Wiki).

Tuvans were subjects of the Uyghur Khanate during the 8th and 9th centuries. The Uyghurs established several fortifications within Tuva as a means of subduing the population.

Map showing extent of Uyghur Khanate and placement of Kyrgyz in 820 AD.

 

[amoy]

there's a Tuva republic in Russia Federation (Uriankhai known by Chinese). on Chinese side Tuvans r regarded as part of Mongolians mainly in Kanas lakeside. many others could b skiing earlier than Tuvans such as Sami in the Arctic.

Sent from my 5910 using Tapatalk 2

 

[t_co]

2 kind of irrelevant factoids:

1. The slopes in the Altai Mountains are freaking awesome. 300cm+ of natural snow per year, big vertical drops, and a ready network of military-grade roads and power lines left over from the XPCC. A couple of Mongolian and Chinese coal barons were thinking of jointly developing one of the mountains there two years ago. Dunno what happened to the project, but they had already lined up about $1bn RMB in loans from a few Chinese banks, plus their own equity investments.

2. Tannu Tuva is my favorite nation to play in Hearts of Iron 2.

 

[hit&run]

Necessity is the mother of Invention. I find nothing amazing with tools claimed by any race or nation as their invention. Human race has been innovating wonderful ideas and tools all over this planet.