Polo originated in Asia over 2,000 years ago and traveled along the "Silk Road" to the rest of the world, according to
scholars, including the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Polo was demonstrated at the 2002 "Silk Road" Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which examined the cultural connections
developed between Asia and Europe.
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| Chogan, by Mahmmoud Farshchiyân |
“Let other people play other things – the king of game is still the game of kings”
This verse is inscribed on a stone tablet next
to a polo ground in Gilgit, north of Kashmir, near the fabled silk route from China to the West.
Polo may have descended from buzkashi – the national sport of Afghanistan,
a rough-and-tumble horseback sport that began in Central Asia more than 2,000 years ago. Some believe that the son
of the last Persian emperor introduced polo to China around 670 B.C.
"Regardless of its exact origins, experts agree that polo originated along the Eastern end of Silk Road and eventually
was brought to the West as trade increased between the two." ("Polo Featured at Smithsonian Festival," by Dante
Teldadi)
The modern sport of polo had its beginnings in the 1860s in Punjab, India,
when British officers took up the game of polo that they had seen played by local horsemen. The game
was introduced in England in 1869 and in America by 1876. The United States Polo Association was established
in 1890 to coordinate games, standardize rules and establish handicaps.
Polo is now played around the world in over 75 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.
In 1998, the Federation of International Polo was established.
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| Playing polo at Pennsylvania Military College, which is now Widener University, Chester PA |
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