Fighting Kites

     The oldest form of maneuverable kite was developed in Asia, and uses one string rather than two to control it. Traditionally this sort of kite is made from tissue paper and bamboo. It is thought that it originally developed in China, and then spread throughout the rest of Asia, carried by explorers and Buddhist monks. This kite is made of flexible materials, and is maneuvered by pulling in or releasing line. When the line is pulled in the kite bends at the wingtips and becomes stable. In its bowed state it will fly in a straight line. When line is released the kite becomes flat, and unstable. It will then tumble or spin. When the kite is pointing in the direction the flier wants it to go, line is pulled in, bowing the kite again and causing it to fly in a straight line along its new course. The amount of control over a kite of this style depends upon the skills of the flier, and competitions to see who has the most skill are very common in Asia.

    This competition takes the form of a fight. The flying line, normally button thread, has part of its length coated with a mixture of glue and powdered glass or pottery, making the line extremely abrasive. During the fight both contestants attempt to maneuver their kites around the flying line of their opposition and when this has been achieved a sawing motion is all that is needed to wear through their opponent's flying line. For this reason, this style of kite is commonly called a fighting kite.

    More general contests, or festivals, also take place, especially in India. The largest, and oldest, kite festival in the world takes place in Ahmedabad on the 14th of January of every year. This festival is a free-for-all, with perhaps 100 000 kites in the sky at once, all trying to cut each other down. The festival has been celebrated for centuries, at the time that the winter solstice has passed and the sun has again climbed above the constellation of Capricorn. The festival is called Makar Sankranti, which means "the conclusion of Capricorn". Tales of kite fighting are found in the Sanskrit religious writings of the Veda and in the epic, the Ramayana. The importance of kites in India is suggested by the Hindi language, which has more than 100 different words for kite.

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