Types of Kites in Afghanistan

The types of kites in Afghanistan is the Fighter kite. This type of kite is well handmade from a special tissue paper and bamboo and it's almost similar in look to the Indian and Pakistani Kites.

The Afghan Fighter kites are made in different sizes from a combination of color full thin tissue paper which gives the Afghan Kite a unique look. The wing span on an average Afghani fighter kite is about 3 ½ long and the largest size can be from 5 to 6 Ft wing span, where the India fighter kites run from 1 ½ in small to 2 ½ in large ones.

Besides the paper, the fighter kites can be made out recycle plastic as well in different sizes in Afghanistan which are mostly flown by kids. In the other hand the fighter kites in Afghanistan are always flown in sharp glass coated (cutting) lines which is called "Taar-e-Shisha" in Dari language. This sharp cutting line is mostly hand coated with secret ingredients such as: glass powder, glue powder etc, by the Afghan kite flyers. Although now a days the nylon sharp glass coated which comes from Pakistan are more in use in the region and took the place of the real Afghani 'Taar' line.

Kite Flying doesn’t have only it's fun in Afghanistan but it does have all around the globe, and every country or region has it’s own types of kites with different size and look. The most interesting kite fighting competitions in Afghanistan are mostly taking place on Fridays of the summer and (Autumn) fall of the year and it's a totally male dominated sport. Before the kite fighting starts, all the kite fighters try to be prepared for the competition by having over a thousand meter sharp coated line and some times they try to have an extra thousand meter line spool to tie if they haven’t get caught.

In order to be the winner of the kite competition, you have to know your kite well as well as you need to know some kite tricks too. The wind also plays an important rule in kite fighting as well, but the kite flyer needs to know how to perform in both less wind or in a windy situations. The basic rule of kite fighting in Afghanistan is that only two kites can fight together at once and the third kite can be illegal if he puts his kite on top of the two while they are fighting. During the competition the kite flyer has an assistant who holds the line spool and can play another important rule besides the kite, wind and flyer in the competition. The Kite fighting between two kites start from 100 meters and goes to thousands meters depending on the wind and it’s a typically release cutting competition which requires more patience if there is no wind.

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