Game fowl from Afghanistan, the centre of large asil outside Indian subcontinent

Every Friday morning in the winter cockfights are held all around the country. Thousands of roosters, mostly inexpensive and second class are fought. For most spectators anything that can fight will be okay and as far as the gamblers are concerned the number of the fights makes the money not the quality of the birds. Fights are often to the death and with no time limits; it is a big business in a poor country where a birds well being is the last thing that comes to the mind. But at the very top level where ustads show their aces and fighters enter the battle perfectly prepared, everything else comes second by a distance to the birds. It's not about money, not even about defeating rivals of a lifetime. It's all about the birds, the finest fowl in the world, Afghani asil. Here in Afghanistan ockfighting is not only seen as the nature's way of selecting the best but also as human's way of selebrating the perfection of life. 

Characteristics

Afghani asil or kulangi belongs to the large asil family. roosters are big and heavily built and hens look like giant ordinery chickens with long legs and necks. The best specimens come with white shanks, a peacomb and a horizontal tail, a sloping tail is sometimes called Pakistani style. Compared to sindhi (Pakistani asil) Afghani asils are lower stationed and much more muscular often with more body feathers to keep them warm in Afghanistan's severe winters. They look much more like large asils from Heidarabad, India not to be confused with U. S. heidarabad asils

Fighting style

Afghani asils are fought with sharpened natural spurs. They are tough gigantic birds with a defensive style and extremely difficult to kill. Like all asils they are known for their speed, accuracy and gameness, but what makes them so special is their tremendous power, death blows are very common and they often break their own toes and spurs early in the game

Genuine asils

Asil has been the only game breed of Afghanistan for centuries, as a result any sign of outside blood in a Kulangi reveals none game influence. No surprise that Afghans pay great attention to purity. All breeders even in remote villages know the standards of asil to the perfection. Most of these men can not read and write, they just receive the information orally from their fathers and pass them down to their sons the same way. Preening is the most important point for Afghans. Only if a bird preens to the touch it can be tested further, if it does not preen, it will be the next day's meal! No matter how good it looks or how well it fights. For most people especially in the West, Afghanistan remains the lost-link in the theory of Asil travelling from Suoth India to the middle East, however close observations of local game breeds of Afghanistan and neighbouring countries reveal undeniable evidences that the oldest established populations of large asils outside Indian subcontinent belonged to Afghanistan

History

As early as 800  A. C. Muslim rulers of Afghanistan had invaded parts of Indian Subcontinent. They took home valueable things like gold, jewellery and also a breed of chicken they called Indian gamecock. Hats off to Indian breeders who preserved this unique breed for hundreds of years, but it was Afghans who gave the name "Asil" to the breed for the first time and established the standards of Asils we are using today. Asil is known by its local names in parts of India where Muslims have never involved. Reza type Asil (meaning small in farsi) was developed for tape boxing in Kandahar, Afghanistan (apparently by mixing asils with local game breeds) but it was never popular with ordinery people who had no free time for a five day long mach, instead they preferred fighting large asils with natural spurs for a much quicker decision making. From many different types of the breed imported to the country, a completely new variety, well adopted to Afghanistan's climate and the heels preferred by Afghans (natural spurs) was developed. today Afghans call the breed "kulangi" because they stand unusually tall next to ordinery chickens. Since Afghans have a passion for breeding quality gamefowl, asils spread quickly all around the country and soon new populations were stabilised in every town and village. Gradually large asils (only) were brought to the Middle East and Central Asia from Afghanistan. Even today Russians call their asils "kulonga," a word clearly derived from "kulangi" which means "like a crane" in Farsi. few asils were kept pure in Iran, instead they were used to upgrade local games (bankiva type) and Lari breed was slowly developed

Resent History 

Not too long ago cockfighting was Afghans favourite sport. Arbabs and khans (local chefs) took part in cockfights and often big money or land was exchanged, even Zaher Shah (the last king of Afghanistan) had his own bloodline of asils. Every thing changed after the Soviet Union left the country and a never ending civil war broke out. When most Afghans priority was finding a shelter and a loaf of bread, many asil lovers tried hard to keep the breed alive, waiting for a better day but the worst was still to come, Taliban. Taliban committed terrible atrocities when they came in power and condemned cockfighting as unislamic. The breeders who were lucky could make it to Iran or Pakistan with their birds, others were more than happy to sell their champions for a sack of flour. Afghani Azim, a true master and asil lover used to take his birds to Iran because few Afghans wanted to spend money in the game. He fought and sold dozens of birds on each trip. When Taliban took over Herat district, they killed all his birds and decapitated him brutally in the public. More than 20 years after his death, he still holds the record for the most "unsight" wins in Iran. A few years later another man took one of his birds to Iran. It was a 3 feet tall monster and weighted eleven ponds. He dispatched the Iranian champion of the time in ten minutes and remained undefeated all Iranian champion until he died from Newcastle disease two years later. No one ever challenged him even though the stake was 2 to 20. After the regime of Taliban life is coming back to the country and everyone wants to keep a pair of asils in his backyard, but the real deals are only in the hands of a few masters who are as game as their birds and would never leave their home land, no matter how hard it gets to stay and keep fighting

Kulangi in Iran

About 50 years ago cockfighting was a casual pastime in Iran and the only game birds were the mixed breeds called Lari, Literally from "Lar" a small city in Iran. The original breed is a mix of malayoid and bankivoid gamefowl, similar breeds can be found almost anywhere in Iran and they are all called Lari! (Lari is supposed to mean Iranian gamefowl outside Iran, however it does not necessarily refer to any specific breed or region, it is simply used to mean "gamefowl" even Spanish games can be called Spanish Lari after all asil is a new word in Iran.) Those mixed breeds were anything but uniform and it was difficult to mach them by size as a result cockers often agreed on fighting the birds "unsight " (without seeing each other's birds.) it is still a common practice in Iran were the taller rooster is in an unfair advantage and often takes over the game, that is why many Iranian breeders are always looking for taller, bigger birds no matter what the cost would be. At the same time small communities of Afghans lived in Iran and fought Afghani asils between themselves. When the money from oil industry accelerated the country's economical growth and Iranian sportsmen had more money to put into the game some people started buying gamefowl from Afghans. The first kulangi roosters wiped their opponents out of the pits, leaving nothing breathing for more than a few minutes and made Lari almost extinc. In later years more and more quality asils were imported from Afghanistan and most breeders were so disappointed that culled everything they had to start from the beginning with Afghani asils. Although Afghani asil is amongst the largest malayoids in the world most Afghan breeders are not too eager about the size and try to breed the best not the tallest. Iranian cockers who wanted even taller birds for "unsight" fights, added some Lari blood to kulangi and created the taller, more slender variety of asils unique to Iran. There is not a fixed standard for Irani asil and while some breeders try to breed back to the asil side, others prefer more bankiva type birds. The latter often come with green shanks and red eyes and tend to be faster than kulangi but are too fragile to survive a long fight against pure asils. In recent years different malayoid breeds have been imported to Iran, including shamo, hint, sindhi, Brazilian, ..... you name it, yet the single most popular breed in Iran is pure Afghani asil

Bottom line

Asils are intelligent birds but they can't read the maps and they don't respect national borders. They just fallow the money and they fight to protect their mate and offsprings. My intention is not to claim the breed for any specific region or country but to provide overseas breeders with inside information and to speak up for a great nation with no voice. I believe that asil belongs to the pit and to people who appreciate it's unique character and beauty, yet we should be brave enough to recover and acknowledge the lost history of the birds we are all so proud of

Any comments will be appreciated

Note: The term "Afghani" is used to refer to ALL the ethnic groups of Afghanistan and anything connected to that country only

Feel free to use the contents, just remember to mention afghaniasil.blogspot.com as the original source, please. Email me at afghaniasil@gmai.com