by Terry Baldwin

Created on: July 19, 2009

Kite running is a crazy sport of chasing a flying kite. Everyone likes to fly kites, but not everybody goes as far as kite running. There are countries around the globe where flying kites is taken very seriously. In India, Pakistan and Afghanistan it has become a well known sport called kite fighting. Two of the competitors kites have their strings tied together and coated in powdered glass (for cutting) and the goal of the game is to ground your opponent's kite, while the winner's kite remains in the air. Once the kite starts drifting away, kite running begins. Everyone starts chasing the kite to try to capture it. The more obstacles - buildings, trees, highways, power lines - and the more challenges, the better. Whoever catches the kite can keep it.

Kites that are made (or purchased) for the kite fighting and running games are usually very showy and not cheap. The more expensive the kite and the more beautiful, the more people are participating in the run.

The sport is quite dangerous because people chasing the kite pay more attention to where it is going instead to where they are going and usually many accidents happen. People often run into oncoming traffic, climb trees and even buildings to get the kite. Even if someone does catch it without any accident, they can cut themselves by grabbing glass coated kite string. Children also can participate in the event and they are the once getting hurt most often. During every such event several people die or get seriously injured. Because of that kite running has been banned in Pakistan where it used to be a major event during their spring carnival.

In many Asian countries, kite flying has been known for centuries. Afghanistan is one of them. However, during the Taliban occupation, kite flying was forbidden.

Japan and Korea also hold kite flying and kite running events. In Japan there are team competitions and kites are often very large.

In the US kite running was virtually unknown until a book "The Kite Runner" was published in 2003 and instantly became an international bestseller. It was written by Khaled Hosseini, who was a doctor and a child of an Afghanistan's diplomat. His family lived in France when Taliban took over Afghanistan and in 1980, came to the US. In 2007, a movie "The Kite Runner" came out, which was an adaptation of the novel and popularized kite flying and kite running in the US. However, kite running is rather a dangerous sport and is not likely to become as widely practiced in the US as it is in Afghanistan.

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