Karate vs Mongolian wrestling
Karate and Mongolian wrestling side by side, from the facts recorded for each art.
| Karate | Mongolian wrestling | |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Ryukyu Kingdom | Mongolia |
| Type | martial arts and Olympic sport | folk wrestling |
| Competition at the Olympics | Yes – 10 Olympic events recorded | — |
| Notable practitioners here | 878 | 2 |
| Top countries of practitioners | Japan, United States and France | Mongolia |
Karate
Karate (空手) (; Japanese pronunciation: [kaɾate] ; Okinawan pronunciation: [kaɾati]), also karate-do (空手道, Karate-dō), is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called te (手), "hand"; tī in Okinawan) under the influence of Chinese martial arts. While modern karate is primarily a striking art that uses punches and kicks, traditional karate training also employs throwing and joint locking techniques. A karate practitioner is called a karate-ka (空手家).
From the Wikipedia article Karate (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Mongolian wrestling
Mongolian wrestling, known as Bökh, is the folk wrestling style of Mongols in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Buryat Mongol regions, Kalmyk Mongol and other regions where touching the ground with anything other than foot or palm of hand loses the match. Bökh means "firmness, reliability, vitality, wrestler", from Mongolic root *bekü "firm, hard, solid; fighter, strong man" Wrestling is the most important of the Mongolian culture's historic "Three Manly Skills", that also include horsemanship and archery.
From the Wikipedia article Mongolian wrestling (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Facts from Wikidata (CC0): Q11419, Q1207182. Practitioner counts are the people with a profile on this site. Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.