Popular throughout much of Central Asia, buzkashi is a form of horse polo in which horseback players wrestle a goat carcass across a playing field. Believed to have its origins as a defense tactic against Genghis Khan’s livestock-snatching Mongols, the sport is played with few rules and no teams – every man fights for himself. Buzkashi is practiced more widely in Tajikistan, compared to the other ex-Soviet republics, where the sport is occasionally controlled. All of the photos in this gallery were shot in Tajikistan, as part of a project on buzkashi culture throughout the ’stans.