Niya 尼雅

Type: Niya

Bow Materials: exopy resin

Bow Length:

        bow with string 138cm

        bow without string 133cm 

Pounds: 20lbs-35lbs

Safety Draw Distance: 72cm, max 80cm

In 1901, a Hungarian-British explorer Stein came to Xinjiang province in China for adventure and making explorations with the financial support of the British government. He reached Ni Ya River and discovered the famous historical Ni Ya sites which were located between two dunes of the Ni Ya River valley. Ni Ya sites were composed of pagodas, houses, cemeteries, temples, pottery kilns and smelting plants. In 1914, after finishing reading Stein’s article, Wang Guowei, a Chinese well-known scholar, written and then published a book with an archaeologist and paleographer Luo Zhenyu. The title of the book was Liu Sha Zhui Jian. The book told and confirmed the words on bamboo slips excavated in Gansu and Xinjiang. The bamboo slip discovered by Stein was included. The fifth year on the throne of Sima Yan in the Western Jin Dynasty was mentioned on one of the bamboo slips. It was also 269 AD. “Taishi” was the first reign title of Sima Yan. According to the record of ancient works and archaeological research, it is inferred that Ni Ya sites were Jingjue State. Niya Bow can be seen in Xinjiang Cultural Relic Institute of Archaeology, Museum of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Turpan Museum.

We can tell from the picture that Niya Bow excavated from the earth was a composite bow made from ox sinew and ox horn. According to Book of Diverse Crafts written during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Making such a bow calls for 6 kinds of materials, namely, trunks, horns, sinews, fish gelatin, silk and lacquer, and it takes 4 years to finish. Lack of materials and the long time for making prompt us to modify the bow and turn it into a fiberglass bow. Niya Bow is characterized as long and straight bow tips and it is comfortable to pull. Meantime, we realize the effect of shock absorption in the bow. The bow arms are wide and don’t bend towards both the inner and outer sides, which is extremely similar to bows with long bow tips in Han Dynasty. The only difference between them lies in the bow grips. That is, the grips of bows with long bow tips are most ovoid.