A dragon boat is a very long and narrow canoe-style human-powered boat. It is used in the team paddling sport of dragon boat racing which originated in China over 2000 years ago.

While dragon boat competitions have taken place for more than 20 centuries as part of folk ritual, it emerged in modern times as an international "sport" in Hong Kong in 1976.

Dragon boats are usually decked with decorative Chinese dragon heads and tails. At other times the decorative regalia are usually removed, although the drum often remains aboard for training purposes.

In some cases, the boats are raced without dragon adornments.

Dragon boat races were traditionally held as part of the annual Duanwu Festival observance in China. 19th century European observers of the racing ritual, not understanding the significance of Duan Wu, referred to the spectacle as a "dragon boat festival". This is the term that has become known in the West.

Dragon boat festival racing, like Duanwu, is observed and celebrated in many areas of east Asia with significant populations of ethnic Chinese living there e.g. Singapore, Malaysia, and Greater China.

Many modern scholars believe that the use of dragon boats for racing originated in southern central China, along the banks of the Chang Jiang river, also know as the Yangtze river.

Dragon boat racing served as a ritual and a festival celebration for the traditional reverence to the Asian dragon water god. It has been practiced continuously from as early as 2,500 years ago.

Dragon boat racing is an important part of ancient agricultural Chinese society to celebrate the summer rice harvest. Dragon boat races were usually held in China's southern-central "rice bowl". It is said that where there were rice paddies, so were there dragon boats.

Dragon boats were also popular in other Asian countries. There are long paddled boats depicted on ancient Dong Son drums from the southern China (Yunnan Province) and Anam / Viet Nam region. Similar watercrafts are also shown in bas relief carvings at the Angkor Wat a world heritage site in Cambodia.

Meanwhile, contemporary Chinese tradition commonly attributes dragon boat racing's origins to the saving of a drowning folk hero, Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was believed to have been resurrected from suicidal drowning in the Miluo River to protest political corruption.

This is also regarded on a sociological level as a kind of fertility god for ensuring good rice crop harvests, giving rise to annual re-enactments by the agrarian societies living in the rice-reaping regions of ancient China. Rice seedlings are annually 'drowned' underwater in the rice paddies, and this is annually symbolized by Qu Yuan's watery demise during the Duan Wu Jie.

Learn about the crew of a dragon boat and popular dragon boat races around the world.