Like a scene from a historical movie, I faced an army of hunters clad in fur skins and traditional Kazakh attire, riding on horseback with fierce-looking golden eagles perched on their arms. This captivating scene marked the start of the annual Golden Eagle Festival, held near Ölgii in western Mongolia and I was there to capture this unique festival’s vibrant sights.
My fascination with the eagle hunters began years ago when I first read an article about them. Interestingly, the eagle hunters of Mongolia are predominantly Kazakhs, and their tradition of hunting with eagles has been practiced in Central Asia for over a thousand years. In 2011, UNESCO added Kazakh eagle hunting to the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as an example of living human heritage.
Getting to Ölgii
The fastest way to get to Ölgii is to take a domestic flight from Ulaanbaatar (around 2 hours). Traveling overland would take you 3 to 5 days by bus, as its more than 1,700 km by mostly unpaved roads.
Ölgii is the capital of Bayan-Ölgii Aimag, the westernmost province of Mongolia and closest to Kazakhstan, Xinjiang and Russia. If you follow the road out of Ölgii north for another 100 km you would reach the Russian border.
The Festival
The Golden Eagle Festival in Ölgii is held every year on the first weekend of October. If you want to attend the festival, you have to book flights and accommodations early, as Ölgii is a really small town with limited flights and options for accommodations.
Like the nomadic culture in Mongolia, the location of the festival is not fixed every year and changes depending on the organizers. The festival is held over 2 days and although we had paid for entry to the festival through our local guide, it seems that anyone could enter the festival grounds since it was held out in the middle of nowhere with no barriers. The ticket was in the form of a small scarf which we had to attach somewhere to ourselves.
During the festival there is also a competition among the eagle hunters to see who has the best trained eagle. The first challenge was the Calling of Eagles. The hunter would wait on his horse while his assistant would release the eagle from a rocky hilltop around 1 km away. Holding a piece of fresh meat like a dead rabbit or fox, the hunter would then call out to his eagle. To win the challenge, the eagle has to grab the bait on the hunter’s arm within one minute of taking off. This sounds easy but in reality only 8 out of the more than 80 participants managed to complete this challenge and qualify for the next round.
Winners of the first challenge would then go on to the second challenge which is to call their eagles again, but this time they would drag a dead rabbit behind their horse and the eagle has to grab it within 1 minute.
Eagle hunting is traditionally a male dominated activity. However, there are a few women who have taken up eagle hunting and perhaps the most famous of these is Aisholpan Nurgaiv who was featured in the 2016 film documentary “The Eagle Huntress”. In 2014, at age 13 she became the first woman to compete in the Golden Eagle Festival. And in this year’s festival I got to see another young woman taking part.
Just as a side note, I’m very sure she is featured in a Singapore bank’s advertisement for private banking. You can find the ad here. I find that the cinematography is really top notch, but the storyline doesn’t really flow.
Here are more photos of other eagle hunters who went round to pose for photos at the end of the day.
Besides calling the eagles, there were other challenges which took place not involving eagles. One of these was “Kukbar” which is a tug-of-war on horseback. Instead of a rope, the carcass of a dead goat is used. This is believed to be one of the oldest nomadic games in Kazakhstan with a history stretching back hundreds of years. Kukbar not only tests the strength and skill of the riders but also showcases the deep-rooted equestrian traditions that are integral to Kazakh culture.
On the last day of the festival, we had as a final challenge, “Kiz-Kuar”, which was a comedic horse chase by couples. This is how it goes; the man would steal a kiss from the woman of his interest. Then she would chase him with a horse whip and try to hit him. All this takes place on horseback at full gallop. Historically, it was a way for young men to demonstrate their horsemanship and courage to potential brides, and for the women it allowed them to show off their riding skills and spirit. In modern times “Kiz-Kuar” is performed as a cultural demonstration of Kazakh traditions and horsemanship skills.
Besides the games and challenges at the arena, there were also many vendors selling local handicrafts and food. The festival is held on the first weekend of October, so for many local families its a good time to attend and support their friends or family who are taking part in the competition. The festival has an almost medieval feel with people in traditional wear and horses (and sometimes camels) roaming freely among Mongol gers. You just have to be careful not getting in the way of the horses which can give a powerful kick to strangers patting their backsides.
Tips about Visiting the Festival
So after reading this blog and if you are thinking if you should visit next year’s Golden Eagle Festival, here some tips from me, after experiencing it myself.
Should you go independently or follow a tour? Although I love the freedom of independent travel, for this case I would recommend following a reputable local tour operator who can organize the logistics of getting to the festival grounds. Unless you want to deal with things like language barriers, securing tickets from local organizers, locating the festival’s ever changing remote venue, and driving off road in challenging terrain to reach the festival grounds, its better to let local experts handle it and let yourself immerse in the festival without any stress. Besides just organizing your visit to the Golden Eagle Festival, they can also arrange a visit or home stay with a local nomadic family.
The festival is not in a fixed location every year and is usually in a remote area, so proper toilets are not a priority for the organizers. What you will find are basic field toilets, just holes dug in the ground with a western style seat/pedestal placed on top so that tourists don’t have to squat and accidentally fall over. A small tent with a zippered flap is placed over this to hide your modesty and toilet paper is usually provided to keep things civilized.
The festival takes place over 2 days, so you might want to think if you want to spent that time embracing the great outdoors with poor toilet facilities. We didn’t need to camp at the festival site, as we would travel out in the morning and back to our hotel in Ölgii in the evening, But during that time there was no data/internet reception in the festival area due to its remoteness. I know for some people just spending an hour without internet reception is like a major disaster, but this may be just the time to disconnect, enjoy another culture, and discover nature.
