Ride the Altai Mountains and visit the spectacular Eagle Festival
This trip follows a similar plan to our Altai Mountain Horse Trek, but with the added bonus of the famous two-day Eagle Festival
Altai Mountain Horse Trek and Eagle Festival
A celebration of eagle hunting and horse culture
Hunting with eagles has long been a tradition amongst the Kazakh minority in the west of Mongolia, and since 1999 it has been celebrated at the annual Eagle Festival in Ulgii. Several smaller festivals have also sprung up over the years. These celebrations of eagle hunting and horsemanship really are amongst the world's great cultural festivals. If you think you've seen some strange and interesting festivals elsewhere, this is sure to impress even the most jaded festival-goer. In the words of Emily from New Zealand:
"There's not much to be said about the Eagle Festival except that it was undoubtedly the best festival in the history of the universe and two of the best days of my time in Mongolia. Awesome, awesome, awesome..."
What will I see at the festival?
Eagle hunters from around Bayan-Ulgii aimag (province) come to compete in a range of events to test the hunting prowess of their eagles, and to demonstrate their skills at traditional horse games. Between events you can check out unique local crafts laid out on rugs, or sample delicious khuurshuur - deep-fried mutton pancakes.
Everyone dresses up in their best outfits, which are spectacular - even the camels get to wear brightly coloured rugs. There is a general air of chaos with no clear line between contestants and the watching crowd - sometimes you end up closer to the action than you might like!
Eagle hunting action
A vital skill in the real world is to be able to call back your eagle after it has been sent out to hunt. To test this, the first event sees the eagle released on a nearby hill-top, from where it swoops down to land on the hunter's arm, homing in on his special call. At least that's the plan. But when half the crowd are also making their own calls, the birds can get quite confused.
To add to the distractions, people in the crowd often wear fox-fur hats, and there's nothing funnier than seeing an eagle decide to hunt one of these 'foxes'. Tip: if it's you wearing that hat, don't run, it will just make the eagle try harder, and the crowd laugh louder.
Next comes a test of the eagle's hunting skills. Again the eagle is released from the hill-top, but this time she must grab an animal skin dragged behind the hunter's horse (it's always a she, as female birds are larger and more aggressive). Be ready with your camera, to capture the moment when the eagle plummets out of the sky. You need to be fast, as these birds will attack at up to 130km/hr.
If you consider yourself something of a photographer, you will be in heaven at this festival. There is always some sort of spectacle to point your camera at, whether it's a galloping camel, a majestic eagle, or perhaps just a local kid come to see YOU, the exotic foreign visitor.
Some of the best eagle hunters come from the area where we ride, and are friends of our team, so you will have the opportunity to meet them, and their eagles, personally.
Horse games but not as you know them
A crowd favourite (amongst the women at least) is Kyz Kuar, the 'race between a man and a woman', in which the woman pursues the man, giving him a good whipping as they gallop across the steppe. It's all about the most stylish whipping, rather than the blows landed, and keeping the two horses close together at a flat-out gallop is no easy thing.
Bushkazi, a tug-of-war with a dead goat involves two riders holding each end of the goat and fighting to gain possession as they gallop randomly about - including into the crowd. Brutal certainly, but a true spectacle, and very fiercely contested. It's quite incredible how far out of the saddle a rider can be pulled without actually falling.
If you are lucky you might get to see the Central Asian version of bushkazi, as played in Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and the other stans of Central Asia. Instead of just two riders and a goat, this involves two teams of riders. The mayhem is multiplied! Keep your wits about you or you're liable to get caught up in the melee.
For a real test of horsemanship, riders lean down out of the saddle at speed to pick up small targets off the ground in the sport of tiyn teru. Very useful when you drop your hat. We don't suggest trying this back home - the horses tend to be so much taller.
Archery from horse-back is another ancient skill on display, and evidently very difficult. Genghis Khan would not have been impressed! In the Mongolia of today it is not a skill in great demand (luckily for us).
Photos from previous Altai Mountain and Eagle Festival treks
