SSawaddiawaddiAsian Arts & Culture by the American Women’s Club of Thailand

2nd Quarter 2012 • Baht 150

Mongolia’s Eagle HuntersKanchanaburi, ThailandDown by the River in Dhaka, Bangladesh Cambodia, Off the Beaten PathSungai Batu, MalaysiaBhutan

Pages 22-29

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Text and Photographs by Dave Stamboulis

Where Eagles Dare

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I am perched on top of a cliff on a small crag looking out over the arid Altai mountain chain of west-

ern Mongolia. In this remote corner of the globe, population density registers less than one human being per square kilometer, roads into the region are nothing but dusty tire tracks and temperatures during the eternal Siberian winters regularly plummet into the minus 40s and 50s. One rarely spots an airplane overhead, nor for that matter many Russian vans or Suzuki 4WD jeeps lumbering through, but what is striking out here is the complete absence of sound. All I can hear from my perch, other than the wind, is the beating of wings coming from a large golden eagle who sits beside me, scanning the horizon for prey.

Eagles inhabit the vast grass-lands and mountains of the Cen-tral Asian Steppe, from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan and into Mongolia.

Kazakh eagle hunter Bikbolat, his arm well padded, stands with his golden eagle.

Where Eagles Dare The Kazakh Eagle Hunters of Western Mongolia

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Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, the forebears of the modern nomads, had thousands of hunting birds, and their falconry expeditions were detailed by Marco Polo. It is also thought that berkutchi, as the art of eagle hunting is called, has been in existence on the steppe for some 6,000 years.

In Bayan Ulgii Province, which straddles the Kazakh, Russian and Chinese borders, there are more than 200 golden eagle hunters, all carrying on the ancient tradition of their forefathers. Most of the actual hunting takes place during the win-

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A leather hood covers an eagle’s eyes when not on a hunt, helping it to remain calm and conditioning it to not f ly away.

An eagle hunter and his charges rest after crossing the Sagai River in the

Mongolian Altai.

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25awaddi—2nd Quarter 2012S

ter, when the birds are lean and hun-gry, but a large festival takes place in the province at the end of autumn. The ethnic Kazakh hunters gather to show off their skills and talents as well as compete in traditional Ka-zakh games such as kokbar, in which a tug of war with a goat or fox pelt is played while on horseback; kyz kuu, which is a roman-tic f l ir t ing game i nvo l v i ng h or s e r a c i n g b e t w e e n women and men;

or tenge alu, in which horse riders attempt to pick up tokens lying on the ground without getting off their mounts.

A couple engages in kyz kuu, a f lirting game in which women chase men on horseback.

Ethnic Kazakh trains his eagle.

Kokbar is a Kazakh sport in which competitors on horseback play tug-of-war over fox pelts.

The bond between hunter and eagle is a strong one, as the eagle is a fiercely independent creature, and in order to create trust, it must

be trained from an early age. The eagle hunter I am staying with, 50-year-old Bikbolat, tells me that females make

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the best hunters. They are more aggressive because they protect offspring, and they tend to be one-third heavier than their male counterparts . Training young chicks is prefera-ble, as they are tamer and won’t harm children or sheep, but birds are actu-ally better hunters when they are older and have the killer instinct needed to bring down wolves and foxes.

Bikbolat tells me that the eagle chicks can be obtained by finding nests on the mountaintops during hatching season, but to get older birds they must resort to setting

out traps baited with fresh rabbit meat or tethering an accompany-ing eagle next to an animal carcass which will provoke an eagle flying overhead into a jealous fit of rage if this occurs in a space it considers its own territory.

Once trained, the eagle goes out with the hunter on horseback, riding on his right arm. The bond can be so close between veteran hunters and their birds that the slightest change

Kazakh families tend to be large!

A group of eagle hunters gathers at the annual Eagle Hunters’ Festival in Bayan Olgii.

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in talon pressure on a hunter’s arm alerts him that his bird has picked up the scent of a prey. Some Kazakh hunters have antiquated Russian rif les which they use to pick off

hares, but most of the hunting is left to the eagles, as their vision is eight times that of a human, and they can spot a fox or wolf several kilometers in the distance. While their main victims are marmots and corsac foxes, prized for pelts which

Baibolet, a cheerful Kazakh hunter, shows the close bond between man and eagle.

Bikbolat teaches his eagle to swoop down for its prey.

An eagle spreads its wings, anticipating some fresh meat.

make excellent insulation, the physically powerful ea-gles also take down owls, wolves and even rare snow leopards. While not out on a hunt, the Kazakhs tend to keep blindfold hoods known as tomaga on their raptors so that they will remain calm.

Because of the hard-ships of life in rural Mon-

golia, the Kazakh hunters and their families remain tightly knit and enterprising. Bikbolat, who has also trained his first son, Asentai, to hunt with him, lives in a traditional ger (yurt) for four-to-five months a year, and then in a small wooden home

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on the edge of the grasslands during the colder months. Ever smiling, he proudly joked with me that he had 70 sheep, 50 goats, 40 cows, 20 horses, but only one eagle and one wife! His wife and daughters spend the day cooking, sewing and preparing an endless array of dairy and bread products to supplement the mutton that feeds the family year round (not to mention their beloved eagle, which needs around half a kilo of raw meat a day to stay nourished).

One could say that with enough

livestock, hunting is superfluous, and mainly done for sport. However, the warm coats, cloaks and hats that the hunters wrap themselves in during the severe winters are made entirely from the furs they get. Additionally, the practice of eagle hunting still serves as a rite of passage for Kazakh young men as well as a time-honored tradition and highly refined art form that has been passed down for genera-tions.

Overgrazing of Mongolia’s range-lands has impacted the wildlife

available for hunting in recent years, and with the arrival of tourism and its sponsors, pressure for wildlife preservation has also made inroads into the traditional way of life for the Kazakh eagle hunters. Yet eagle hunting requires a blend of force and tenderness as well as a profound respect for the natural world. The birds are treated with reverence and honor by the Kazakh hunters and are always released back into the wild after 10 years or so (eagles normally live to around the age of 50).

A Kazakh proverb sums up the

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hunters’ lives in one of the world’s most remote places, saying “Fast horses and f ierce eagles are the wings of the Kazakh people,” and from my mountain perch, my view is almost as good as that of the birds. v

Dave Stambouli s i s a f reelance photographer and travel journalist. He is the author of Odysseus’ Last Stand , which received the Silver Medal for 2006 Travel Book of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers. Click to visit his photo site.

Mongolia can be reached from Bangkok via Air China, which has daily flights to Ulaan Baatar via Beijing.

To reach Bayan Ulgii, the new Eznis Airways has domest ic f l ights ever y other day and is the most comfortable way of reaching the remote west of the country.

To set up visits with eagle hunters or tour anywhere in Mongolia, local outfitters Kazakh Tour are recommended (www.kazakhtour.com)

The Eagle Festival in Bayan Ulgii usually occurs during the first several days of October each year.

Travel Tips

Traditional Kazakh gers provide homes for those living in the high ranges of the Altai.

A magnificent golden eagle poses proudly.

Eagle hunters hunt even when

they are old, well into their

seventies.

29awaddi—2nd Quarter 2012S

hunters’ lives in one of the world’s most remote places, saying “Fast horses and f ierce eagles are the wings of the Kazakh people,” and from my mountain perch, my view is almost as good as that of the birds. v

Dave Stambouli s i s a f reelance photographer and travel journalist. He is the author of Odysseus’ Last Stand , which received the Silver Medal for 2006 Travel Book of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers. Click to visit his photo site.

Mongolia can be reached from Bangkok via Air China, which has daily flights to Ulaan Baatar via Beijing.

To reach Bayan Ulgii, the new Eznis Airways has domest ic f l ights ever y other day and is the most comfortable way of reaching the remote west of the country.

To set up visits with eagle hunters or tour anywhere in Mongolia, local outfitters Kazakh Tour are recommended (www.kazakhtour.com)

The Eagle Festival in Bayan Ulgii usually occurs during the first several days of October each year.

Travel Tips

Traditional Kazakh gers provide homes for those living in the high ranges of the Altai.

A magnificent golden eagle poses proudly.

Eagle hunters hunt even when

they are old, well into their

seventies.