October is the eagle time in Bayan Olgii province. Bayan Olgii province is a home to the Kazakh community, located in far west of Mongolia. The region is vast and mountainous. The life is crude and nomadic.
From the ancient times, the Kazakh people have worshipped the golden eagles, which helped them to survive the harsh winters. They would catch eagles, and train them to hunt.
Today, eagle hunting is considered as a national sport by Kazakh. Therefore the Eagle Festival is the highest competition amongst eagle hunters, equivalent to Naadam Festival for Mongolian wrestlers.
The Festival opens with the magnificent parade of eagle hunters on horseback, wearing embroidered Kazakh traditional costumes, holding the bird of preys on their arms. At the main square of Olgii city, school children, older parents and young people in colorful traditional dresses demonstrate the glory and the pride of the old Kazakh culture for almost two hours. Then, all the participants, eagle hunters and civilians go to the mountains for the two-day Kazakh feast for the eagle's eye and men's horse-riding prowess.
During the last Eagle Festival in October 2008, more than 80 eagle hunters participated in those competitions. In total, 400 Kazakhs are registered as eagle hunters in Bayan Olgii province (35 000 inhabitants). Eagle hunters on horseback, hold their great birds on their arms wearing biyalai – a glove made with animal skin, and the eagles are worn the tomaga (hood) on their heads in order to keep them calm.
Spectacular eagle-hunting competitions take place at various spots on high cliffs. Golden Eagles are evaluated for speed and agility as they plunge from cliffs to the arms of their trainers, and as how quickly they see dragged fox skin across the plain.
We can also see equestrian competitions which show the excellence of riders among men and women such as: tenge ilu – to snatch the money out of the place, hyz kuar – to compete with a girl, kokhpar – to dispute a goatskin, known in Central Asia in a different version as bouzkachi, the archery competition of Uriankhai people.
The impressive eagle hunters' cavalry turned my thoughts to the old glory of Chinggis Khaan. Kazakhs on horseback, dressed in embroidered dark sober costumes, and their sun-marked faces under fox-skin hats, and especially, their wooden saddles that have been made about a hundred years ago- the details of the harnesses with metallic ornaments reminisce the ancient Mongolian style. Imagine everything in the arid high mountainous scenery…
