The event kicked off Saturday morning at 10am with a parade around the central square. I never thought I'd see so many tourists here! There were Russians, Germans, Brits, Americans, and even one rude French guy wearing a beret. The parade opened with all the students in Olgii marching through the square in traditional Kazakh dress. After the students the eagle hunters rode in straight from the countryside. They were all mounted on horses and dressed in horse-skin coats with their faces peering out from underneath enormous hats and their huge eagles perched on their arms. It was so amazing seeing the birds so close! We got quite a few good pictures.
After the parade we headed out into the countryside to see the birds in action. We were fortunate enough to catch a ride with our hashaa family. The reason we were fortunate is because the event organizers were charging foreign tourists anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 tugriks ($15-$30) to get in, but our hashaa father was able to convince them that we are Mongolian residents and we are not flush with cash like the other foreigners. Thanks, Nurlan!
The event in the countryside was pretty great. There was a long row of vendors peddling different kinds of Kazakh handicrafts: tapestries, bags, hats, purses, and even Christmas decorations! Needless to say, Ashlee was in heaven. She finally got the bag she's been looking for and she picked up a few souvenirs for the family back in California. I, myself, came pretty close to buying one of those fox-skin eagle hunter hats, but I wasn't able to completely pull the trigger. Next time...
As for the eagle hunters, the first event of the day was having the hunters line up to individually display their birds for the judges. All the speaking/officiating was in Kazakh over a very questionable PA system, so we were left to use our imaginations to guess what was going on. It appeared to be something like an American dog show, where the birds were judged on their appearance, coloring, responsiveness, etc. The birds were just so big!
Olgii being the small town that it is, we bumped into one of our Kazakh friends, Nerbol -- he's actually the one who will be tutoring us in the Kazakh language over the next few months -- and he found a hunter who let us hold his eagle. Those things are heavy!
The rest of the afternoon was spent watching some traditional Kazakh games. There was one where two people on horses play tug-of-war with an animal pelt. There was another where horseman run through a course and have to bend down from their horses to snatch handkerchiefs from the ground. It was quite impressive.
Sunday was much of the same. After brunch -- complete with eggs, potatoes, and cinammon rolls! -- at our house with the large group of visiting fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, we were back out in the hudoo by 1pm. The first event was watching each individual hunter drag an animal skin behind his horse while calling his eagle down from a nearby mountaintop. The eagle would then tear down through the air and strike the pelt, tearing into it with its talons. Or at least that's what I imagined it would be like, as we were standing a bit off in the distance -- we heard some horror stories of festivals in the past where stupid tourists got attacked by the birds and we didn't want to take any chances.
The weather in the afternoon turned surprisingly cold and extremely windy and we were not too disappointed when the last event of the day was announced: a real-life wolf was going to be released to be hunted by the winning eagles. For a grand finale, it was a bit anticlimactic -- but then again, I was not part of the huge gaggle of tourists to rush up and take pictures of the striking eagle tearing into the wolf. My decision not to was partly because of the barbarity of the event, but mostly because there were still eagles circling in the air and a few tourists were wearing some shaggy hats and coats, and I could just picture one of the giant birds swooping down and taking them -- and me -- out. No thanks.
All in all, we had a great time and we felt incredibly privileged to get to witness such a festival. Below is one of our favorite pictures from the weekend. It's a little boy who's trying to hold a bird that probably weighs more than he does. If you want to see more pictures, visit my Facebook album.
1 comment:
very cool! grandma told me I had to see the latest blog. what great experiences you are having....well except the whole shower house and out house things! Love you and miss you much!
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