Living On Purpose: Golden Eagle Festival 2014

In a country three times the size of France, situated within the Altai Mountain range, Mongolia's Kazakh ethnic group reside in the province of Bayan Olgii. With a population of 90,404, the province of Bayan Olgii has a predominately Kazakh and Muslim majority. Kazakh is the mother tongue of approximately 88.7% of inhabitants.

The province is famous for its traditional hunting method using trained eagles. While eagles are used for hunting in other parts of the world, particularly Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, most are in Bayan-Ölgii. An estimated 80% of the world's eagle hunters live here. An annual festival is hosted every October in Bayan Olgii to celebrate the eagles and hunters who hunt with them. I had the recent pleasure of participating in this years annual Golden Eagle Festival.

Myself along with a few fellow PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers), journeyed to Mongolia's westernmost province a few weeks ago. On a good day with weather conditions conducive to traveling, Bayan Olgii is precisely 12 hours from Govi-Altai, however finding reliable transportation can be a bit of a hassle at times, since there are no buses that travel directly to Olgii from Altai. So when my director informed us of her plans to travel to Olgii around the same time as the festival for a children's health seminar, and suggested that we could travel with her, we didn't hesitate to say yes.

As I'm sure you are all well aware of by now, traveling in Mongolia can be very taxing, especially when there are no paved roads for hours on end. After 8 hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Khovd. We were able to rest there for an hour, before it was time to get back on the road for the last leg of our trip. Our driver was unfamiliar with Bayan Olgii, so we had to stop for directions. We were in the middle of no where, and I was surprised to find the family we asked to help us lived in a small clay house and not a traditional nomadic ger. They were Kazakh, and the little Mongolian they did know was just enough to guide us in the right direction towards Olgii.

12 hours later and we had safely arrived to Olgii. There are currently no new PCV's stationed in Bayan Olgii, but that was little cause for concern for us, since the previous Bayan Olgii PCV arranged for all of us to stay with his host family for the entire duration of our trip.

His host father was the only one who spoke Mongolian, and so with Mongolian being both of our second languages, we surprisingly had no problems with communication. His host family were very hospitable and helpful. And, one of his host brothers happened to be a tour guide, so he was able to arrange our transportation to the festival which was 10 kilometers from Olgii city.

The festival was held over the weekend, and since we had to be back to work on Monday, we were only able to participate in Saturdays activities, which were still amazing!! The festival began with a parade of eagle hunters, an opening ceremony to introduce the festival, hunters and sponsors. During the opening ceremony there were spectacular Kazakh performances of traditional dance and music. Immediately following the ceremony the events commenced. The first event was a "fashion show," where the hunters were able to showcase their traditional dress, followed by archery and concluded with eagle calling.

The final event was by far the most fascinating. The hunters would leave their eagles perched on a mountain side, and ride 100 meters away on horseback wearing an eagle glove and carrying a slab of meat. They would then proceed to call their eagle by yelling and waving their arm vigorously until the eagle returned to them. Most of the hunters were successful, and some were not.

Similar to any festival in the states, there were multiple vendors selling various clothing and souvenirs. There were also about a dozen Mongolian gers selling food and drinks. We had Khushuur for lunch and wandered around the festival in between events meeting eagle hunters and other foreigners there for the weekend.

A rumor was circulating around the festival that a certain American actress by the name of Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and the Furious, Avatar, Lost and Girlfight) was in attendance. So we set out on a mission to find her. It surprisingly didn't take that long, and she was more than willing to take a picture with us. I never expected to meet an American celebrity in one of the most remote places on earth, however it does make for a good story.

After our event filled day, we departed for Altai the next morning. Eagle Festival was an amazing experience, and I will cherish those memories for years to come. As always I've included some pictures of my trip below. Enjoy :)