Eagle Festival

March 6, 2014 was a wonderful sunny day.  We had the chance to go to the Eagle Hunting Festival that was held just outside of UB.  The big festival is held in the fall in the Bayan-Olgii aimag. In the Eagle Festival, Kazakh eaglehunters celebrate their heritage and compete with their eagles.  The eagles are timed in how long they take to come to their masters call. There is also a hunting event, but this year they just used a fox skin pulled behind a horse instead of a real fox. (I guess there was an outcry from the foreign tourists). It was good to see a Mongolian tradition, they are a proud people and proud of their heritage, and it was spectacular to go see. Professional hunters from Kazakhstan call the practice berkutchy  in Kazakh.
Berkutchy is a life's profession, and in Kazakhstan is often a hereditary one. The relationship of the bird and its master is constant and all-consuming. In the training of a young eagle, the berkutchy must sacrifice his sleep for a long period. For weeks, the growing bird is rendered sightless under its hood until its dependence on its master becomes complete. Such intimacy must turn into a lifelong trust with the eagle - twenty years or more. It is said that as the man trains the eagle, so does the eagle train his man. There is a proverb in Kazakhstan: "There are three things a real man should have: a fast horse, a hound, and a golden eagle. There are only about 250 Eagle hunters left in Mongolia.  I recommend watching the following video (probably not good to watch if you children like foxes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwvPLPntZk

Mongolian horses may be small but they are strong and tough! (Also have lots of hair or fur)

Sister England owns horses and this was such a great photo op!  The Mongolians are so kind and generous to us.

There is no down time for Mongolians.  As they are waiting for another event to happen they use the rope we are suppose to stand behind for a tug a war.  It was fun.

13th Century Armor and Falcons. (If you ever watched Mulan, now you know that they really used Falcon's and eagles in warfare and still use them to hunt.)

The goat skin tug o war or pull.  This is what they did to impress the Girls.  The would so their strength, strategy and agility.  The winner could get the girl of his dream.

Winning the goat skin.

A great horseman.  He was very impressive!

Picking up money out of the snow.

Opps! Didn't quite get the money!

Archery Show

The group, from left to right: Elder Gardner, Elder and Sister Stewart, Sister England, Sister and Elder Nay, Elder and Sister Farmer and Janguur our tour guide.

Scripture of the Week:  Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.