16-11-25 【精短听访•天下观奇】骑马向深山，入蒙赏鹰猎，神一样的猎友—大金雕

The Eagle Festival

track one

To the far west of Mongolia - near the borders with Kazakhstan, Russia

That was the real focus of the trip - the main motivation for it

To go exactly to that place, Bayan Ulgil - every year they have the EagleFestival there

Apart from how amazing to see these huge birds - they weigh twenty twokilos, or something?

The riders of the horses have a rest for their arm - to support their arm

The eagle is holding on to their arm - they do amazing games, competitionsand so on

But you feel so much it is just for the locals

Sure there were foreigners there - tourists - quite a few surprisinglyfrom Australia

But you could vaporise the foreigners and nothing would change

This was not for anyone other than the locals

They are so engaged and deeply focussed on their own culture andtraditions

it is really a remarkable place

I was taken out in a Russian mini-bus several hours across the grasslandsand semi-desert

·        until we came to this Buddhist shrine - (people) walkround this throwing cups of vodka onto this

·        then you went off to have a big picnic

·        but it was all locals - I was the only foreigner

We went across these grasslands - but there were no proper roads

There were no fences, no proper roads - and you drive on tracks

The Mongolians - that’s how they do it!

Questions

1. Why did Geoff Raby travel to the far west of Mongolia?
2. How heavy can the eagles be?
3. What do the horse riders do?
4. Who is this festival really for?
5. What is missing on the grasslands?

Track two

We flew - it would take the best part of three days to drive from UlanBator to Bayan Ulgi

So,we flew - it was quite a fine flight - just a twin-prop plane - tookabout an hour and a half

once you are there you are in another world

they are Kazakhs, not Mongolian - and it is a very strong Kazakh culture

we stayed in a ‘ger’ camp - it was excellent - but it was basic

Eagle Festival - what was going on?

It was over two days - it began with a big parade and registration of theparticipants

there were 92 participants - the oldest was 87, the youngest 9

there was a very young woman, 10 or 11 years of age - she interestinglyenough has just featured in a documentary called the ‘Eagle Huntress’

it is a matter of demonstrating their skills with the eagles - theirrelationship and bonding with the eagles

there is a very high hill near the competition ground

Eagles would be taken up to the top of the hill -a rider would come out

he would call the eagle - and the eagle 300/400 metres away would swoopdown from the hill and land on his or her arm

another sport was to drag a carcass of a goat behind a horse

·        the rider’s eagle would see the carcass and swoop on it,land on it

A whole series of events around eagles - there was even a camel race whichwas pretty underwhelming

The eagle side of it was really quite superb

Questions

1. Why did Geoff fly to Bayan Ulgi? 
2. Where did he stay?
3. How old was the oldest competitor?