Epic festivals: Mongolia’s Golden Eagle Festival

Our fascination with Mongolia is not news, for we have already told you why Mongolia can be your wildest trip ever. What makes for news is the epic festival that the country hosts - the Golden Eagle Festival! Yes, you guessed it right, it is an annual festival that takes place in Bayan-Ölgii, country’s western-most province. It is hosted on the first weekend every October, and there is no missing it if you call yourself a traveller.

Mongolia is one of the remotest, wildest countries in the world, and thus the lure of visiting a place that is still not seeing tourists in droves. Adventure fanatics and landscape photographers are, of course, in love with the place. It has some of the world’s most stunning terrain, wildlife, and nomads that live a life that looks fascinating to the outside world. In fact, it is one of the last few countries that have such a massive number of nomads in its population.
Mongolia Golden Eagle Festival: What to expect?

Eagle hunters at work
This festival is when the native eagle hunters, also known as Kazakh eagle hunters, compete for small catch, mainly foxes. It is a spectacle to see them competing with the prized and almost glorious Golden Eagles in the wilderness. These eagles are trained for the task, fetching extra points for the players on the basis of agility, speed and accuracy. An otherworldly sight, the competition gets really fierce once eagles take to the air and swoop in on their prey. All this while, their masters put on an exemplary show of horse riding on the ground below!

Horse racing, archery and goatskin tug of war are the other sports that are a regular thing in this festival.

Cultural extravaganza
The Golden Eagle Festival is nothing less than a golden ticket to a cultural feast of epic proportions. You can have a gala time in the town centre at Bayan-Ölgi that hosts cultural exhibitions, handicrafts display, folk arts including dance and native music. All this while, the competition takes places some 4 km away in the festival ground. So yes, this festival is the perfect blend of revelry and some good, old cultural dekko.

Up, close and personal with nomadic life
Back home, we have the Changpas of Ladakh, a nomadic tribe that roams the high Himalayas. The nomads of Mongolia are a good competition to them; true to their name, they live as a community out of tents (Gers in local language). What is interesting to know and see firsthand is that the nomads live a nomadic life out of choice rather than need in Mongolia. Some of the tents might even have a TV or a fridge! All the nomadic groups have their own cattle stock that moves along as they switch from base to another for camping. Since the community is now opening up to tourism, you have the chance to stay with them as a guest.

Needless to write, this massive extravaganza is not to be missed, especially if you have grow up poring over all those photography magazines with photos of Mongolian eagle hunters.Yet, if you miss this one, there is a smaller festival that goes by the name of Altai Kazakh Eagle Festival, held in September every year. A few tour organisers have also started rolling out their own versions of this grand festival, limiting it to a smaller group size. You can think of joining one of the latter for some exclusive insights, sans the bonhomie of a local festival though.