Incredible Photos from Spring Golden Eagle Festival

Annual Spring Golden Eagle festival was held at Chinggis Khaanii Khuree Complex on 4-5 March, 2018. Kazakh Eagle Hunters came from Western Mongolia with their trained eagles in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, including the young eagle huntress Aishol Pan and Chai Murat, three-time winner of Golden Eagle Festival. Local Kazakhs show their eagle hunting culture and their unique traditions. It starts with the opening parade with well-dressed hunters and is about authentic competitions of eagle training skills and hunting with golden eagles. Also there are Mongolian falconers gathered and show ancient warrior-skill performance on horseback. Falcon is a steppe raptor and eagle is a mountain raptor, their hunting complies with the territorial features. We took day photo tour to this thrilling event and captured some incredible portraits of Kazakh eagle hunters and Mongolian falconers with their raptors. 

Mongolian Eagle Hunter's Association and Ulaanbaatar City Tourism Department co-organized The Spring Golden Eagle Festival. 

20 eagle hunters and number of falconers attended this event.

Golden Eagles (Aquila Chrysacty) are born for hunting; they have incredible speed, great eye sight and powerful feet with sharp talons.

In last years the festival captivates many travelers and photographers and it is now well known event to the world.

If you are a photographer or portrait photography lover this is the must-visit festival to shoot strange and unique faces.

It can’t be imagined that the Kazakh men without eagles because the eagle hunting has become a tradition from some 6000 years.

The young Eagle Huntress, Aishol Pan, the winner of Golden eagle Festival - 2014 and the well known film star in the world. 

 Mongolian traditional rituals of falconry have been officially registered as intangible cultural heritages of mankind by UNESCO in 2012

Chinggis Khan and his soldiers worshiped white falcon as a heavenly sacred bird.

The young generation of Mongolian Traditional Falconry, 10 year old boy who has been training his falcon for 2 years. 

The Kazakhs, Mongolian ethnic group, still originally keep, practice and develop the hunting with eagle as one of the common forms of falconry, which is highly appreciable tradition because it enriches the cultural heritages of humans with its special manners. 

All photos created and owned by Batzaya Choijiljav at www.toursmongolia.com

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