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(CNN) — “Look over there. See that man coming this way?” asks Timur. “He’s so good looking.”
Galloping in the direction of us on a stout Mongolian steed is the nomad’s model of Brad Pitt returning residence in “Legends of the Fall.” Bundled inside a pinto jacket above richly embroidered trousers, he definitely catches the attention. A fox fur hat warms his head, and perched calmly on his proper forearm is a golden eagle that is not merely a prop for a tacky cologne commercial.
“Look at his eyebrows and his cheekbones,” continues our Intrepid Travel information. “And look at how big and strong he is. The girls go crazy over him.”
“It’s true,” says Timur’s spouse, Bata, blushing barely. “If I was to compare him with Timur just on looks, of course I would choose him.”
Upon nearer inspection, the intruder’s weathered face betrays a life lived open air. But his jaw is definitely chiseled and his pure squint jogs my memory of a youthful Clint Eastwood as he gazes off into the gap.
Jenisbek Tserik, whose identify means “steel warrior,” is a semi-nomadic Kazakh.
Mark Daffey
Arguably extra spectacular although is his stature, which I solely start to understand as soon as he stands beside 4 different berkutchi, or eagle hunters, who’ve assembled in entrance of us for a scheduled photograph shoot and interview session. He’s near a head taller, with broad, sq. shoulders and muscular limbs which are additional exaggerated by his cumbersome apparel.
His identify is Jenisbek Tserik, an appellation meaning “steel warrior” — an apt description given his achievements. A grasp horseman, he is additionally a serial winner of tug-of-war competitions pitting two combatants wrestling a goat carcass.
So adept is Jenisbek that he has been flown to Dubai to compete in exhibition occasions. For a semi-nomadic Kazakh residing in Mongolia’s distant, westernmost province of Bayan-Ölgii, any journey overseas could be like visiting one other planet. Glitzy Dubai could be a complete completely different universe.
Aged 26, Jenisbek tells us he is not married, then jokes that he has 5 girlfriends, together with one in Dubai and one other in Kazakhstan, from the place 90% of Bayan-Ölgii’s resident inhabitants originates. I’m not sure if he is critical, however from what Timur and Bata have informed me about him, it isn’t past the realms of risk.
As properly because the tug-of-war, Jenisbek is a champion archer, and he is gained quite a few awards for eagle looking in Bayan-Ölgii, the place the centuries-old pastime is extra widespread than wherever else on the planet.
A proud historical past
Aged 26, Jenisbek says he is not married — however has 5 girlfriends.
Tuul & Bruno Morandi/The Image Bank RF/Getty Images
Eagle looking will be traced again to a forgotten kingdom in Central Asia, the place direct descendants of Genghis Khan settled by the Aral Sea till encroaching Russian Empire forces compelled them to flee to the lawless area of the Altai Mountains in Mongolia.
Then, when the Soviet Union and China established borders both facet of them early within the 20th century, the Kazakhs grew to become minimize off from their homeland and have been unable to return.
They continued to reside as semi-nomadic herders in Western Mongolia, the place conventional pastimes comparable to looking with golden eagles continued, passing from one technology to the following. Since such practices have been suppressed in Kazakhstan throughout Soviet rule, Bayan-Ölgii grew to become the game’s nucleus.
“For a Mongol, it’s pride thing to train racehorses. For Kazakhs, their pride is in training eagles to hunt,” explains Bata.
You can see it in the best way they stroll and the way they behave. The 5 berkutchi know they’re being watched they usually play as much as it, puffing their chests out and stiffening their backs every time a digital camera lens factors their means. Brows furrow and lips purse like they have been modeling all their lives.
It’s a far cry from how life will need to have been on this a part of the world earlier than tourism impinged following the primary Golden Eagle Festival, which was staged outdoors the provincial capital of Ölgii in 1999. But even now, foreigners are hardly stampeding to get right here. When I quiz our native facilitator about numbers visiting the area this season, he replies that there are “many.”
“How many?” I ask.
“About 800.”
From October to March, eagle hunters head off into the mountains in pairs — one to flush out their prey, the opposite to launch the eagle from excessive alongside a ridgeline.
Mark Daffey
Numbers peak across the timing of the competition in early October, and in the course of the smaller scale Altai Kazakh Eagle Festival, held right here in Sagsai two weeks earlier. In every, as many as 100 berkutchi take a look at their expertise in occasions the place eagles are anticipated to catch fox skins being dragged behind horses or in races to scoop up a coin off the bottom on horseback.
One flirtatious contest includes a whip-cracking girl chasing after a person who does not all the time strive overly arduous to flee. I might think about Jenisbek receiving a disproportionate share of lashings these previous few years.
But it is solely as soon as the vacationers have gone that the eagle looking season begins. From October to March, hunters head off into the mountains in pairs — one to flush out their prey, the opposite to launch the eagle from excessive alongside a ridgeline.
Prize catches consists of foxes and hares, whose luxuriant coats make the warmest hats, identical to these crowning Jenisbek and his companions.
Hunts can final for days at a time, and coaching requires endurance because the eagles turn out to be accustomed to their handlers and develop the required expertise.
Has it brought on {couples} to divorce, I ask Timur, when husbands spend extra time with their birds than they do with their spouse? He shrugs his shoulders.
When each single girl within the valley is lining up for you, like they’re for Jenisbek, who wants a spouse?
Getting there: Though Mongolia is at present closed to tourism as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, plenty of tour corporations are actually accepting bookings for for the 2021 Golden Eagle Festival in Bayan-Ulgii, which takes place in early October.
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