I’ve always wanted to visit Mongolia, last year I read up on what is known as the land of the big sky, and in particular the local western culture and festivals that the people celebrate. I found that Mongolia has a large number of Eagle Hunters as well as having a very short summer, in which they hold ‘Nadaam’ festivals. Nadaam festivals translate to simply ‘Games’. Local Nadaam’s are also sometimes referred to as ‘Eriin Gurvan Naadam’ meaning “Three manly sports”.
Nadaams at Weddings
Nadaams are used to celebrate many types of occasions, including weddings or spiritual gatherings. We had the wonderful opportunity to attend a traditional Kazakh Mongolian Wedding, which had the most spectacular background of the Altai Mountains.
Mongolian food in general is an important part the culture and heavily reliant on the kind of foods that are suitable to a nomadic lifestyle; dishes are based on meat and fat from camels, mutton, cattle and yak, as well as a variety of dairy products. Milk is also used to make many things including regular salty tea, as well as butter, cheese and other foods, and can be use to welcome visitors into a family Gare.
This Kazakh Mongolian wedding day, much like when visitors arrive, started with the Bride getting ready and dairy snacks, laid out in the Brides family Gare. A special part of the weddings was where mare’s milk is served from a large bowl just after the ceremony and freshly killed lamb served as the main meal. Mare’s milk (Airag) is fermented by the local family and contains between 7% and 8% alcohol.
Image men and cups
Image Buzkashi
The Nadaam events are held after the wedding ceremony, and the first event at this wedding was the wrestling. Wrestling or bökh in Mongolia is centuries old and is not played in a ring, but an open grassy field.
Eagle hunters
This image of a traditional Kazakh eagle hunter with his eagle was taken in the Altai mountains in Western Mongolia. The Baby Eagles or Balapans are 2 years old when they are captured, they are raised and looked after by the Eagle hunter. Eagle hunting is more prominent in the winter months and used to hunt smaller animals, like foxes and marmots.
Set background to socham with eagle looking at camera
Inset
This image of a traditional Kazakh eagle hunter with his eagle was taken in the Altai mountains in Western Mongolia. The Baby Eagles or Balapans are 2 years old when they are captured, they are raised and looked after by the Eagle hunter. Eagle hunting is more prominent in the winter months and used to hunt smaller animals, like foxes and marmots.
Iamge
Socham – eagle on arm
Inset
The western part of Mongolia hosts many Eagle hunters. Shohan can be seen here, mounted on his horse with his trained Eagle resting on his arm.
The western part of Mongolia hosts many Eagle hunters, one of which is Silau (below). Silau is an eagle hunter that we met at the wedding, and he asked if we would like to join him and his sons on a hike to check and collect the Balapan. A Balapan is a 2 year old baby Eagle which nests within the mountains. Silau had already identified this Balapan as a new bird to train for future years.
Image eagle hunter on horse
The goal of a match is to get your opponent to touch his upper body, knee or elbow on the ground.
BIO
I have been taking photographs for over 20 years with a view of just to document my life and it’s surroundings. I came from the film days and moved into digital photography about 10 years ago. I bought my first Leica camera 2 years ago (the M240) and recently had the opportunity to go back to classic photography by buying a Leica M/A and started to use Film as part of my work once again.
I also love to print, whilst I enjoy printing with Inkjet, I’m very passionate about alternative printing, and have been making Platinum prints using Digital Negatives for a while now. This process was founded in the 18C and apart from making a digital negative and printing it on acetate, the wet processing side of it hasn’t changed. but this is a life project, one that I’ll continue when I get time to devote to it.