The Eagle Festival: A Guide to Bayan-Olgii in October

October in Bayan-Olgii is when the steppe turns gold and the Kazakh eagle hunters ride down from the mountains. It is the oldest living link between human and raptor on earth. If you only come to Mongolia once, and you have heard about the eagle hunters, this is the trip that proves the stories true.

The festival is held the first weekend of October in a wide, dusty bowl outside the town of Olgii. Hunters arrive on horseback, hooded eagles gripping their forearms. Each bird is one to fifteen years old and has been with her hunter since she was taken from a cliff nest as a chick. These are burkitshi, and the relationship between them and their eagles is older than writing.

The games

Eagles are released from a ridge above the bowl. They fly to their hunter's voice, landing on a gloved hand across half a kilometre of open sky. There is a beauty contest for best saddle, best costume, best eagle. There are horseback races. There is a game of kokpar, played with a goat carcass, which is exactly as Homeric as it sounds.

After the games

What nobody tells you is that the real festival happens after the games. The hunters ride back to their camps two or three valleys away, and those who have travelled with Rara Avis ride with them. A fire is lit. A sheep is slaughtered and cooked in the old way, with hot stones in the belly. Tea is poured. A man you met that morning shows you the leather glove his father made for him at eighteen.

The eagle sleeps on her perch a few metres from the fire. She is the honoured guest of the camp.

Practical notes

The main festival runs two days. Altitude is around 2,400 metres. Nights in October can reach minus fifteen. Kazakh hospitality is unconditional, but bring a gift if you can. Sweets, a pocket knife, a photograph you have taken. Permits and road access are best arranged through a local operator, which is one of the reasons Rara Avis holds seats for this every year.

The birds know when the season turns. So should you.