A Mongolian photographer’s amazing portfolio of nomadic hunters with their golden eagles is helping keep this unique tradition alive by sharing the magnificent bond between these hunters, their horses, and their birds.
Batzaya Choijiljav, 48, was born in western Mongolia’s Zavkhan Province and grew up around nomadic people. Today, he lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where he runs a travel agency; he’s been working in travel and tourism for over 20 years.
On a field trip to the western Sahara in 2005, Batzaya took a five-pixel Canon PowerShot A95 camera and shared his best photos with his fellow expeditioners. “They gave me so much encouragement,” he told The Epoch Times. “I have officially been a photographer since 2007.”
Batzaya has traveled alone to Bayan-Ulgii Province in western Mongolia several times over 10 years to live with and document the lives of the Kazakh nomadic people, who practice traditional hunting on horseback with trained golden eagles. The bird is a treasured symbol of protection in Mongolia.
In Sagsai and Altantsugts villages, Batzaya has befriended generations of Kazakh eagle hunters, who have become the many subjects of his striking photo series. Their cultural heritage comprises eagle falconry and nomadic herding. In winter, the Kazakhs hunt wild prey in the Altai Mountains without vehicles or guns, relying upon the strong bonds they have built with their winged companions.
“Generally, in warmer seasons, the eagle is fed by domestic animal flesh and some small mammals and has to gain weight and strength,” the photographer said. “Domestic animals need to be at the center of daily life; milking cows, producing dairy products, herding them, and migrating to the good pastures, training and taming the horses for riding, and familiarizing them with the eagles for hunting.
“In the colder seasons their lifestyle is reversed. Eagles need to be at the center of daily life to be prepared for winter hunting, and domestic animals don’t need to be constantly cared for. In the early autumn, eagle hunters, eagles, and horses start training actively for the hunting season.”
Eagle hunters wear their traditional foal-hide hunting coat year-round, in order for the eagles to familiarize themselves with their hunter’s unique scent. Kazakh women are responsible for making this clothing, which they sew inside their yurt dwellings in the summertime while the group is actively nomadic.
The Kazakh people’s annual Golden Eagle Festival is a chance for hunters to show off their skills and engage the next generation.
“Eagle hunters love to use their centuries-old horse and eagle equipment in a traditional way, from their forefathers, and ... are keen to pass them on to the next generation,” Batzaya said. “In order to do this, they need to show it, need to promote it, and need to be an example while they are gathering at the same place, such as the annual eagle festival. Photographers help them to promote and raise awareness.”
This type of tourism also brings vital funds, without which most eagle hunters could no longer afford to train their birds; a trained golden eagle needs around 160 kilos of meat per year at no small cost, according to Batzaya’s research.
“Feeding the eagles is not a cheap game for modern-world eagle hunters due to wild prey abundance and the legal environment,” Batzaya said. “Full-time eagle hunters are also domestic animal herders and most of them have no job so they earn from tourism activities.
“Commercial tourism doesn’t impact the authenticity of my photography because I am shooting the living heritage which is still alive here. I have been photographing them for the last decade and I have seen the changes in developing and resuming their traditions, not the dying and fading aspects.”
Besides Mongolia, Batzaya has traveled extensively through the developing countries of Europe and Asia with his camera to photograph traditional people and lifestyles. Other unique subjects that he has captured on camera include the elusive snow leopard, the Gobi bear, wild Bactrian camels, camel-herding nomads, and the reindeer-herding Tsaatan people of the Taiga mountains.
“Travel makes me inspired and gives me chances to see the different colors of the world,” Batzaya said. “I think that a photographer should always learn and search for new things; read about the subject you are taking, look at other people’s photoshoots, get inspiration, and try to take photos that are different from them.”
The photographer, who has begun challenging himself in wildlife photography by traveling to remote mountains and deserts in search of rare and endangered animals, is widely published in the international media. He has also published three volumes of work with National Geographic, which he believes is the highlight of his photography career: “Snow Leopard,” “Tsaatan,” and “Eagle.”
Two of Batzaya’s favorite photos come from this third volume, which showcases the Mongolian Kazakh eagle hunters. A photo taken on Jan. 23, 2020, in Sagsai Village, Bayan-Ulgii Province, shows hunters training their eagles and horses together by galloping on different types of terrain. Another, taken on Dec. 10, 2021, in Tsengel village, Bayan-Ulgii Province, shows men hunting together.
“Some of them are responsible for shooing the prey, and some of them are responsible for hunting with their eagles,” Batzaya said. “Teamwork.”
