{"id":10617,"date":"2022-12-01T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/?p=10617"},"modified":"2022-11-30T18:35:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T10:35:05","slug":"soaring-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/soaring-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Soaring High"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Golden Eagle Festival attracts tourists to Mongolia from far and wide. Find out more about this unique event and how it is celebrated.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"\"Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia\u00a0is famous for its endless steppes, open plains and nomadic culture. The country also celebrates a number of colourful festivals throughout the year. One such jamboree is the Golden Eagle Festival.\u00a0<\/strong>
\nThe two-day event is held annually in October in Mongolia\u2019s westernmost province, Bayan-Ulgii. The festival promotes the culture of the Kazakhs, a minority group in the country, and celebrates the ancient art of falconry. Organised by the Mongolian Eagle Hunters\u2019 Association, the festival has been so successful that it has encouraged more young Kazakhs to take up the practice. In fact, in 2011, eagle hunting was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as an example of \u2018living heritage\u2019.<\/p>\n

The golden eagle lives in the Altai mountains, and builds its nests in the crags of the area\u2019s rugged peaks. Kazakh hunters climb up to these crevices to capture the nestlings when they are around four years old. Stories about the eagle\u2019s power abound among the Kazakhs. These birds of prey are domesticated, fed by hand, and live with the family for years. To hunt, the men take their eagles high into the mountains so that they can scan\u00a0the valleys below for foxes and other small animals, which the birds swoop down to catch. Only female birds are used because they\u2019re larger \u2014 with a wingspan ranging from 1.8\u20132.5m \u2014 and fiercer predators.<\/p>\n

\"\"At the Golden Eagle Festival, Kazakh eagle hunters \u2014 known as Burkitshi \u2014 compete on horseback to catch foxes and hares with their feathered friends. The hunt shows off the skills of both the birds and their trainers. The trainer waves a lure \u2014 fresh meat or an animal skin \u2014 and calls to the eagle to come and get it. The bird is held by the hunter\u2019s partner, who perches on a nearby hill. He removes the cap covering the eagle\u2019s head and eyes and releases the bird at the trainer\u2019s call. The eagle then chases the lure dragged by the trainer on horseback.<\/p>\n

The birds of prey are evaluated for their diving speed and gripping technique. At the festival, prizes are awarded for speed, agility, skill and accuracy at hitting a target. In addition, there are also prizes for best costume and for some traditional nomadic games. Festival winners are announced at the closing ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"\"The festival has been celebrated since 2000, and now attracts travellers from all over the world. The number of eagle hunters participating in the festival has been increasing with each event, which makes the festival even more colourful and spectacular.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golden Eagle Festival attracts tourists to Mongolia from far and wide. Find out more about this unique event and how it is celebrated. Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia\u00a0is famous for its endless steppes, open plains and nomadic culture. The country also celebrates a number of colourful festivals throughout the year. One such jamboree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1523,8460,781,8456,8455,8458,8459,4672,20,8457],"class_list":{"0":"post-10617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel","8":"tag-aa-highway","9":"tag-burkitshi","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-colourful-festivals","12":"tag-golden-eagle-festival","13":"tag-intangible-cultural-heritage-of-humanity","14":"tag-kazakh-eagle-hunters","15":"tag-mongolia","16":"tag-travel","17":"tag-unesco-representative-list"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10621,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions\/10621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/aa-highway.com.sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}