Golden Eagle Festival

Dark, rocky mountainous terrain forms the backdrop to the festivities, which incorporate an opening ceremony, parade, cultural exhibitions, demonstrations and handcrafts in the centre of the town of Ölgii, followed by sporting activities and competitions 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) outside of town towards the mountains.

Other sporting activities include horse racing, archery and the highly entertaining Bushkashi - goatskin tug of war on horseback.

In the References/Criticism section of the film's Wikipedia description, Aisholpan's journey was originally promoted as her having to "battle an ingrained culture of misogyny to become the first female Eagle Hunter in 2,000 years of male-dominated history".

From Chapter 1 section called 'The Bigger Picture' of Dr. McGough's PhD thesis called "Partnerships and understanding between Kazakh Pastorialists and golden eagles of the Altai Mountains of the Altai Mountains:A Multi-Species Ethnography": "Hunting with eagles changes quite profoundly the further you travel from Olgii city.

In the 1990s, Mongolia devoted a lot of funding and resources to encouraging tourism and creating a navigable tourist infrastructure.

The Festival takes place In October, and consists of three events over two days in which a panel of judges scores a berkutchi and his eagle.

At the Festival, which has become very popular in recent years (hosting several hundred tourists), wild-trapped sub-adult eagles will not tolerate flying near huge crowds.

A large portion of the 300 berkutchi mentioned are Kazakhs who keep these colberkuts purely to take to the Festival and to show to tourists.

One can hardly blame them, as to be able to invite tourists into your home can represent a lot of income for a family that typically relies on volatile cashmere and meat prices.

That is, the millennia sustained tradition of trapping sub-adult eagles, socializing them to hunt in partnership with humans, and then releasing them.

[3] Dr. McGough talks about this further in a Bird Calls Radio interview from the 14,25 time code: https://birdcallsradio.com/bcr-202-lauren-mcgough-falconer/ Dr. Joseph Recupero lends further insight in his study entitled, "The Price on Our Practices: Motivation and Cultural Commodification in the Mongolian Tourism Industry"(2015).

Because of these complaints and a need to keep tourists satisfied, live animals were replaced with pulled furs, which the eagles would track and capture (Shaimurat, 2015).

While he learned to eagle-hunt in a traditional manner, and does hunt outside of competition, his initial desire shows the changing of prioritization of a younger generation with more exposure to the tourism industry than their parents and grandparents.

Beyond the two focus communities, as discussed in an interview with Oyunta, a festival organizer, tourism is having altering effects on larger aspects of Mongolian culture.

Meals, tea, and snacks begin to have price tags, and hospitality becomes more of a marketing practice than an authentic offering (Oyunta, 2015).