In the Altai, the sight of a hunter riding beneath an immense sky with a golden eagle balanced on one arm can seem almost timeless. But it is anything but inevitable. The survival of this tradition now depends upon a very small group of people choosing to teach it, practice it and pass it on. Preserving the Kazakh eagle hunters means preserving not simply an image from Mongolia’s past, but a living relationship between people, animals and landscape that still has a future.
