-The landscape is almost familiar.

Wide open spaces, grasslands with rugged mountains jutting up on the horizon.

You could be in Wyoming, in Colorado, in Montana.

But when you see the yurts dotting the landscape, camels and yaks roaming the plains, you start to get a sense of something different here.

It's when the Kazakh nomads start arriving out of the mountains on horses with golden eagles perched on their arms that history of a much larger scale hits you.

Ancient traditions that started well before the great Mongol Empire stretched west from here hundreds of years ago.

Those traditions are fast approaching a crossroads in time where the modern world meets this centuries-old way of life.

These are the eagle hunters of the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia.

I'm Ian Grant, and I've spent the last three decades using my background in history and art history exploring cultures all around the world.

-[ Singing in native language ] -In this series, I'll take you to places I've never been to before... ♪♪ ...experiencing local life through the lens of the world's artists, artisans, and keepers of culture.

This is "Culture Quest."

♪♪ -Gustavus Adolphus College equips students to lead purposeful lives and act on the great challenges of our time.

Gustavus -- make your life count.

-Over a billion people live with preventable blindness.

See International partners with volunteer doctors to provide sight-restoring surgeries in underserved communities around the world.

-This organization is united in one mission -- to restore sight to the blind.

-They purify the air I breathe and the water I drink, keep me and the planet cool, and give me a career I love.

Trees -- when we take care of them, they take care of us.

-We all seem different in our own ways because different reflects who you are, who you want to be.

The Northern Territory -- different in every sense.

-Alright, so we're in the Ulaanbataar airport, and this is what waking up at 3:30 a.m. looks like.

But we're catching the flight out to Ulgii to hook up with some people out there at the big Golden Eagle Festival.

So we hop on the flight at around 6:30 and 2, 2/12 hours later, we're out in the Altai Mountains and can experience western Mongolia at its best.

-The U.S. president should having a dinner with these journalists -- -Oh, we're about to go.

Hey, by the way, this is -- this is Gerel.

He's taking us everywhere in this Golden Eagle Festival.

He's running the show, so... -Gerel studied international law and has been working as a tour guide since the age of 19.

Today, he helps run a tour operation highlighting conservation, education, and culture-focused travel.

-And it looks like we're taking off.

We're getting on this flight.

So it's off to western Mongolia.

Ulgii is a city of around 100,000 people and the main outpost here in western Mongolia.

It's a quick drive through the town and out the other side.

And once we're around this bend in the road, we leave the city behind us.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Alright, so, this is our ger camp.

It's kind of nestled right in the little arch of this river right below this giant cliff face here.

And there are the gers, right there.

We're staying in one of those things for the next four days.

Golden Eagle Festival is on the other side of these trees.

Just setting up camp.

There we are -- ger number three.

Home sweet home.

Nice.

Oh, this is great!

Got a little wall art, little stove, water, couple beds, skylights.

What more do you want in a ger?

But Gerel doesn't let the dust settle around our feet, so working on three hours of sleep in the last two days and 13 hours of jet lag, he keeps us moving.

A quick couple turns through the edge of Ulgii and we're back out into emptiness.

Wide open spaces again.

But there is life out here.

So, we just wanted to stop here because we've been driving through this -- this empty wilderness and you see all these herds of sheep and goat -- -Yeah.

-...and horses.

And then you see the occasional ger camps.

And are they all nomadic?

They just kind of set up from winter to summer pasture grounds?

-That's right.

When it's fall, they move on to areas like here where there are more leftover grass from the summer.

-Yeah.

-The animals need to fatten up and nourish, getting ready for the long -- -Make it through the winter.

-Right.

That's right.

-We also get our first glimpse of a group of golden eagle hunters off in the distance, riding for possibly days from their homes in the surrounding mountains, making their way to the festival.

But it's this vista that Gerel really wants us to see.

♪♪ ♪♪ The Altai Mountains have a storied place in Mongolian history, including this place, Tolbo Lake.

-Basically, early 1920s, there was some border intrusions from the outside trying to settle here.

They would end up having a battle with these intruders, and one of these famous battles took place where we are now.

It's called the Battle of the Tolbo River.

And the Mongolians, these early brave Mongolians, fighting for the sovereignty of the lands.

And the name of the lake is quite nice, as well.

It translates as like a birthmark.

So it can be like a birthmark of the Altai Mountains.

To know that we have this kind of beautiful landscape with so few inhabitants... -Yeah.

-...makes us also very lucky people.

-So, these guys are... -This morning, we get to spend some time with a group of archers from an ancient tribe called the Uriankhai.

-So, these are the local archers.

They are getting ready for the main festival.

The original tribes, during the times of Genghis Khan, they made up one of the main forces, you know, of the great Mongol Empire.

And they settled here afterwards and stayed here.

During the actual competition, they would have like 20 of these round targets.

-During competition, the balls would be spaced apart and the shooting distance would be over twice what he's shooting here.

-Oh!

Right out of the gate.

Nice.

-So, the Mongolian bows, when they designed it in the old days, they needed to keep it short enough so that you could carry it while on the horseback.

What they did was they come up with this technique of reinforcing the middle part.

This part is an actual antler from an ibex.

-Okay.

-[ speaking Mongolian ] -Because the whole -- the whole structure is made out of, like, natural products.

-So, let's give it a run.

Let me give it a shot.

-Yeah.

-No pun intended, but, you know.

Alright.

But I need instruction.

You got to show me how.

-Yep.

-I haven't shot a bow and arrow since I was 12.

-Your bow is actually placed on your left-hand side.

-Okay.

-On the outside.

On the left-hand side of the bow.

-Gotcha.

So, the arrow goes on the outside.

-It's tricky.

It takes a bit.

And then you pull it.

You're not pinching it, but you pull it.

-Oh, with that!

-You're pulling like this.

-That's what that is!

I thought it was just a ring.

-You take it like that.

You lock it like this.

-Yeah.

-And then you pull it.

-Uh-huh.

-And then you're actually releasing it like a... Look at the hands now.

See that?

-Yeah.

-[ speaking Mongolian ] -Nice shot.

-Makes it look easy.

-He does make it look easy.

-But it's not.

[ Laughs ] -And now it's my turn, and I'm about to find out that this is nothing like the bows I used as a kid.

-Thumbs.

-Oh!

Oh, 'cause -- -You release your... -Thumb.

-...thumb.

But your index finger, locking it just to help.

-Oh, to help out.

So, it's meant to kind of... And then you're -- Whoa!

How do you keep that up there, then?

-Yeah, so it's just -- it's a practice.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Keep in mind, the archers would do this during battle while galloping away on a horse.

-This is going really well.

-Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That's good.

That's good.

That's good.

-Alright.

Alright.

-You got the idea.

-See, it's still going.

I got a good roll on that one.

Alright.

So, you get that in there.

-You're getting your hands on a private lesson from one of the experts.

-I know, this is awesome.

-See that?

-Oh, hey!

Alright!

-See that?

-Closer, closer.

-Yeah.

-I have one more shot.

Alright, so I'm like this.

-Hey!

-Oh!

Just skipped right over.

Alright, I'll take it.

That's enough.

That's enough.

Thank you very much.

-You did well.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And it's not easy.

-And of course, as we're walking away... -Nice.

-...he nails it again.

This is Dalaihan and his old friend Tugelbai, and they are the quintessential Mongolian nomad out here in the Altai Mountains, herding goat, sheep, horses, and camel from winter to summer pasture grounds, and hunting with eagles.

Thanks to Gerel, we get to spend the rest of the day with them.

And it starts out fast.

-We have this great chance for -- Dalaihan has agreed to let me try and catch the eagle.

So, we're -- we might just have one shot at it, so the GoPro goes on now.

So, we're like this.

Like that.

-Put your hand out.

-Yeah.

-And with the only instructions being, "put your hand out and make sure it sees the rabbit leg," we're off.

-Oh, he's coming in hard.

Nice.

-And while it wasn't the most perfect landing, we managed to get it together in the end.

-Yeah!

[ Laughs ] Just incredible.

It's so nice of him to let me do this.

-Ahh!

-Ha-ha!

No, it's good.

He clamped onto my thumb.

You can really feel it even through the glove.

-And now it's time for the professionals to take over.

So we all hop on horses and head out onto the plains for a couple practice flights the day before the competition begins.

It's important to point out a critical detail here.

-Dalaihan, Tugelbai, and pretty much all the eagle hunters are Kazakh, an ethnic minority in Mongolia making up around 5% of the total population.

But out here in the Altai, they make up over 90% of the population.

The Eagle Festival itself and the traditions that come with it are specifically Kazakh.

We arrive at the practice spot and the two hunters make their way up the little escarpment, and Dalaihan makes his way back down.

With the wave of the rabbit leg and the traditional piercing yell... [ Man shouts ] -...they're off.

The eagle hunters get the eagles from their nests while they're still babies and train them for the next five years, at which point they release them back into the wild.

And while they're with the family, it is the entire family's job to take care of that eagle.

And now it's time for the second of our two practice flights.

-[ Shouting ] -And just like that, we're done and start making our way back to camp.

A year's worth of training comes to a head tomorrow for Dalaihan, Tugelbai, and their two younger apprentices.

I can easily remember the restless night's sleep you get before the big game.

[ Wind rushing ] So, yesterday, this -- there was nothing here, nothing below those two big hills, and now it's all packed, cars are coming in all along this dirt road.

Way over there on the horizon is the hunters that we've been hanging out with for the last couple days.

So, is it up on that hill that they'll go up and fly the eagles off, or even the bigger one?

-It's this one straight ahead.

-That makes sense 'cause they have to fly it, come down, go up.

I mean, that's a lot of hiking around.

-A lot of work.

-Yeah.

-You get a distinct sense of the excitement, the anticipation for the competition to begin.

-So, this is our group.

They're about to go on to get ready for the whole competition.

Good luck, guys.

Yeah.

-[ Speaking native language ] -I think that's it.

They know what to do, right?

-Yeah, they know the drill.

-They got the whole game down.

-He won before once, and he's really hopeful this year because the eagle really flew really well yesterday during the rehearsal, so... -[ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -So, this is kind of the opening round for the Golden Eagle Festival, right?

Everybody has to make it from flying the eagle up there to getting it down there.

You know, they've been training for a year, and it all comes down to this.

If they don't land it, they're out.

But if they land it, they get to the next round, which is tomorrow, which is a big deal.

Here we go.

-And for the rest of this first day, there will be a pretty constant stream of people flying their eagles.

The faster the eagle lands, the more points they get.

So this one coming in like a winged bullet will score well.

At the opposite end of the winged-bullet eagle is this one.

It took over two minutes for the eagle to finally land, and you can actually hear the hunter's call echoing off the hills and surrounding area.

[ Hunter shouting ] I cannot imagine the stress of the handler in the middle of the ring watching his eagle take the scenic way down.

This young teenage girl is actually one of several young women competing over the last number of years in the Golden Eagle Festival, like Erkebulan in Dalaihan's group.

And that's a really important development in a tradition that up until recent years has been the exclusive domain of men.

But sometimes it's just not your day.

Even though you can see the exact moment she realizes her eagle isn't going to land, just her being able to compete is a great indication for the future of this tradition.

And at the other end of the age spectrum, this old-timer hunter had one of the most beautiful soft landings we saw during the whole competition.

This is Badral Yondon, and he, along with four or five other people, created the Golden Eagle Festival.

He also happens to be the owner of the trekking company that Gerel works for.

And together, the two of them are the greatest advocates for Kazakh life out here in the Altai Mountains.

-So, the challenge is to keep it authentic and the purpose of the event being still, you know, a main event for the locals, event where they anticipate it for the entire year and then they come to it as a country fair or like the national pride day or something along those lines.

-Yeah.

-Mongolia was locked up for the rest of the world for almost 300 years, so we are just opening up.

So, there's so much we can share with the world.

Nomadic Mongolian culture is just different.

It's not settled.

You know, it's not about cities, it's not about walls, but it's about grasslands.

It's about pastures.

-Yeah.

-So, you share your pastures You know, you might have rain this year in your valley, but next year there might not be.

So then you go to the next valley and talk to the people there and then you coexist.

-We drove, like, across complete grasslands.

We saw a ger way off in the distance and we were looking at Gerel saying, "What are you doing?"

And he said, "Now we're going to go over to that ger."

And I said, "Well, do you know them?"

-"No, I have no idea who they are," but he said...

But this nomadic culture, there's this culture here.

Not only can you roll up and say hello, but you don't even -- you're not even meant to knock on the door.

And sure enough, open the door and, you know, they had everything laid out for us.

I mean, they had no idea we were showing up.

That was incredible to me.

That was... -And that is the culture, the difference that I'm talking about.

-Yeah.

-It's not about walls.

And it comes from the fact that the next day, your son or yourself, you could be doing the same looking for your horses, and you need a shelter, you need some food.

-Yeah.

-You want to be welcomed that way.

That is the culture.

And that's -- that's what we have to share.

-You have to be a proud father of this.

-I am, I am.

[ Chuckles ] -You should be, just looking around here and seeing what's happened.

So, I know there's a lot of struggles with it and trying to keep it on the right path, but it seems like it is so far, man.

-We're happy.

-Yeah, well done.

Well done.

You should be.

You totally should be.

-Thank you guys for coming.

-There he is.

-[ Laughs ] -The rest of the festival goes on all around.

Camel rides, grumpy, dressed-up kids, happy kids with balloons, families picnicking together.

Honestly, a lot of it is what you would expect in any big festival around the world.

And, of course, at any point, you can just look over at the center ring or up at the hill and see golden eagles flying overhead.

[ People cheering ] -We got a landing.

[ Indistinct conversations ] That is so cool.

-But eagle hunting isn't the only game in town.

So much of Mongolian history is tied to horsemanship, and the next two events bring their apex skills to a point.

The first is a race to pick up coins from the ground tied in ribbon.

It's scored on a combination of speed and how many coins you can throw in the air.

♪♪ Hanging off the side of your horse with your face a scant couple feet off the rocky ground is an amazing skill to watch.

And then the ancient competition of kokpar, the headless goat tug of war.

This dates back to the times of Genghis Khan and before.

Back in the day, the playing field was actually the land between the two villages that were competing.

And there was a pen in each village that acted as the goal to drop the goat into.

They get rid of the head so no one has an unfair gripping advantage.

But here again, it's all about the horsemanship.

♪♪ ♪♪ And then there's this other major element to the festival, the tourists who've come here to watch and photograph this event.

This is what it's been like all day.

People will suddenly all surround some of the eagle hunters on their horses.

And if one person comes up, all the other photographers rush up.

The participants are so conscious of their -- of their image, right?

I mean, they know how to ride right up to people with big cameras and how to pose, even where the sun is shining on them.

And it's actually kind of cool because it shows such a -- such a pride in their culture and their history and what they're doing.

There is another aspect to it, because, you know, everyone's coming in with -- with all these giant cameras, and drones are flying all over the place.

I've been talking to event organizers.

They struggle with trying to figure out how to handle all that stuff because, of course, they want it to expand and get bigger and more exciting and more inclusive, but they also want it to remain real.

Things did not go well for Dalaihan and his group today.

And honestly, we didn't want to get in their way too much.

But true to form, Dalaihan was more than generous with his time.

-And I know -- I know they didn't land today.

Is that alright to say?

-[ Speaking native language ] -It's like racehorses -- sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-There's always next time.

He feels -- They feel good about it in general.

-I've been in a lot of competitions and wound up on both sides of that equation, so I... -[ Speaking native language ] -Yeah.

You know.

I mean, what do you -- what do you do?

You come back next time, right?

Yeah.

-That's the way it is.

-Yeah.

-[ Speaking native language ] -All this -- They were already talking about next year.

-Oh, are you really?

Yeah, yeah, next -- You got to.

You got to do it.

Yeah.

And how long -- how long have you guys been doing this?

-[ Speaking native language ] -So, they never skipped, so this was their 20th.

-So, you've been here since the beginning?

-[ Speaking native language ] Yes.

-Really?

-Since the very beginning.

-Wow.

And how long have you been doing this?

-[ Speaking native language ] -Fourth year.

-Fourth year?

-Yeah.

-Fourth.

-That's -- That's a long time.

That's really good.

-They also want to express their gratitude -- [clears throat] ...for -- for all of you.

You know, you traveling a long distance just for this specific event.

Getting a chance to meet you was great.

Looking forward to having you back again.

-Alright.

It's a deal.

-It's a deal.

-It's a deal.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's a deal.

-[ Laughs ] -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

And can I shake her hand?

-Yes.

Absolutely.

-Oh, yeah.

And thank you very much.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

-After a disappointing day, they still manage to have this genuinely positive outlook and attitude on everything.

Maybe it's that hard day-to-day nomadic lifestyle out here that makes it a little bit easier for them to put something like a competition into the right perspective.

There is a genuine sense of camaraderie among the nomads, a chance to commune with each other, to greet each other, to reconnect after years apart, passing tradition from one generation to the other.

So, the more you look, you really get a sense that they would be coming here to do this with or without the tourists that are here to photograph them.

And that's a great indicator for the future of the culture out here in the Altai Mountains.

-So, if you were to fast-forward like 10 years, what's your perfect scenario for what's going on here?

-On the positive side, compared to 10 years ago there are people are coming and it's still an authentic event.

-Yeah.

-So, you know, we can see lots of locals, both Kazakhs and Mongolians, enjoying it.

So it has become a regionally accepted festival.

-Yeah.

-So, that's a good thing in terms of economy and tourism.

On the other hand, we also want to be careful about assessing the environmental and other impacts.

I mean, Mongolians from ancient times love falconry.

-Yeah.

-Even in times -- during the times of Genghis Khan, they had falcons.

But we don't want this festival just for the sake of showing off folks, you know, catching and capturing different raptors.

-Yeah.

-That would not be sustainable.

-And do you want to see crowds covering the whole thing as long as it's managed well, or do you like -- is there a certain size?

Who knows, but... -Yeah, I mean, I think it's a good thing, honestly.

I think it's supporting the local economy a lot.

Like, we have seen the Kazakh hunters, our friends, they are very happy to show off this part of their daily life, their great sense of sharing this heritage with anyone.

So, it's a great thing about this festival.

-Yeah, they have a clear sense of stewardship for their culture.

-Exactly.

-But you guys, I mean, both yours and Badral's heart are so deep in this, it's great to see.

It really is.

♪♪ So, this seemed like the perfect place to kind of wrap up this episode, looking down on the Golden Eagle Festival.

It's kind of shutting down now, but we get this spectacular view of the Altai Mountains way out here in western Mongolia.

And you can really get a sense, a feel of this nomadic culture that, you know, the Golden Eagle Festival is all about.

And you get a genuine respect and admiration for just that tough, hard lifestyle and this great moment in their -- in their lives where they can come and celebrate all that this region of Mongolia's about.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Gustavus Adolphus College equips students to lead purposeful lives and act on the great challenges of our time.

Gustavus -- make your life count.

-Over a billion people live with preventable blindness.

See International partners with volunteer doctors to provide sight-restoring surgeries in underserved communities around the world.

-This organization is united in one mission -- to restore sight to the blind.

-They purify the air I breathe and the water I drink, keep me and the planet cool, and give me a career I love.

Trees -- when we take care of them, they take care of us.

-We all seem different in our own ways because different reflects who you are, who you want to be.

The Northern Territory -- different in every sense.

♪♪