We are excited to tell you the story of how Jalsa’s decades-long vision of protecting, promoting and celebrating the Kazakh eagle hunting culture of Western Mongolia has found a new home.
The Cultural Sanctuaries Foundation (CSF) is a global non-profit organization that works at the crossroads of culture and conservation. Founded and run by acclaimed documentary photographer Chris Rainier and his lawyer partner Olivia McKendrick, CSF focuses on protecting endangered cultures and languages and protecting endangered biodiversity. Eighty per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity is on land looked after by indigenous communities which represent just 5% of the world’s population. Even if it were not crucial to protect the world’s fast fading cultural and linguistic diversity for its own sake, therefore, it is also a key part of the fight to protect biodiversity in the face of increasing climate change. Culture and conservation go hand in hand.
The Kazakh eagle hunting culture in the grasslands of Western Mongolia was an early focus for CSF. Chris has been travelling to Mongolia for almost twenty years, “drawn back again and again”, he says, “by the beauty and vastness of the landscape and the warmth and pride of the nomadic people that call it home”. When he and Olivia visited Bayan-Olgii province together for the first time in 2017, they stayed with a number of eagle hunting families (arranged by our team at Nomadic Expeditions) and talked with them at length about the eagle hunting culture and the threats against it. They learnt about the environmental changes that the families were witnessing day to day – the drying of the rivers and the desertification of the grasslands (which are known to conservationists as “upside-down rainforests” in terms of their ability to sequester carbon dioxide). They heard too of the changes in the health and behaviour of the families’ livestock and the wildlife on which the eagle hunting community’s livelihoods depend.
Chris and Olivia were struck by the symbiotic relationship between the hunters, their majestic golden eagles, their horses and the landscape around them – such a powerful example of the interconnection between culture and conservation. The centuries-old eagle hunting tradition had almost completely died out before efforts were made to start to revive it in the late ’90s – led by Jalsa. The Golden Eagle Festival celebrated that renaissance each year but the hunters explained that what they now needed most of all was a cultural center to act as a gathering place for the community and a draw for tourism.
With the creation of cultural community centers lying at the heart of all of CSF’s projects around the world, the idea to create an Eagle Hunter Cultural Center in the town of Ulgii was born.
CSF immediately consulted Jalsa and Undraa and, over the following years, CSF formed a strong partnership with us at Nomadic along with The Kazakh Falconry Association and the Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia to plan and design the Center. The right team was in place!
The Government of Bayan-Olgii province then came on board to contribute the land that was needed – in an ideal spot between the town of Ulgii and its airport a few minutes drive away. Finally, with generous donations from a number of CSF benefactors, the necessary funds were raised and construction could begin.
The new Cultural Canter opened to great fanfare on October 4th this year, aligning with the 2024 Golden Eagle Festival. Speeches by the Governor of Bayan-Olgii province, the Director of the Wildlife Science and Conservation Centre of Mongolia, the Chairman of the Kazakh Falconry Association, the President of Nomadic Expeditions and Chris on behalf of CSF were followed by the official cutting of the ribbon, candy throwing and a musical performance, Then, eagle hunters – together with their eagles – entered the Center for the first time.
The building itself, designed in the style of a traditional Mongolian ger, is really superb and the team are now working hard to ensure that it is a huge success. It will be a gathering place for the eagle hunting community. It will be a hub for cultural revitalization and conservation. It will be a living museum for local people, schoolkids and tourists to learn about the local traditions and landscape. It will complement the annual Eagle Festival to celebrate the eagle hunting culture all year round. It will be a symbol of cultural pride and identity. It is the perfect permanent home for everything that Jalsa envisioned.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Center when you next visit Mongolia!
For more information about CSF and its work as a 501c3, please see www.culturalsanctuaries.org.