YeinJee's Asian blog

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Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Falconry Festival, Xinjiang, China

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The 2nd Falconry Festival was held on March 21st at a village in Akqi County, Xinjiang, China. Hundred of falcon tamers, mainly Kyrgyz people, performed various demonstrations during the event.

Falcon cultural festival in Xinjiang, China
Falconry demo by the Kyrgyz (Image from Xinhuanet)

Falconry (hunting with eagles/falcons) has a long history in the region; Kyrgyz nomads have been hunting with golden eagles for thousand of years. The eagles are known as Berkut in local language, and the activity is called Berkutchi.

You can check out a video which I posted earlier, of neighbouring Kazakh people doing the hunt.

China’s Kazak people celebrate folk festival

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The Kazaks in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are celebrating a folk festival with four days of singing and horse racing gala.

Kazak folk festival in China

Most of the Kazaks (also known as Kazakhs or Qazaqs) are living in Kazakhstan and some others in its neighbouring countries, e.g. Russia, Uzbekistan and China etc. There are around 1.4 million Kazaks in China; not really a small population but still considered as a minority tribe among China’s 1.2 billion people.

Kazaks are well known for their fierce love of freedom, skilful horse riding and hunting with semi-domesticated eagles. The image above shows them playing a traditional sport which is a combination of tug-of-war, basketball and horse racing. You might remember this from the Rambo movie. Image via Cri.