‘The girls go crazy over him’: Meet Jenisbek Tserik, Mongolia’s most eligible eagle hunter

(CNN) — “Look over there. See that man coming this manner?” asks Timur. “He is so good trying.”

Galloping in the direction of us on a stout Mongolian steed is the nomad’s model of Brad Pitt returning dwelling in “Legends of the Fall.” Bundled inside a pinto jacket above richly embroidered trousers, he actually catches the attention. A fox fur hat warms his head, and perched calmly on his proper forearm is a golden eagle that is not merely a prop for a tacky cologne commercial.

“Take a look at his eyebrows and his cheekbones,” continues our Intrepid Journey information. “And have a look at how huge and powerful he’s. The women go loopy over him.”

“It is true,” says Timur’s spouse, Bata, blushing barely. “If I used to be to match him with Timur simply on appears to be like, after all I might select him.”

Upon nearer inspection, the intruder’s weathered face betrays a life lived outside. However his jaw is actually chiseled and his pure squint jogs my memory of a youthful Clint Eastwood as he gazes off into the gap.

Arguably extra spectacular although is his stature, which I solely start to understand as soon as he stands beside 4 different berkutchi, or eagle hunters, who’ve assembled in entrance of us for a scheduled photograph shoot and interview session. He is near a head taller, with broad, sq. shoulders and muscular limbs which are additional exaggerated by his cumbersome apparel.

His identify is Jenisbek Tserik, an appellation which means “metal warrior” — an apt description given his achievements. A grasp horseman, he is additionally a serial winner of tug-of-war competitions pitting two combatants wrestling a goat carcass.

So adept is Jenisbek that he has been flown to Dubai to compete in exhibition occasions. For a semi-nomadic Kazakh residing in Mongolia’s distant, westernmost province of Bayan-Ölgii, any journey overseas could be like visiting one other planet. Glitzy Dubai could be an entire totally different universe.

Aged 26, Jenisbek tells us he isn’t married, then jokes that he has 5 girlfriends, together with one in Dubai and one other in Kazakhstan, from the place 90% of Bayan-Ölgii’s resident inhabitants originates. I am not sure if he is severe, however from what Timur and Bata have instructed me about him, it isn’t past the realms of chance.

In addition to the tug-of-war, Jenisbek is a champion archer, and he is received quite a few awards for eagle searching in Bayan-Ölgii, the place the centuries-old pastime is extra widespread than wherever else on the planet.

A proud historical past

Eagle searching may be traced again to a forgotten kingdom in Central Asia, the place direct descendants of Genghis Khan settled by the Aral Sea till encroaching Russian Empire forces compelled them to flee to the lawless area of the Altai Mountains in Mongolia.

Then, when the Soviet Union and China established borders both aspect of them early within the 20th century, the Kazakhs turned lower off from their homeland and had been unable to return.

They continued to stay as semi-nomadic herders in Western Mongolia, the place conventional pastimes resembling searching with golden eagles continued, passing from one technology to the subsequent. Since such practices had been suppressed in Kazakhstan throughout Soviet rule, Bayan-Ölgii turned the game’s nucleus.

“For a Mongol, it is delight factor to coach racehorses. For Kazakhs, their delight is in coaching eagles to hunt,” explains Bata.

You’ll be able to see it in the best way they stroll and the way they behave. The 5 berkutchi know they’re being watched they usually play as much as it, puffing their chests out and stiffening their backs each time a digicam lens factors their approach. Brows furrow and lips purse like they have been modeling all their lives.

It is a far cry from how life will need to have been on this a part of the world earlier than tourism impinged following the primary Golden Eagle Pageant, which was staged outdoors the provincial capital of Ölgii in 1999. However even now, foreigners are hardly stampeding to get right here. After I quiz our native facilitator about numbers visiting the area this season, he replies that there are “many.”

“What number of?” I ask.

“About 800.”

Numbers peak across the timing of the pageant in early October, and through the smaller scale Altai Kazakh Eagle Pageant, held right here in Sagsai two weeks earlier. In every, as many as 100 berkutchi take a look at their abilities in occasions the place eagles are anticipated to catch fox skins being dragged behind horses or in races to scoop up a coin off the bottom on horseback.

One flirtatious contest includes a whip-cracking lady chasing after a person who would not at all times strive overly exhausting to flee. I may think about Jenisbek receiving a disproportionate share of lashings these previous few years.

But it surely’s solely as soon as the vacationers have gone that the eagle searching season begins. From October to March, hunters head off into the mountains in pairs — one to flush out their prey, the opposite to launch the eagle from excessive alongside a ridgeline.

Prize catches contains foxes and hares, whose luxuriant coats make the warmest hats, identical to these crowning Jenisbek and his companions.

Hunts can final for days at a time, and coaching requires endurance because the eagles change into accustomed to their handlers and develop the required abilities.

Has it precipitated {couples} to divorce, I ask Timur, when husbands spend extra time with their birds than they do with their spouse? He shrugs his shoulders.

When each single lady within the valley is lining up for you, like they’re for Jenisbek, who wants a spouse?

Getting there: Although Mongolia is at present closed to tourism because of the Covid-19 pandemic, quite a lot of tour firms are actually accepting bookings for for the 2021 Golden Eagle Pageant in Bayan-Ulgii, which takes place in early October.