Biljana Jurukovski, Embracing culture and tradition (Travel 2017)

Culture and traditions do not live in museums. They are not contained only to the art and buildings, rather both are defined by people, the food, the celebrations and festivals, traditional clothes and music. Fostering expressions of culture and traditions can have positive impact on the local community and also on a global level. i believe that awareness of other cultures brings more understanding among people. Travel and photography in particular can be great medium for raising this awareness. Portfolio of photographs presented here is showing the ancient art of eagle hunting among the Kazakhs. For more than two millennia Kazakh men have hunted on horseback with trained golden eagle. The skill of training golden eagle is passed on through generations. The eagle is usually kept for 10 years and then is released back in the wilderness. The Golden Eagle festival is annual celebration of the Kazakh culture and tradition held in Bayan-Ölgii aimag, Mongolia.In the eagle festival, Kazakh eagle hunters beside the celebration they compete to catch small animals such as foxes and hares with trained golden eagles, showing off the skills both of the birds and their trainers. Prizes are awarded for speed, agility and accuracy, as well as for the best traditional Kazakh dress.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.