Nomadic tribes of Mongolia. Full Documentary

[Music] 800 years ago this man called the million and better known as Genghis Khan the king of the universe managed to create the largest empire ever known in the history of humanity [Music] it all began in the year 1190 when leaders can managed to bring together the different nomadic tribes of Mongolia in a single powerful army of 200,000 men this and his undaunted military genius enabled him to conquer vast territories stretching from the Pacific to the heart of Europe and from northern Siberia to India Iran and Turkey his arm is relatively small highly disciplined extremely well coordinated and with innovative military skill and great mobility were organized into two money's a basic formation of 10,000 warriors on horseback the Mongol hordes lived out in the field and their battle tactics consisted of surprise attacks charging at the enemy flanks and rear guard before launching every capital assault by the end of the can dynasty a series of civil wars threw the country into confusion until in 1578 Buddhism was established as the form of government under the leadership of al-ghanim Ganon two centuries later Mongolia came under Chinese control until 1924 when with the creation of the Soviet bloc the country converted to communism and became a satellite of the USSR with the arrival of the Russians Mongolia underwent a rapid changes modernizing and industrializing buildings bridges roads railway lines factories and schools were constructed and nomads looked on an astonishment as virtually for the night their country was transformed from a primitive feudal society to the progress of the 20th century [Music] olam battle became the new cosmopolitan capital of this renewed country designed in accordance will be cold impersonal urban planning standards of the Soviets the result is an atmosphere which gives the visitor the impression of having landed in a lost remote city in Siberia but with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the consequent disintegration of the Soviet bloc the Russians live just as quickly as they had arrived an overnight Mongolia was completely paralyzed suffering political and economic collapse from which it has still far from recovered since then the city has rapidly deteriorated and its inhabitants struggle to survive as best they can the situation in rural areas is also dramatic and everyday hundreds of families arrive in the city fleeing from poverty and hunger the new settlements which have been established in recent years have doubled the surface area of land battle and Lutz calculated that around 40% of the city's inhabitants still live in girls [Music] but in any case and despite the great empires and Beijing civil wars and political and social experiments in the interior of the country few things have changed since this game on the bonus Siberian steppes where winter lasts for ten months the life of these nomads is virtually same as that of their ancestors the horses still their means of transport and they continue to live by cattle rearing and hunting [Music] this is the story of three ethnic groups which though they inhabit the same territory have different cultures and traditions but with one common denominator they are all heirs of Genghis Khan [Music] what this man has just found on dinosaur bones since Roy Chapman Andrews his life inspired the character of Indiana Jones discovered the first dinosaur eggs and I go be in 1921 this desert has become the magnificent laboratory for scientists and paleontologists we refer excavations they have been able to find answers to many questions establish all for example that the dinosaurs disappeared from the Gobi as a result of avalanches and sandstorms at least 16 million years ago [Music] the most important discovery was made in 1993 when a joint team of American and Mongolian paleontologists sponsored by the New York Natural History Museum found over 100 complete skeletons and a number of fossils of dinosaurs and keep adding the eggs some of them were the embryo is still intact until a majority of these finds are now on display in the major museums of the West the lung butter or Natural History Museum is a magnificent place to find out more about these animals that lived on earth 250 million years [Music] the Gumby is an extremely errant desert covering a third of Mongolia traversed by ranges of sand dunes constantly lashed by the wind the first European to cross it was the Italian traveller Marco Polo in 1275 with temperatures of up to 50 degrees centigrade in summer which generally fall to 40 degrees below zero in winter life in the Gobi is harsh and difficult with the arrival of summer the nomads of the desert card the wool to make felt canvases which will protect the ger during the long cold winter months it is also a good time to collect and store and excrement these animals are essential if managed to survive in these barren deserts in a landscape where there is not even a single tree this is the only possible source of energy for heating and return without it life here would be impossible but every year with his summer storms the Gobi gives a brief respite to its in evidence and for a few weeks the miracle of nature returns to the desert covering everything with a fresh green blanket of grass [Music] water once more runs between the dunes and is thirstily absorbed by the parched crackland and the Gobi again comes to life [Music] Wharton tour just a few days ago was simply stone and dust now takes on the appearance of a lush garden with all the variety of greens you could possibly imagine the store stopped up here to regain their strength from the way to the cooler lands at the North while in the GU rain bands I can noodle mountains the almost exclusive domain of wild goats and scavengers the ibex descend from the summit since such a fool [Music] wherever it is possible grown us grows in the Gobi is transformed from an extreme arid desert into an incredible almost surrealist landscape [Music] everyone wants to take advantage of this gist of nature while it lasts and the desert is populated by humans and animals from the high steppes would surround the Gobi in a country where 60% of the population are nomadic cattle breeders with over 35 million head of cattle fresh pastures the most precious commodity of all and each family will trying to lead its heads to the best places but here the camel continues to be king it is by far the most valuable animal for the nomads and has been used by traders and travellers since antiquity for these ruminants now is the time to store energy and their erect humps are evidence of this an unmistakable sign that they are well fed if they do not work they can go for up to ten months without drinking water living on the accumulated reserves and losing up to 25% of their weight without suffering any consequence because the water they lose is only from their body tissues and not from the blood so the heart does not have to make any additional effort for over 80 years the Denson that yeah family has moved to this region every summer with their 200 horses 800 sheep and goats and 200 cows they continue to be prosperous kapha breeders despite the fact that two years ago a particularly harsh winter killed over half of their cattle but US and Asia live in a camp composed of 4 gars the traditional shelter perfectly adapted to the needs of nomadic life it is cheap large can be put up and taken down very quickly please easy to transport robust cool in summer and warm in winter the girls always face south and the entrance is painted in bright colors to ward off evil spirits inside be stove which also serves as heating the stands in the center and around it the bed's a few pieces of furniture and most of all the Buddhist shrine obviously the base of their diet is meat especially lamb milk is also an important ingredient of their diet from it they produce at least 12 different products including airag a drink they make Olien some are from fermented mares milk this is very healthy and helps combat tuberculosis they also drink oggi an alcohol made by distilling cow's milk which they have been making for thousands of years while the women remain inside the Gers taking care of the home the men get ready for one of the favorite activities amazed nomadic herdsmen breaking in the courts born readier spring under the directional lint ambassador the chief of the clan the riders weld up the horses trying to make sure the untamed Colts are trapped in the center so they can be caught using a pole the Mongols never mark their horses or give them names they distinguish them by their color and her over 200 words to differentiate them [Music] for then the horse represents much more than simply an animal use the transport and carrying goods which they began to tame 4000 years before Christ [Music] smooth fibers and incredibly the systems with great strength greatly out of proportion to their size these horses were key in enabling Genghis Khan to create such a powerful army the Chronicles tell us that the soldiers slept in their mounts while they continued the travel for the night when food was scarce they even drank the blood of their horses [Music] [Music] [Music] at the other side of the country beyond the desert and infinite steps along the border with Siberia a vertical world rises up dominated by tiger Tiger is a Russian town for the moon forests composed of firs larches and silver birches perfectly adapted to the strong winds and the low temperatures we are in one of the most remote areas of Mongolia here there are no roads and settlements are connected only by the path stolen by the nomads at the end of the summer the melt waters from the mountains covered a majority of the surface of valleys and grasslands making it extremely difficult to move the cattle from one place to another for the answer inhabitants of these lands since the days of Genghis Khan it is time to transfer herds from the highlands to less demanding regions where they will spare the people to the de hat can move up to 15 times a year in search of more fertile pastures or places where the wind is less fierce winter however when grasses gasp the families must separate and search for food independently the only boat Roth still remaining since the Russians left cannot carry on a Catholic from one side of the river Sangha nor to the other but here time is most important and while they're way too big chance enduring team if they cannot cross today then they will do so tomorrow [Applause] while it is still summer in the lowlands up in the valleys of a duck heart say any mountains autumn arrived several weeks ago suddenly and without warning the colors of the forest are changing and little by little the entire range of Reds occurs and yellows appear this is the home of the set on one of the smallest and least well-known drives in Asia for these mountain nomads the essential pillar of their subsistence is the reindeer but this does not by any means cover all their basic necessities their living conditions are so harsh that they are the poorest nomads in Mongolia surviving a little more than their wit's these people came here from the mountain peaks just seven days ago and they will spend the rest of the autumn here [Music] though it is only the end of August the first snows appear and gradually the forest is covered in a blanket of white but could be it's a tunnel this is the best season of the year because they are no longer playing by mosquitoes the temperatures are relatively mild and there is still sufficient food for the reindeer [Music] the day begins with a Loki neither animals at this time of year the reindeer are milked twice a day and from the milk they make butter a cheese called our cream and yogurt smoked meat and wild berries complete their diet the life of its a ton has never been easy but since the arrival of communism both of their cultural traditions and daily life have been destroyed the herds of reindeer which had belonged to them as as time immemorial became state property some Mr Dan referred to kill them rather than see them disappear they had to answer to a Mongol official who is completely ignorant of their customs and traditions and forced them to comply with very strict rules entirely unsuited to a nomadic lifestyle once they have been milked the reindeer are released and spend the rest of the day grazing in the mountains the settlement composed of 12 families and eighty six individuals possesses only 200 reindeer from which they obtain just enough to be able to buy a little flour salt tobacco a team one thing that strikes you is that the horns of all the reindeer have been cut to obtain extra income meets a ton Selim around four dollars a kilo to the Chinese who then turn them into a powder which is used as an aphrodisiac while the reindeer peacefully graze up in the mountains the families remain inside their tents around the comforting warmth of the fire and that more or less as their day gumbo is the chief of the clan he was born 35 years ago in the Russian taiga but when he was six years old his parents crossed the border in the suburban area he is married to sand le who is 50 and together they have had eight children of which only four survived the eldest daughter has just had a baby whose father is a dad this is unusual among its a turn but in these desperate times they must seek to escape poverty whatever way they can until just a few years ago the women only married men from other clans but of their same ethnic group but as they now number just 200 if certain have began to suffer from the lung greeting causing malformations and illnesses the Mongolian government accuses them of sex relations between cousins brothers and sisters and even parents and their children outside the snow continues to fall and the cold is intense the youngest chopped wood the fire must not be allowed to go out this sedan which literally means the reindeer people are an ethnic group originating in Russian Siberia with their own language whose origin lies in Turkey but with the creation in the 1920s of the People's Republic of Mongolia and the consequent marking of the borders a group of some 1000 - Sun and 6,000 reindeer remain among go inside [Music] dream champs and cups of tea around the fire another day comes to an end the snowstorm appears to have abated a little and that I bhaiya Gumbo's elder brother takes advantage to go out and indicate to the reindeer that it is time to return to the settlement [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] when the sun goes down the tiger will become the domain of the wolves which systematically attack their herds the loss of an animal is a real catastrophe for the family economy which is already down to the bare minimum every year fewer reindeer are born as the problems of inbreeding also affect them causing diseases which they transmit to people with the return of the animals the camp again stirs to life each family separates its reindeer from the herd in order to milk them and give them salt then they prepare dinner a little milk or yoghurt and if they are lucky some rice tomorrow these same routine and if the weather permits the men will guard hunting while the women and children venture into the forest to gather wild fruits and barriers [Music] that is a day in the life of its a ton a tribe which unfortunately would appear to be doomed to extinction [Music] [Music] in the Altai range winter has arrived with even greater force than normal and at the start of October a thick layer of snow already covers the mountains though we are still in Mongolia the majority of the people who live in this region are of Kazakh origin like the Mongol nomads they to live in girls but their's are considerably bigger and much better decorated despite the fact the land in which they live is extremely poor the Cossacks are prosperous herdsmen and it's not unusual to find families with 1,000 head of cattle in this small camp occupied by their Bulganin family the women begin the day by milking their yaks but it's very noticeable that there are no men around [Music] [Music] nothing could be more exciting and enjoyable for Kazak from the mountains than to go hunting with his eagle [Music] the season has just begun for these men today as the first hunting expedition since the start of the spring and it is a moment they have all been waiting for impatiently according to an ancient law the hunting season cannot begin until the first snows of winter arrived which is normally in the month of October that way they give possible prey or respite so they can breed and raise their young during the summer months but if the snows take longer than normal to arrive the hunters all go to see the shamans to pressurize them into making it form they cannot conceive of life without hunting and in fact claim that when the Cossacks came into the world they were already Eagle hunters [Laughter] [Music] this tradition which stretches back over 1,000 years was inherited by the Cossacks from the Turkish ancestors and they were ready practicing it when they first emerged as an ethnic group back in the fifteenth century after writing for three hours the five horsemen reached the summit of our Canada which at 3,900 metres is the highest mountain in the area from here they can look out over a number of valleys and nearby mountains during the huns they prefer to move around the highest peaks and rarely launched the Eagles from further down the slopes meanwhile the beaters come the valley trying to scare out a hare or fox but the outside is also a land inhabited by lawns and then will very much feared by the Cossacks as it frequently attacks their cattle if a wolf appears the hunters all release the Eagles together even though they know it may suffer serious injuries or even death [Music] now all they can do is to be patient and wait [Music] a female Fox has left her den frightened out by the cries of the trackers with his old binoculars Kisan does not let her out of his sight [Music] meanwhile Otacon has taken the damaja the hood of his ego and it begins to scan the horizon the vixen continues to me desperately seeking somewhere to hide [Music] [Music] the eagles of kumarkan and Diagon just wanted the plane and immensely shoot off to answer [Music] [Music] the Lycans eagle is the first to reach the Vixen that I can sets off at a gallop down a mountainside in the hope of getting there before he pushes for the prey is damaged or before the Vixen are fighting for her life losses equal but miraculously the vixen has managed to get free from the claws of her predator and wounded runs off trying to escape but you will not get far the measly second who up to now has been simply a spectator decides to go into action and removing the hood from his evil launches it into the sky the vixen frightened exhausted and knowing that her fate has been decided decided to give him [Music] crouching down and last futile attempt to remain unnoticed she resigned Lee awaits sudden death [Music] after mobilizing her real legs the Eagle attacks the head of the Vixen paralyzing it with the tip of its clothes capable of applying pressure of hundreds of kilos per square centimeter when color can catches up with the eagles the vixen is already dead now he must free it from the claws by no means easy task these hunters always use female Golden Eagles which they consider to be much more aggressive than the males with a wingspan of some 2 meters and weighing 7 kilos they possess two very important qualities when it comes to hunting their speed they can reach up to 160 kilometres an hour as they swoop down and their extraordinary sight perhaps eight times as acute as that of humans where the whistle and attracted by a piece of meat the Eagles returned to the arms of their masters telegin began to learn the noble art of hunting when he was just six years old and in his family there has always been a great hunting tradition kumarkan his father is one of the most respected hunters in the region and for any family to have a hunter among its members is a sign of prestige and wealth only those who own many head of cattle can allow themselves the luxury of breeding and training evils in the past it was a sport practiced in Central Asia only by the elite the Cossacks use nets to trap Eagles when they have just eaten and so are unable to fly for the first month they are kept inside the gare to custom them to the sounds and smells then or for several weeks they are trained so they maintain their balance on the arm of the ride as he gallops along finally and most difficult of all they are trained returned to the master after they've been released Romilly time their court they always remain close by him even sleeping at his side in the middle of October this far north three days become increasingly short and though it is only two o'clock in the afternoon it is time to return to the camp and a hunter set off down the mountainside the Sun rapidly sinks in the sky and little by little the gentle colors of Twilight envelop the peaks of our die [Applause] [Applause] in the dying lights of the day the Kazakh hunters reached the camp where a fine meal of lamb awaits them bugs before they can eat they must feed the hungry Eagles exhausted after the first flights of the winter [Music] kumarkan the Master Hunter gives them cow liver to eat in a wooden bowl so they won't damage their beaks each one of these birds of prey can eat two cows my senior year [Music] [Applause] around addition succulent lamb prepared in the traditional manner the hunters give things to hello and without losing a minute start to devour the delicious meat [Music] [Music] but tonight is a special night and not just because they are celebrating the start of the hunting season tomorrow the fire friends will sit down for George oak a small settlement for days right away where group of hunters is going to meet for the first time to hold the competition the rest of the family are pack up camp [Music] with all the income in the world and still feeling the effects of the previous night's vodka kumarkan al bacon Pelican shaken and Kison prepared the horses for the long journey meanwhile the women and children will and little over half an hour take down the gas [Music] unlike the other nomadic tribes of the country the Kazakhs spend the winter in small houses made of wooden Adobe in the lowlands which make the temperatures of 45 degrees below zero normal at this time of year slightly more bearable there are seasonal nomads but is they only migrate four times a year coinciding with the seasons the five hunters are now ready to set out on their journey they will ride for six hours a day resting each night in the Gers they find along the way if all the nomadic tribes on earth can be sent to have one thing in common but then it is their hospitality [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] of the 400 cossacks it is calculated continued to practice hunting in this region 72 of them have decided to enter the competition some of them coming from over 300 kilometres away a long journey but then this is a very special location they all come dressed in their coats called Japan and the characteristic caps of the silken woofer which are called Kepesh the fact is that very little has changed in the life of these Muslim herdsmen since the end of the 17th century when they settled in this corner of Mongolia fleeing Wars a century later after a number of devastating incursions led by a Manchu Emperor which annihilated the mongols of the region the Cossacks gained control of this harsh extreme land today and because they are isolated by the Altai mountains and a river Haupt these hunters have been able to preserve their language their cultural traditions and their identity as Cossacks the common characteristic among them are the owl feathers that decorate the Kepesh the thin black stripes of which represent the verses of the Koran a kind of lucky charm that protects them and brings them good luck during the hunt the tomography hood that covers the head of the eagle is also decorated with silver and crustaceans a sign that the owner is not too bad in a region as large as a bow German with just 90,000 inhabitants social occasions are rare and so today is a magnificent opportunity to get together to meet old friends and bring us of up-to-date on other people's lives the atmosphere inside the gas is extremely animated gathered around in many different groups the hunters recount a thousand and one battles of their days out hunting after all though we are in a remote corner of the planet they are hunters [Music] with so many people it's also a good chance to practice Kuk been a very popular game in central asia which the cossacks have been playing since time immemorial ban during the Soviet era cuckoo bear has virtually no rules though in each country it is played in a different way because that's competing bears the entire game consists of getting hold of a sheep or goat skin at the end of the when it leaves the skin on the ground for the other competitors to fight over cook there is normally played at weddings at the end of each celebration when everyone has had plenty of vodka to drink the Brian's father through the skin onto the ground and the person that manages to carry it to the ger of that bride's parents will receive a prize a Yank but difficulty is not just fighting against the other guests often in the bride's house is so far away that the game can go on for seven odd but a Yank is a prize well worth fighting for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the day of the competition Dawn's clear and sunny since the first light of morning the participants have been taking up their positions at the top of a hill a certain nervousness can be felt in the air and not only because it is the first time that so many hunters have come together to test their skills but also because yesterday inside the gas many bets were laid and some may had bet rather too much the first part of the competition consists of releasing the Eagles one by one on the signal of a pennant towards a fox skin pulled along by a horse the five birds of prey that took least time to reach the fox skin will go into the final where this time the target will be a live fox [Music] evening is drawing in and then five finalists are ready for the grand final Kumada come they must a hunter is one of them [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the competition has ended and the participants go to collect their evils the koomer gun was not the winner but he doesn't mind too much next year he will return with his son ballet Ganon and his friends to once again Sharon art from the tradition which he remains alive but which unfortunately in his homeland in neighbouring kazakhstan died out long ago with no noisy farewells and more or less in silence the hunters slowly leave George or can head out into their world of infinite spaces and vast horizons in the gobi desert in the middle of october the grass is drying for the Tanzania clan it is time to gather up camp and set off towards less harsh lands in which to spend the winter the Catalan part of the family left in daybreak while the rest have remained loading the camels and organizing the caravan for 8 days of work moving Northwest to the edge of the desert then at the start of spring they will travel up into the highlands of the steppe I'll need to return later to the Gobi that is what their ancestors did that is what they do and that is what their children will do [Music] and that is the story of three ethnic groups that live in a world of constant movement struggling to preserve the most valuable treasure their culture which little by little is being wiped out by society engaged in a headlong rush towards globalization [Music]

Channel: Terra Films TV

Views: 233,159

Keywords: nomadic tribes of Mongolia, Tribes nomads asiatiskas, Asian tribes, Asian ethnicities, Ethnicities of Mongolia, gengis kan, Empire, Mongolia, Houses taken, Nomadic Tribes, Tribes, Nomadas, Mongols, History of Mongolia, Empire of gengis kan, Documentary Mongolia, Documentary tribes nomads, The king of the universe, Tansendaryá, Darhat, Tsaatan, Kazakhs

Id: HiUsj3yRfY4

Length: 51min 26sec (3086 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 13 2018