Two generations of a Kazakh family recall a life of partnership with birds of prey
Train K9736 is the only convoy between Altai prefecture and Ürümqi, departing at 7:50 every evening from Fuyun county in the southern foothills of the Altai Mountains. The train runs from the northernmost tip of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to its heart. En route, it passes through key cities such as Kuytun, located in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Karamay, and Shihezi, taking about fourteen hours to reach its final destination. The train is seldom full, and even the most expensive “soft sleeper” class is priced at only 284 yuan.
When I returned to Xinjiang to visit relatives in 2021, a sudden cancellation of my return flight meant I had no option but to board the K9736. The “hard sleeper” class could sleep six people to a cabin, but there was only one other Kazakh guy inside when I got on. We nodded and smiled by way of greeting each other. At dinnertime, I sat in front of the small table to nibble on my mother’s fragrant bean cake while watching a video that a friend from Inner Mongolia had sent me. On my screen, a Mongolian man was hunting with his eagle. My young fellow passenger suddenly broke his silence. “Hey, do you know how to tame eagles too?”
I shook my head and said that this was just a random video. The young man kept talking. “Did you know that there are falconers in Altai as well?” A shy smile followed. “My grandpa and my dad both tamed eagles. Would you like to hear about them?”
Over the course of my long journey, I got to hear a story of mutual allegiance, accomplishment, and partnership between two generations of falconers and the Aquila chrysaetos, a bird of prey more commonly known as the golden eagle, the “empress of the sky.” The narrator of this intricate tale is none other than my fellow passenger, a Kazakh youth named Yerken.
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The Last Falconers in the Altai Mountains is a story from our issue, “Public Affairs.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
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