Falconry: the "winged" tradition of Turkmens
September 22, 2018 | 02:47 |1760
In Germany, the four-volume encyclopedia "Bird of prey and hunting" was recently published. In addition to feathered predators from other countries of Asia, Africa, Europe and America, it tells about falcons of Turkmenistan. In this same section, there are also the publications of Ata Eberdiyev, chairman of the National Falcon Society of Turkmenistan. ... His first article on hunting birds of Turkmenistan was published in the mid-eighties of the last century in the newspaper "Turkmen spark". At the same time, namely in 1988, there was a debut of publications outside of Turkmenistan - in the Russian press - the newspaper "The Right Hunt". From 2006 to 2008, 14 articles were published in Safari magazine, and it was no accident that the magazine's editorial board named the Ashgabat falconer one of its best authors, writing about hunting birds and Turkmen greyhound dogs - tazy.Maksat BERDYEV
In 2014, the Ukrainian magazine "Hunting" on its pages also gave the word to the Turkmen falconer, and in 2015 the German annual catalog published three of his articles on feathered predators. A total of 68 articles were published during the period of educational work in the publications of different countries, including the central press of Turkmenistan.
The main idea of these publications is the popularization of hunting with hunting birds, and the traditions of Turkmens associated with it. 10 years ago, in 2007, the publishing house "Turkmenistan" saw the book of Ata Eyberdiyev "Turkmen Falconers ", illustrated with photographs of the author. And this book, according to its author, is an intermediate result of the educational activities of the National Falcon Society of Turkmenistan.
In 1999, a falconers' club of Turkmenistan was established in Ashgabat, renamed the National Falcon Society of Turkmenistan in 2007. There are only three sections in it, but each of them has enthusiasts of the business. The first section is ornithology. Fans of the world of birds of prey are people of different professions. Among them, only one scientist, Juma Saparmuradov, Ph.D. in ornithology, a member of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan and head of the ornithology section of the National Falcon Society, combines theory with practice.
Others may not be so strong in certain terms of this science, but have a rich experience of contact with birds of prey. Among them there are artists, entrepreneurs, shepherds - more than 100 people form the basis of the society of falconry enthusiasts. They conduct observations in the field, record the location of bird "apartments" in nature, take into account the number of nests of the falcon Falcon. Although in addition to this species, Turkmenistan is also inhabited by its "cousins" - peregrins, gyrfalcon and shahin ...
To see its dinner, carelessly running through the steppe, the falcon does not need to go up to the boundless heights to see a "dish" from a jerboa, a vole or a hare. For the falcon, the climb limit is 1.5 - 2 kilometers, from where it "scans" the smallest details of the landscape in an area of up to five thousand square meters. And when it sees its potential victim, it tumbles down like a stone, while the rate of fall is 200-270 kilometers per hour. However, to see its food, it can be simply sitting on the hand of his friend-owner.
From time immemorial birds Turkmens hunted on a hare, and today this tradition of "fostering" a falcon has not lost its urgency. Forty days after the laying of eggs (which occurs in March), chicks appear. And already at the age of two weeks falcons are removed from the nest, while if the chick is there alone, in this case the falconers adhere to the unshakable rule: it must be left. Adult birds quite easily tolerate withdrawal if they have at least one chick.
Taking custody of the children of nature, a person for three and a half months - from the middle of May to the end of August - feeds the chicks heavily, until they have plumage. And here the diet is diverse - jerboa, pigeons, ground squirrels - it is in the meat of these fauna representatives that there are important elements that strengthen the feathers of the chick.
Formation of skills in hunting with a man begins in September and this process lasts about six months. All this time it sits on a chair, holding its back firmly, its legs getting used to balancing. A lot depends on proper nutrition. The bird is fed three times a day and only fresh meat. One month before the beginning of the hunting season, the toe begins: daily, in the morning and in the evening, for one and a half hours the falconer must wear a bird on his hand. A day or two later, the falcon itself begins at a certain hour to wave its wings non-stop, as if asking to "walk." This trains not only the bird, it educates patience, endurance and discipline at its owner. At the same time the young falcons have a new dish - a steppe hare-Tolai - in general, a falcon meets with its future prey.
And so that in the excitement of hunting far away the falcon is not lost, the hunter applies the ancient attribute - the wader - with the help of which the feathered predator finds its way to its master. This device consists of a koshma, measuring 20 by 15 centimeters, trimmed with a red cloth. A small piece of meat is tightly tied to a koshma, and then this bait rotates on a rope 1-1.5 meters long. A sharp falcon eye catches this hindrance, flies up, snatches meat, and already on the ground eats this prize. Then the person again takes the falcon on the arm.
At the same time, the falcon is introduced to the future "colleague" of hunting - the Turkmen greyhound - tazy. From the age of six months, the four-legged assistant begins to learn the skills of pair hunting with a hunting bird. With the correct approach to the education of pets, a unique tandem is obtained from them. True, the "first fiddle" in hunt for a hare is still a falcon, while tazy acts as an assistant. However, the details of the correct training of dogs are mirrored in the process of hunting: the clever dog knows what and how to do without the advice of the elder brother - the man.
For the first time the world saw Turkmen falconers at the end of the XIX century ... in the photo. The first daguerreotype (originally called photographs on plates) is dated 1890. On it - a middle-aged man in national clothes with his falcon. An interesting detail of the photo - both have a piercing look, as if a person and a bird can read people's thoughts. The picture was taken by the Frenchman Paul Nadan at the World Agricultural Exhibition held in Tashkent. The World Network helped to discover this photo in the annals of history. It was thanks to the Internet that an invaluable snapshot of the Turkmen falconer was found in late 2016, and the author of this discovery is Ata Ahmedov, a great lover of the history of Turkmen hunters with trapping birds.
The second shot was born in 1921 - "Turkmen falconers visiting Uzbek hunters with hunting birds" is recorded in the catalog of the London Museum "Man and Nature". In 2009, a delegation of Turkmen falconers became a participant of the World Festival of Hunters. In the program of cultural events of the festival there was a visit to the museum, where Ata Eberdiyev found this photo.
The third photo is also from the twenties of the twentieth century. A personal portrait of the Turkmen greyhound -tazy was made in 1927 at the II All-Russian exhibition of hunting dogs, organized by the Moscow Society of Hunters. The photograph was published in the magazine "Hunting and Hunting Economy" for the year of 1967. Specialized edition is carefully kept in the Central Library of Turkmenistan.
In the year of the creation of their social organization the Turkmen falconers went on their first foreign business trip. Colleagues from Kazakhstan invited them to Astana to take part in the International Festival of Hunters from 45 countries. Already in the following year, in 2000, in the city of Amarillo (Texas, USA), the National Falconry Society of Turkmenistan was officially registered with the International Association of Falconry and Safeguarding of Hunting birds.
This community specializes in preserving the ancient art of falconry and its traditions. In 2001, the meeting of the members of the International Association of Falconry and Safari was held in Paris, where the chairman of the National Falconers' Society of Turkmenistan made a presentation of the historical material about the traditional hunting of Turkmens with hunting birds. And in 2013, in a suburb of the Danish capital Copenhagen, a video about the falconry hunting of Turkmen (operator Ata Eberdiyev, composer Serdar Khaidarov) was recognized as the best among the other forty-five clips presented for the contest of the International Falconers Festival.
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In 2016, UNESCO, noting the close connection with such concepts as environmental protection, cultural heritage, the prevalence in 60 countries of the world, included falconry in the list of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind. In our country this heritage is treasured by the National Falconers Society of Turkmenistan.
Photo of Ata EYEBERDIYEV and from the archive of the National Falconry Society of Turkmenistan.
