Alessandra Meniconzi | Golden Mountains
Photo � Alessandra Meniconzi-All Rights Reserved I am pleased to feature the work of Alessandra Meniconzi, one of my favorite travel photographers, on the Berkutchi of Central Asia . She tells us that in Kazak language, Berkutchi, means �hunters with the falcon�. Hunting with eagles is a traditional form of falconry. With extreme patience and dedication the Kazakh have domesticated golden eagles, and their techniques were originally adopted by nomadic populations in Central Asia�s plateaus, and eventually spread to the rest of the world. For those interested in linguistics, the Kazakh word for golden eagle is " b�rkit ", and the word for "hunter with eagles" is b�rtkitshi . There are only about 40 officially recognized eagle-hunters in Kazakhstan today, but a village named Nura is its epicenter because it has 14 of them. Kazakh interest in eagle-hunting has been growing since the republic became independent with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Hunting wit...