The Horse Thief, Chapter III
Homeland
The Horse Thief by Dimitri Staszewski, Chapter III
Otor is a practice of moving herds great distances to find better pasture and for the Kazakhs in Western Mongolia is only necessary during the harshest of winters. During otor, nomadic herders will bring their animals from their winter pastures to their summer pastures during the terrible weather. Otor is a last resort in many ways, a final push to find enough food to keep a herd fed through the winter.
The horse boats ‘I can see half the world in the dark.’ The wolf boasts ‘I can see the whole world in the dark.’
As he was herding his animals, he saw the snow leopard attacking one of his goats. A thin line of blood created a trail in the snow which allowed him to chase the leopard. Following the trail for several kilometers, Ozat came to the base of a sheer cliff. Holding the goat in its mouth, the snow leopard bounded up the sheer cliff that no human could climb. Ozat had to stop and watch in awe as the snow leopard, never stumbling, climbed away with his goat in its mouth. There was nothing he could do.
The wolf says, “I don’t need the food. I kill to show my authority.” If a wolf attacks your animals, it kills all of them.
On another occasion Ozat saw two hundred sheep that had been killed by a pack of eight wolves. “Their bodies were spread out over three or four kilometers. This happened because the herder wasn’t with his animals that day,” he told me. When the herder finally saw what was happening he ran to save his animals—but it was too late. They had already been killed. “It there’s someone with the animals, wolves will never come like that,” explained Ozat.
In my own life, a parable about wolves and horses can only have metaphorical application. In Western Mongolia, it is part of everyday life. Leskhan Altaikhan once told me, “My homeland is the place where the blood of my navel was dropped.” Kazakh herders’ generational connection to the land they inhabit has made them an inherent part of the landscape. They exist alongside the golden eagles that nest in the mountainsides and the wolves who assert their authority when necessary.
Photography & Words by Dimitri Staszewski
Films by Dimitri Staszewski
Edited by Bis Turnor
Editor in Chief Vincenzo Angileri
Executive Producers Albert Folch, Rafa Martínez
Dimitri Staszewski
Documentary Photographer and Film Director
@dimitri.photo
