Mongolian Art

Just for fun– the cover of a small Mongolian pb treatise on Eagle Hunting (in Mongolian– can’t read a word of it) that I found as I dug deeper into the library.. Sure, it is sort of Soviet- influenced I suppose, but its bold vivid block print style is still striking.

They knew it then…

… so why don’t “They” know it now? Writing in the Lonsdale Libary volume Hound & Dogs in 1932 (ed. A. Croxton Smith), Brigadier-General F, F. Lance said: “The Saluki varies in type according to the country from which he comes. He covers a very large area, extending from Northern Africa to India and from …

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Photo Blogging: Central Asian Textiles

Soviet war -era Afghan battle rug, supposedly of a real battle, obtained from an (American) artist who spent a good part of his youth there. Notice almost NMexican architecture and lack of un- Islamic humans despite tanks and helicopters; as always, click to embiggen: Uzbek gun slip– for, of all things, a Jungle carbine SMLE. …

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Andrey’s Photos

Andrey Kovalenko, ornithologist, breeder of our Kyran, and ace photographer, has a new wildlife photo site. He travels all over Central Asia but I bet more of them are from his own Kazakhstan , with its incredibly varied landscape, than anywhere else. Here is an example, plus one of him with Kyran’s father Berkut and …

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Photoblogging: “Mongoliana”

I have been– I hope forgivably– absent, doing an article, a review, and a long shot (double? triple?) book proposal. As I type too slowly these days, and dictation is still slow for technicalia and odd language, I haven’t had the energy for much blogging; I have done over 12,000 words in the last week …

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Queen Victoria’s Hound?

Terence Clark sent a fine Landseer portrait from the 19th century of what appears to be a female saluki– or, better, tazi; actually to my eye the dog seems eastern, Asian, even specifically “Turkmeni”. She is doing the rarely portrayed “propitiating” smile and but for color resembles Ataika I think. Terence said, quoting the Country …

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Mongol Tazis?

I never saw a tazi in Mongolia but there is evidence they exist, as in this folk painting. It is a common genre but this is the only one I ever saw that had tazis, never mind a Kazakh eagler.Andrew brought me back this wonderful little study in another modern style– I have a horse …

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