World Nomads Film Festival

Tes River Mongolians

⏱️ 58 min 🌍 Mongolia 🎬 Joseph L. Subbiondo / Asian Cultural Council 👥 Mongol Herders
Tes River Mongolians

Official Synopsis

The Tes River flows from the Bulnai Mountains through three Mongolian provinces – Khuvsgul, Zavkhan and Uvs – feeds into Lake Uvs, registered by UNESCO in 2013 as a Natural World Heritage site. On the banks of the river live mobile herder families who believe the river is God’s blessing for them, being the source of their livelihood and of water for humans and animals. The film shows the lifestyle of Mongolian herders, rotational grazing of rangelands and people’s attitudes to and respect for their natural environment, by depicting the lives of three families living near the top, middle and end of the Tes River Valley.

Filmmaker Biography

Filmmaker(s): Joseph L. Subbiondo / Asian Cultural Council

Joseph L. Subbiondo is an ethnographic filmmaker supported by the Asian Cultural Council, documenting nomadic music, oral epics, and seasonal camp migrations along the Tes River in northwestern Mongolia.

Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E.. (2000). The Role of Mongolian Nomadic Pastoralists' Ecological Knowledge in Rangeland Management. Ecological Applications , 10 (5) , 1318–1326. https://doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1318:tromnp]2.0.co;2
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