The videos were filmed in Mongolian Reindeer herders & Taiga forest.
For thousands of years, the Tsaatan, or Dukha people have lived with their reindeer on the remote steppes of central Asia. Originally from further west, in 1944 the Tsaatan fled from the Russian region now known as the Republic of Tuva. Many families were afraid of losing their herds due to the Soviet government’s practice of requisitioning domestic animals during World War II, and the region was also suffering from food shortages and diseases, for which they had little resistance.
Now living near Tsagaan Nuur Lake in northern Khövsgöl in Mongolia, the Tsaatan were eventually granted Mongolian citizenship in 1956, after a number of attempts at deportation. One of the last groups of nomadic reindeer herders in the world, the Tsaatan people will usually move their homes and their herds between five and ten times each year.
Today, reindeer populations are shrinking, and there are maybe only 40 families who continue to live their ancestors’ traditional way of life.
