Tes River Mongolians

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 full-length film (56 min, of which this is an excerpt) 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.

The full-film with English subtitles can be found here. The 8-min excerpt made for the IYRP 2026 can be viewed here.