The Tsaatan People A photography project by Madoka Ikegami
Madoka Ikegami’s documentary series portrays the Tsaatan People, one of Mongolia’s last remaining groups of nomadic reindeer herders, whose millennia-old traditions are increasingly under threat.
The Tsaatan seasonally migrate within the forests of the Taiga in search of better weather conditions and food for their animals, who they depend on for milk and transportation.
Today, they icreasingly face challenges to their traditional way of life; recently introduced laws aimed at conservation limit their ability to freely hunt wild animals for food, and climate change has put their habitat under serious threat, whilst the changing weather also appears to be exposing the reindeer to new diseases.
Previously self-supporting, they now are partially dependent on government handouts and revenue from tourism which enables them to buy meat and other supplies.
– Discover more of Madoka’s work here
