Chang Thai National Thai Elephant Day, March 13 2002
It is not unexpected that most Thai people hold the Elephant in such high esteem and reverence. When one takes a map and looks
at the geographic boundaries of present day Thailand, it takes
little imagination to realize that the country is shaped like an
elephant's head and trunk. The head rests here in the North, the
ears flare back to Esarn in the East and the trunk drapes down to
Haad Yai in the deep South. Thailand is to the elephant as the
elephant is to Thailand connected to each other traditionally,
emotionally, symbolically, regally and Royally. To honor this
most gentle, yet powerful, of animals the National Thai Elephant
Day is being hosted at the Maesa Elephant Camp (10kms along the
Mae RimSamoeng Road) on 13th March. Admission to the Camp (from 12 noon
onwards) is FREE so this will be a day for Thais, and visitors to
meet and fall in love (again!) with that most noble of creatures
the Elephant.Traditionally and historically, the elephant has had a long association with Thailand. It's strength, power, ponderous dignity and majesty has ensured it a special place in the hearts of Thai Kings for many centuries. Even today, H.M. King Bhumibol has a stable of Royal Elephants. A white Elephant is especially sacred and auspicious. When one is found, it immediately becomes the property of the reigning Monarch. Long ago, when Thai Kings waged war against invading enemies, it was the elephant which provided the "heavy" war equipment. Elephants were the battlewagons and tanks of the day from which, aloft the elephants neck, the King (or Noble) could see and engage the enemy.
In
more recent times during the last century, elephants were
engaged in the extraction of heavy teaklogs from the forests.
These were working elephants and they were sent into forest areas
where machines would cause too much devastation.For all of its ponderous size, and elephant is very surefooted and surprisingly dainty and swift of step. A mature, working elephant can readily lift 700kgs weight or haul a towton log for one kilometer without a break. To have an elephant work in a disciplined fashion requires years of training. This begins when a baby elephant is 3 years old and sent to school (a visit to the Young Elephant Training Centre at Haang Chatt District, experience). The young elephant is introduced to his, or her, "bosses" an experienced mahout and his apprentice. Both will be bonded with the elephant for as long as life permits and will be totally responsible for the elephant's training, future work schedule and career. Not only will they train and work with their charge, they will also play with their elephant because elephants love a bit of fun and can be quite mischievous.
Nowadays, with the Thai timber industry in decline, the friendly elephant is seeing more and more of the millions of visitors who visit Thailand each year. They have adjusted well to being the centre of tourist admiration they are happy to take the visitor for a ride a top that massive back or further afield on a trekking expedition. The elephant is happy to entertain by demonstrating how it used to work by hauling and stacking logs Elephants are "team" player in such operation. It is also a team player when a friendly game of soccer is arranged just see how nimble footed they can be! And, just to show how unabashed they are in public, the elephant is happy to entertain by taking a bath in the nude! Like any creature which gives its loyalty and devotion to humankind, the elephant loves affection and attention and gives the same in return to those who care for it.
On the downside, sometimes visitors will see unscrupulous humans exploiting elephants by making them beg for money in the streets of Chiangmai. Please do not innocently support such exploitation. It is not only against the laws of nature, it is against the laws of Thailand! Anyone seeing this exploitation should protest, in writing, to the Press, the Provincial Governor, the City Lord Mayor and, indeed, Thailand's Prime Minister Khun Taksin. These gentlemen have no wish to see elephants exploited by being forced to beg for money but catching the human culprits is not always easy.
Chaang Thai the National Elephant Day on 13th March at Maesa Elephant Camp is to honor, support and pay respect to this wonderful animal which is so much a part of Thailand's heritage and culture. At the Maesa Camp, there will be a kantoke feast for the elephants, traditional blessing ceremonies and Chiangmai University's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine will be presenting an exhibition on elephants and a display of those endearing baby elephants.
The Thai Elephant Warrior, Royal Pet. Workmate, Transporter and Entertainer a Friend worthy of the highest regard and respect. Do remember them on March 13 and try to get along to the Maesa Elephant Camp.
http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/elephants_national_day.html
HOW MANY TIMES is the word "trunk" used in our English language -- main trunk line, baggage trunk, swimming trunks, telephone trunk call - are but some. There is even the song "Nellie the Elephant Packed her Trunk and said Good-bye to the Circus".
This article is not so much about Nellie the Elephant, or a
Circus, but about elephants in general and how they are trained
so that they are integrated into everyday part of Thai life.
The role of elephants in warfare was always of paramount importance in Siam and the older kingdoms of Southeast Asia. They were the main form of transport
to and from the battlefield, and they constituted the main force
of an army. Serving the same purpose as a horse cavalry in the
west, the number of manned elephants for warfare often determined
the ultimate winner of the war. This feature of War Elephants
was most renowned in the 300-year-war between Burma and Thailand
which resulted in Burma's sacking of Ayutthaya in 1767. Today,
elephant war tactics are recreated at a number of Thailand's
elephant training centers. Called the "Kraal Paniad", staged battles on elephant-back are an astounding display of elephants' innate talent and ability to learn. 
Elephants have a special talent for sports. They have their own games in the privacy
of the forest and are often very competitive, but they play
sports they are taught too. One of these is a competitive race on
an obstacle course, where each elephant is required to pick up various items
along the way, hold these with his trunk, and return them to the
finish line . In one of Thailand's elephant training centers,
the objects are Coke bottles . Another sport the elephants are
taught to play is elephant football. In this
game the elephants toss around a rather large ball,using their
trunks and competing to see who can score the highest. These are fun
sports for the elephant and require a little more thought than
their traditional water games of spraying themselves and others. 
The Elephant Caravan
is a very special trained function of the elephant in Thailand. A
long line of elephants with their packs and their passengers can
travel over any terrain, however steep and treacherous. This was
the most efficient form of land transport in
Thailand until the arrival of the railway and the automobile, and in the
jungle and mountain areas today is still the most desirable and
the safest way to go. Elephants in a caravan have broad wooden seats
strapped onto their backs and tied with heavy rope. Passengers
and goods sit on these seats while the mahout, or trainer, rests
on the elephant's neck and guides him a long. An elephant caravan
can consist of any number of elephants, and they all stay
together because they like the company of their own kind.
Tug-o'-War
is one of the elephants' favorite games played with another
species, man. Apparently very fond of competition, and all the
more so when pitted against their trainers, elephants are extremely stubborn when it comes to push and pull.
In Tug-'o-War, they demonstrate their true physical power in a
way that leaves no one in doubt. It takes more than 70 men to
bring one elephant to a draw in a Tug-o'-War contest. Some of
Thailand's training centers stage the same competition with men
on horseback, and in this case one elephant requires six or seven
competitors to give him a real battle.
A Trek
is something most of us think of as a walk or a hike on foot,
and while this is true many of northern Thailand's treks include
at least part of the journey by elephant. This
is similar to the caravan, and trekkers always find the ride on those
wooden seats a bit more physically demanding than they thought
possible. But the experience is one of a kind. The elephants
travel dense jungle area on a trek. They climb steep hills of mud
and earth, traverse ledges between tree lines and hillside
drops, and all the while sway back and forth in their efforts to
maintain balance. Seldom will an elephant become afraid in terrain like this. What will scare him is a car, a truck, or a helicopter overhead, but not the jungle. All you have to do is hold on to your seat. It's fun.
Elephants, like people, place a high value on friendship.
In any elephant group the elephants tend to pair up and stay
very close together with their friends. They have their likes and dislikes, of course, but in a caravan or on a trek for example, the mahouts have to take special care in lining up
the elephants before departure. They are placed one behind the
other so that friends are together. If an elephant is placed
apart from his friend, he will likely refuse to budge and the
caravan will not move. Elephant friendship becomes most obvious when the female is about ready to give birth.
She searches out her friend and solicits help in delivery. This
the friend does willingly, and even helps separate the placenta
from the newborn baby.
Dance
is a rare talent but onto the elephants sees to have a certain
knack for. They're intelligent, nimble and have a natural sway to
their walk, but most of all they love music. In Thailand, elephants are trained to perform dance routines to various numbers in the rock, jazz and folk
categories. Their trainers line them up and when the music
begins they receive the command to start. They sway and prance to
the rhythm, trunks swinging, feet keeping time with the beat,
and heads swaying to and fro. When the music changes, they're
steps change with it, perhaps from a fast tempo to a slow, melancholy
waltz. The elephant's preference for music and talent for dance
should not surprise us; music is how the great circuses of the world train their elephants to perform.
Logging
is the vocation of the majority of Thailand's elephants today.
This is the trade they're taught at the country's various
elephant camps and it's a trade they like. It's a useful economic contribution in the many forested areas of the country where elephants have proven to be much more efficient than tractors and cables. Elephants are trained for 20 years before they're ready to work as full, independent and experienced loggers. At the age of 20 they begin their 35-year career of work, and at 55 or 60 they retire.
During the working day, they have their regular work hours,
their lunch hour, and their rest periods. The ease with which an
elephant can pick up a log and move it almost anywhere
demonstrates how powerful this creature is. You can view this and
the many other talents of the elephant at any of Thailand's
elephant training centers.
Elephants have been revered in Thailand for many centuries. Famous
as the strongest beasts of burden, in Thailand they were important
in battle, with kings mounted on Elephants fighting the Burmese to
defend Thailand on many occasions. They have also been noted for
their intelligence, memory and pleasant nature. A Thai legend has
it that a marriage is like an elephant-- the husband is the front
legs, that choose the direction, the wife the back legs, providing
the power ! A white elephant is even included in the flag of
the Royal Thai navy, and the "order of the white elephant" is one
of the highest honours, bestowed by the king. White elephants,
in fact, are very rarely completely white. The skin has to be
very pale in certain areas to qualify as a "white elephant" 
In the past, wild elephants were caught and trained. The city of 
Elephant calves begin their training when they are about four
years old. They quickly learn and obey the words of command. They
get to know their driver (mahout), and get used to being mounted
and dismounted. For the first month they are kept restrained in a
wooden 'crush' while they learn the basics. Later, they
learn more complex instructions needed to work with teak logs,
including kneeling, picking things up, dragging, rolling, pushing,
carrying etc. By the age of ten, they are ready for 'graduation', and
the work of an adult. A working elephant can lift 700kg, and haul
two tons of wood one kilometre without a break. Their natural
walking speed is about 4km per hour. They reach their physical
peak at 25 years old, and work until they are 60 years old, then
they are retried and set free. 
There are several sites which have daily elephant shows. The
closest is at Mae Sa, only 20 kms from Chiangmai. Further afield is
Chiang Dao elephant camp, another 30 kms north. 80kms south of
Chiangmai, on the road to Lampang, is the 'Thai Elephant
conservation Centre'. Under Royal patronage, opened by 
The Lampang Elephant Conservation Center managed
by the Forest Industry Organization is under the government
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. The Center's main
concerns are to sustainably conserve Thai elephants, to protect
and to provide them with veterinary care, to support responsible
development of eco-tourism and to take care of auspicious
elephants known as "changpuak" or white elephants. In Tourism circles,
the Thai Elephant Conservation Center received an award from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)
in 1998. The center has many activities in which elephants play a
part which visitors can watch such as training elephants to draw
and to play musical instruments.
for
years. He grew up around elephants and as a young man worked as a
travelling salesman that allowed him to meet elephants in many
inaccessible areas. The communities there soon learned to trust him and
to turn to him for help when their elephants were unwell. Learning to
administer these elephants medicine increased his love of the animals
and he trained at the famous elephant hospital in Lampang, before
opening Thai Elephant Home in 2006.
loyal to her owner, who spends a lot of time working with her, little
Waan, born in 2005, already has her sights set on an Oscar.