ELEPHANTS

Very quickly into my time in Thailand, I learned that I would be surrounded by elephants. Elephants, an animal that may not be killed or eaten, symbolize diligence and integrity for the Thai people. The first Thai flag had a red background with a white elephant. Temples place elephant statues at the bases of their stupas and to guard the entrances to the shrines.

It is said that the mother of Siddhartha Guatama, the man who went on to become the Buddha, once had a dream that a white elephant carrying lotus flowers entered into her side. She then became pregnant with Siddhartha, the one who achieves his aim. Later on, one of the Buddha's detractors, the brother of his wife--a man by the name of Devadatta--tried to kill the Buddha one day by sending a charging elephant toward the path of the Buddha. The elephant halted, however, and the Buddha's life was spared. Devadatta was later swallowed by the earth.

The King of the Lanna region of Northern Thailand, of which Chiangmai is the capital, sent an elephant to traverse the mountain side, carrying one of the relics of the Buddha, in search of a suitable location for the new temple. The elephant climbed the mountain what is now known as Doi Suthep, circled the same spot three times and then died. Chiangmai's holiest mountain is home to this temple, Wat Phratap Doi Suthep. In an area near Chiangmai, a wild white elephant is said to have roamed. No one would buy the land, for fear of the ghost of the elephant, so a Christian doctor, by the name of McKean, purchased the land and build a hospital for lepers which serves those who suffer from this disease to this day.

Ajaan Sulak, a noted social activist, places himself in front a bull dozer that is waiting to clear a forest for the imposition of a new gas pipeline, but the forest is home to one of the last remaining herds of wild elephants. While Ajaarn Sulak protests the action, several of the elephants come and stand next to him, protecting him.

Thai loggers employ elephants and their makouts (life long companion) to uproot and carry trees from the northern forests of Thailand. The forests are denuded, with the help of the elephants, at a rapidly increasing rate until there are virtually no forests left. The government puts a ban on logging and suddenly the elephants and their companions are out of work, begging on the streets of Thailand or confined to elephant camps where they give demonstrations about their logging work. The Queen of Thailand preserves land just outside of Lamphun for the Royal Conservatory. Elephants there play music, paint with their trunks, demonstrate logging, forage in the forests at night, and offer their dung for the making of 100% dung paper. A hospital on the grounds cares for elephants that come to the conservatory from other provinces, where they have been maimed by land mines in Laos or suffer stress disorders from the London Circus. People who are interested in elephants can come to this conservatory and spend a few days or a month, learning how to care for the elephants. Other elephants live in compounds without so much freedom, performing their daily chores for tourists, giving rides up the ping river, etc.