One of the highlights of our trip to the Northwest was our day trip to the Elephant Nature Park. Elephants play an important role in Thai culture, and especially in the Thai tourism industry--particularly in the Northwest. After all, Chang (alternately spelled Chiang) is the Thai word for elephant, which is also the name of one of the leading brands of Thai beer (another matter I'll get into at a later time) and is in the names of multiple cities in the Northwest including Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, both of which we visited. Unfortunately, the treatment of elephants in Thailand does not match the cultural adoration for them across the board.
The Elephant Nature Park is a large outdoor sanctuary for rescued elephants, buffaloes, dogs and cats--all of which live in harmony along with their human caretakers. The Sanctuary is about an hours drive from Chiang Mai in the beautiful sweeping hills. We were picked up from our hotel and taken there along with our tour group of eight or so travelers. On the way we were shown a video which explained the history and mission of the Elephant Nature Park along with the history of the treatment of elephants in Thailand more broadly speaking. It was a sad story.
It told of how elephants have been used in Thailand for generations in the logging industry and the entertainment/tourism industry, each of which involve the same process of breaking the elephants' spirit in order to "domesticate" them. I won't go into the gory details but the gist is that anytime you see an elephant doing something it wouldn't naturally do, such as painting a picture or giving people rides or performing tricks it is because the mighty beast has been essentially tortured into submission. The elephant trainers (called Mahouts) carry sticks with a sharp metal hook at the end that they use to ensure the elephants behave. This is the dark side of the elephant industry in Thailand, but it's not the whole story. There are tourist destinations for elephant enthusiasts that are ethical, such as the sanctuary we visited.
As we approached our destination we drove past a few other elephant parks, and we saw groups of tourists riding elephants through the woods. This is among the more common elephant attractions in the region, but having just watched the video all of us in the van felt tangibly judgmental of the uninformed or uncaring tourists contributing to what had essentially been portrayed to us as elephant slavery. Of course there is always pleasure to be taken in asserting moral superiority, and the Nature Park definitely isn't shy in selling itself on that. When one amoung our tour group asked our guide how the endeavor was funded she was clear in answering that it was tourists like us who provided them their funding. This felt good to know, but the greatest joy of the experience was of course in spending time with the elephants.
The Nature Park is home to around 70 elephants, most of them female and all but the few that were born there resued from other industries. Some of them have been donated but most of them were bought by the Park. Many of them had to recover from psychological distress and some from serious physical injury. We met one elephant who had stepped on a landmine while working for a logging company in Cambodia, and it was missing a big chunk of a hind foot. In spite of all that, the elephants seemed to my untrained eye to be genuinely happy, and they enjoyed quite a bit of freedom.
At first we hung out in the dining area (for humans) which was covered but open on the sides, encircled by rails, and we got to feed an elephant big slices of watermelon and whole cucumbers. It was fascinating to witness the dexterity and control with which an elephant manipulates its trunk. An elephant's trunk is basically an omnidextrous arm with two opposable "thumbs" (for lack of a better word) at the end that it can use to grab things and bring them to its mouth, if it so chooses.
After feeding time we were guided on a walk through a section of the park and we simply stopped at each place where an elephant or a family of elephants happened to be at the time and our guide gave us some history about each one we encountered. I was amazed by how open everthing was. No fences or barricades aside from those surrounding certain buildings. The elephants and other animals were truly free to go as they pleased around the considerably large grounds. We were told that each family or herd had preferred places they were usually to be found, but this was of their own choosing.
We were advised not to approach the elephants unless otherwise told, and many of them we observed from a comfortable distance of 20 to 50 feet, but others we were allowed to approach. Generally they would have a caretaker there feeding the elephant to keep it occupied while we took turns approaching, and if we so chose, touching the elephant on its side. Their skin is very rough and leathery, and surprisingly bristly, but it felt good to touch such magnificent and powerful creatures, especially since they didn't seem at all bothered by the attention. The only method of coercion used on the elephants there was bribery with food, which they seemed perfectly pleased with. These elephants eat well, too. Melons and cucumbers and other good fresh food were plentifully provided by local farms.
Aside from feeding and walking with the elephants the other main guided activity was washing the elephants. We watched a number of them mud themselves up which was quite entertaining, then they were guided down to the river with buckets of fruit and we stood around them with buckets throwing water on them and just generally being highly amused. Of course in doing so we undid all their hard work of coating themselves with mud, so inevitably a few of the freshly washed elephants walked back to the mud pile afterwards and gave themselves a fresh coat to ward off the bugs and temper the heat of the sun.
Elephants are very intelligent animals, and apparently have an emotional life not so different from humans. They form strong bonds with family and others that they allow to join their herds, and they stick together. We met a young elephant and we were warned to never get between it and it's "godmother", who was known to be quite protective of her charge. The young one was very playful and delightful to watch but we had to keep our distance.
It was a very rewarding experience and not for a moment did I wish that I could ride one or watch it perform tricks for me. It was much more satisfying to witness these beautiful beasts in an environment in which they were comfortable and allowed to simply be themselves. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Chiang Mai.
No comments:
Post a Comment