ASIAN ELEPHANTS AND HUMANS: HISTORY, ROYALTY AND POLO

ASIAN ELEPHANTS AND HUMANS

Elephant on a Roman mosaic

Elephants are the largest animals that have been domesticated by humans. David Montgomery wrote in the Washington Post, “For nearly all of human history, these highly intelligent, largest of land animals have been figures of fascination and function, drafted for service in transportation, warfare, construction, pageantry and entertainment. The first elephant imported to the United States arrived in the 1790s and was promptly put on exhibit. By the mid-1800s, they were popular circus performers.. [Source: David Montgomery, Washington Post, December 16, 2009]

Highly adaptable, Asian elephants can live in various wild and human habitats, including forests, open grasslands, agricultural fields and tea plantations. Richard Lair, regarded as an expert domesticated Asian elephants, wrote: “Clearly, a domesticated elephants is simply a wild animal in chains — but a wild animal frequently gentle and intelligent enough to be totally trustworthy as baby-sitter to watch over human infants.” Scientists can identify individual elephants by the different shapes of their ears and other makings.They sometimes track elephant from sound of stomach.

Humans and elephants have other bonds, Elephants suffer from indigestion, respiratory problems and even have colds like human beings. Zoo elephants have died from herpes and been cured with anti-vital medicines that have cured humans. Wild elephants have also died of elephant herpes. Tetanus is an often fatal disease for elephants.

If an elephant comes chasing after you the best thing to do is run behind a tree or solid, stationary object. If there are trees or solid, stationary objects around...I don't know, run like hell.

Book: “Gone Astray” by Richard Lair is regarded as the definitive book on domestic Asian elephants. Lair is known as “Professor Elephant.” He trained elephants for the Disney film, “Operation Dumbo Drop”.

Websites and Resources: Save the Elephants savetheelephants.org; International Elephant Foundation elephantconservation.org; Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; BBC Earth bbcearth.com; A-Z-Animals.com a-z-animals.com; Live Science Animals livescience.com; Animal Info animalinfo.org ; World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worldwildlife.org the world’s largest independent conservation body; National Geographic National Geographic ; Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) iucnredlist.org

Love and Respect of Elephants in Asia

Buddha’s mother, Queen Maya, dreamed that a white elephant approached her holding a lotus flower in its trunk and then disappeared into her womb. Jennie Rothenberg Gritz wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Royal counselors told the queen that the elephant was an auspicious sign, that she was going to give birth to a great king or spiritual leader. Chan smiled. “I think there’s another story about Buddha, that in one of his previous lives he was an elephant.” [Source: Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian magazine, April 2020]

“Legends like these are one reason some Asian cultures tend to have a soft spot for elephants, in spite of all the trouble they can cause. Hindus worship the elephant-headed god Ganesh, a son of Lord Shiva, who is known as the remover of obstacles. Some Asian countries prohibit the killing of elephants. In Thailand, for instance, the penalty is up to seven years in jail and/or a fine of up to $3,200. Such prohibitions date back as far as 300 B.C., when a Hindu text, the Arthashastra, laid out the rules for building elephant sanctuaries and decreed that killing an elephant there would be punishable by death.

Researchers say that the traditional reverence for elephants may not deter angry farmers. Sateesh Venkatesh, a 32-year-old graduate student who is researching elephants under the joint supervision of Hunter College and Smithsonian scientists, said “When you’re spending three or four nights a week chasing elephants out of your fields, you might not be thinking about Ganesh at that time.”

Ganesh

Ganesh Ganesh is the Hindu elephant-headed god of prosperity, wisdom, success, intelligence and good luck. Very popular, particularly in Bombay and southern and western India, he is known as the creator and remover of obstacles, bestower of happiness and the eliminator of sorrow. Hindus pray and make offerings to him before beginning a journey, buying a house, starting a performance or launching a business venture. Even other gods pay tribute to him before they engage in any kind of activity so he can remove obstacles.

Ganesh is the son of Shiva and Parvati. Believed to have evolved from a fertility god, he is often depicted with a huge pot belly, slightly dwarfish, sitting like a Buddha or riding on a five -headed cobra or a rat. He has two or four arms. In one hand he carries rice balls, or sweetmeats (he is fond of eating and especially loves sweets). In another he holds broken pieces of his tusks, with which it said he inscribed the Mahabharata as the sages dictated it to him. Sometimes his trunk rests in a bowl that he hold in one of his hands. Sometimes he carries a trident to indicate his link to Shiva. Other times he carries a noose or an elephant goad. Ganesh’s association with rats comes from the ability of rats to gnaw through anything and remove obstacles.

Ganesh is often the god that people pray for help with their everyday problems. National Geographic nature photographer Frans Lanting wrote that in India: “Statues of Ganesha re everywhere — on car dashboards and in homes. Because of their connections to Ganesh, some people even treat wild elephants that raid their crops with respect. Farmers have even prostrated themselves before a rouge elephant instead of running it off.”

Stories About Ganesh

The are several stories explaining how Ganesh obtained his elephant head. According to one he attempted to block Shiva from entering a room where Parvati was bathing. Shiva was angered by this and chopped off Ganesh’s human head. After Parvati made a fuss, Shiva replaced the head with the head of the next animal he saw, which happened to be an elephant.

A popular Ganesh story that Indian parents like to tell their children goes: Ganesh and his brother were challenged to a foot race three times around the world by their mother. Ganesh’s brother took off around the world with lightning speed but Ganesh won by simply circling his parents three times, saying "you are my world."

In September 1995, there were reports of Ganesh drinking milk in Calcutta and Jersey City within hours of each other. Not long after that there reports of Virgin Mary statutes drinking milk in Cheshire, England and Kuala Lumpur.

Elephants and History

Elephants have been "caught, broken, trained and put to work” in Asia for more than 4,000 years. The first elephant species to be tamed was the Asian Elephant, for use in agriculture. The oldest evidence of elephant taming - not full domestication, as they were still captured in the wild — comes from the Indus Valley Civilization, around roughly 4500 B.C.

Harappan stamp from around 2000 BC

There is suggestion that elephants were tamed in ancient Egypt 5,500 years ago. Elephants buried in elaborate tombs, dated to 3500 B.C., were found in cemetery in Hierakonpolisin ancient Egypt. One of the elephant was ten to eleven years old. That is the age when young males are expelled from the herd. Young and inexperienced, they can be captured and trained at that age.

The elephant is a symbol of Buddha and has appeared again and again in many Hindu stories. The Burmese and Thais and other Southeast Asian people believe that at one time all elephants were white creatures that flew through the air. One such elephant, according to legend, flew into the side of Queen Sirimahamaya while she lay dreaming one day, producing the immaculate conception of the Lord Buddha. Hindus greatly revere elephants because of their association with elephant-headed Ganesh, one of the most important Hindu Gods

The number of elephants living in captivity is thought to have been around 130,000 during the era of the Mogul kings in 16th and 17th century. From the 16th to the 19th centuries elephants were used in logging, war and religious ceremonies and were traded throughout Asia by Britain’s East India Company.

According to a famous fable, three blind men came upon an elephant and couldn't figure out what it was. The first man felt an elephant's leg and thought it was a tree; the second garbs its tail and thought it was rope; and third touched the trunk and thought it was a snake.

Among those that avidly hunted African elephants were Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway. Roosevelt once killed four elephants in less than five minutes while on safari in British East Africa. You can see two animals in the Hall of African Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.

White Elephants

White elephants are regarded as the most auspicious of all animals in Laos, Thailand, Burma and Cambodia as far back as anyone can remember. They have been sought after and the object of envy. Kings added possession of them to their titles. Great empires have gone to war over them.

The royal "white elephants" in Thailand are in fact are pinkish brown or with some whitish markings. They are often difficult to distinguish from normal elephants. Only one looks genuinely pale. The others look like normal elephants. Their proper name is “chang samkan”, meaning “important” or “significant” elephant. Most are not albinos, which are usually whitish beige.

In 2004, a beige-colored albino elephant was discovered in Yala National Park in Sri Lanka. It was a female believed to be around 11 years old. It is extremely rare to find such an animal. There have been reported sightings of such elephants in Thailand and other places put this marked the first time ever that an the existence of a true albino elephant had been confirmed.

Thailand’s Royal White Elephants

Royal Coat of Arms for Laos

Thailand had 11 “white” elephants in the early 2000s. Symbols of the monarch’s power, all belonged to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The person with the most white elephants is considered the most powerful person in Thailand. The elephants existence and good health ensure prosperity for the Thai kingdom. They are regarded as the earthly manifestation of Erawan, the many-headed celestial elephant of the god Indra.

Only one royal elephant lives behind the royal moat in the royal palace in Bangkok. Others live at other facilities elsewhere in Thailand. Some royal elephants are kept at the elephant center in Lambang, where four attendants are assigned to each anima and the animals spend their day munching on leaves of replanted teak trees, are hand fed sugar cane and tamarind and have a reservoir where they can take their daily baths. At night they sleep in the their individual sleeping pavilions.

Chadwick found the animals in the darkness of a gilded pavilion, "surging back and forth at the end of a chain, his strange pale eyes blue one moment and green the next, alone, colossal, and very likely insane. Thrice this great mad elephant trumpeted wildly in alarm, I was told. Each time the king was threatened by danger, including an attempted coup.←

Determining Royal Thai Elephants

What exactly defines a white elephant is the subject of large body of literature. They are not white or albino. They are rare, light-toned animals that must have a particular set of characteristics to be labeled as white. The criteria to define a white in elephant in Thailand is secret and takes experts weeks to sort out.

The basic requirements for a white elephant are that it must have some “white” skin (pink splotches on the skin), white eyes, a white upper palate, white nails, white fur, white tail hair and a white scrotum. In Thailand white elephants are supposed to be treated with the same respect accord royal children.

By law every white elephant born in Thailand must be presented to the king. Prospective candidates are chosen not only on the basis of pink skin splotches but also on the shape of their trunk and tail, the quality of their vocalizations and even the smell of their dropping. The royal families in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia used to keep white elephants but the custom has largely died out there along with the power of the royal families.

"To an inexperienced man they may look like normal elephants," the overseer of ceremonies at the Royal Palace in Bangkok told National Geographic. "But I have studied them all my life to be able to tell you about their special qualities: a certain shape to their ankles and tail. A whiteness of the eyes, the hair tops, the white skin between folds, and the nails. The greatest of all elephants has two extra toe nails. He is of the same rank as a prince." The name of this cherished elephant has a name four lines long, proclaiming him to be a lotus-colored gift.

Royal Elephant Stories

Stories about white elephants describe them living like Roman emperors on the palace grounds where they were protected from the sun with silk umbrellas and fed fruit on jewel encrusted platters while court musicians entertained them. Young elephants were said to be suckled by human wet nurses.←

A jealous Burmese rulers declared war against Siam when a Thai king refused a request to give the Burmese ruler two of his seven white elephants. In the 17th century, a Dutch chronicler. Described a Thai monarch who staged an elaborate cremation ceremony for the elephant and ordered the execution of any keeper responsible for the death of a baby white elephant.

In the old days the elephants used to walk down the streets of Bangkok every morning on their way to the river for a bath. The only time this routine was changed, according to an old National Geographic article, was during rutting season when male and female elephants were separated. Bangkok's trolley drivers didn't like this because the male elephants often mistook trolleys for female elephants, often taking off after the trolleys and making a big racket and fuss as they did so. Most trolley drivers were skilled and experienced enough to outrun the run the elephants.

In the early 2000s, plans were announced to clone the famous white elephant that belonged to King Rama III, who ruled from 1824 to 1851.

Elephant Polo

Before a polo match

Claire Cozens of AFP wrote: Elephant polo is “a game that was dreamt up almost 30 years ago over drinks at a Swiss ski resort and now attracts adventure-seekers from all over the world to Nepal, where the world championships are held every year. The game, loosely based on horse polo, involves two teams of four players sitting astride elephants driven by mahouts, or trainers, who drive them on using oral commands and pressure from their feet. Players carry sticks up to 96 inches (2.5 metres) long to hit the ball towards the opposing goal, with each game comprising two 10-minute chukkas. The umpire sits on the biggest elephant, a huge, long-tusked bull, giving him a bird's-eye view of the game. [Source: Claire Cozens, AFP, December 5, 2010]

“The game can be surprisingly quick, with the smaller, more nimble elephants deployed in attack and the larger ones playing defence, using their bulk to block the goal. And it is taken very seriously by some players. Umpire Yadav Bantawa reports teams using the larger elephants to block his view of illegal moves such as hooking an opponent's stick to prevent him from hitting the ball.

“Dan Bahadur Tamang, who has worked with elephants since 1969, told AFP it wasn't hard to train them to play polo. "They love it. When you watch the game you can see how fast they run towards the ball," he says. "They really know what they're doing now, and they are very clever. They can be taught up to 1,000 oral commands." The elephants are fed at the end of each match and treated to molasses sandwiches to keep their strength up. A team of workers is kept busy throughout each match scurrying onto the pitch to scoop up dung.

“The sport attracts players of all ages and nationalities but like horse polo, this is an expensive sport — the entry fee alone runs into thousands of dollars — and the world championship attracts a wealthy and glamorous crowd.” At the game on Nepal in 2010, “Miss Nepal was joined in the audience by former crown prince Paras, who flew in with a large entourage on his private helicopter to watch a few chukkas. But local people also flock to attend the spectacle, most of them supporting the team put together every year by the park warden and his staff, who work with elephants every day on their patrols and are often among the top performers. "We are so lucky to have a world championship on our doorstep," local farmer Kul Narayan Shrestha told AFP. "It's a really fun day out."

History of Elephant Polo

Scotsman James Manclark, a keen horse polo player who was 71 in 2010, is credited with inventing elephant polo in the 1980s. Claire Cozens of AFP wrote: “He came up with the idea in St Moritz over a drink with Jim Edwards, a pioneer of eco-tourism in Nepal who ran a resort called Tiger Tops deep inside the jungle that used elephants to take guests on safari. Shortly after their encounter, Manclark sent his friend a telegram that read simply: "Arriving April 1 with long sticks. Have elephants ready." "He didn't know whether I was being serious or not. But I arrived, with the sticks and two small footballs, ready to play," Manclark told AFP[Source: Claire Cozens, AFP, December 5, 2010]

The experiment got off to a bad start when the elephants decided it was more fun to stamp on the footballs and burst them than to chase them around the pitch. Fortunately, regular polo balls proved more successful, and elephant polo was born. The World Cup, organised by Tiger Tops, is held every year at a grass airstrip on the edge of Nepal's Chitwan national park, 90 kilometres (56 miles) southwest of Kathmandu.

Official elephant polo games are played three times a year — in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. In Thailand the games are played with three elephant on each team . In Nepal, which has a larger field, there are four on each team. . Each team member is accompanied by a mahout — or elephant driver -- who steers as the players focus on hitting the ball. The players come from all over the world while the elephants are provided in the place where the game is played. There were 12 national teams competing in 2006 the first year the Americans played. None of the teams has year-round access to elephants. The Germans practice atop Volkswagen vans and have several have internationally recognized horse polo players on their team. [Source: Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, September 10, 2006]

Elephant Polo Game

Describing a game in Nepal, Claire Cozens of AFP wrote: “On a remote jungle airfield in southern Nepal, the tension is rising as the finals of one of the world's most eccentric sporting events goes into extra time at a nailbiting five-all. Within minutes, a giant elephant rumbles towards one end of the field and a cheer goes up from the crowd as a tiny white ball shoots between the goalposts, winning the game for the team from Switzerland. [Source: Claire Cozens, AFP, December 5, 2010]

Describing a game in Thailand, Anthony Faiola wrote in the Washington Post, “During America's debut in the extra-wide world of elephant polo, frustrated U.S. captain Kimberly Zenz nearly screamed herself hoarse. The prime pachyderms toting the rival Italians were dominating the opening match, while Thong Kao-- Zenz's languid charger -- seemed more interested in turning the grassy polo field into an afternoon snack. But as the ball skidded dangerously close to the Italian goal posts, something suddenly seemed to stir from deep inside Thong Kao. She hurled her three-ton bulk toward that ball like Barbaro on steroids. [Source: Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, September 10, 2006]

From the sidelines, international playboys almost choked on their gin and tonics. British aristocrats looked up from their Rolexes, cocking eyebrows with bemusement. For a moment at the King's Cup Elephant Polo Championship -- one of the circuit's Big Three -- it seemed the upstart Yanks from the Washington area might finally charge onto the scoreboard. Then something really did stir from deep inside Thong Kao. She let rip a hail of dung that left the pursuing Italians dodging for cover.

And just as Zenz yanked back her mallet, Thong Kao accidentally stepped on the polo ball, squashing it into the ground and suspending play. It marked the first of many lessons for a team of rookie Americans who came to the emerald hills of the Golden Triangle this week for a crash course in one of the world's most surreal sports.

During one game in Sri Lanka one 2000-kilograms mount went berserk in mid-match and threw off his rider and charged off the field and attacked the Spanish team’s minibus. The vehicle was badly damaged. Fortunately nobody was in it.

Elephant at Chinese Zoo Filmed Returning Shoe to Child

In August 2023, an elephant in a zoo in Shandong province of eastern China was caught on video returning a little boy’s shoe after it fell into his enclosure.Rebecca Moon wrote in Nextshark: The video, uploaded to Twitter on Wednesday by Now This, shows the elephant grabbing the tiny shoe with his tusk and carefully reaching up to the boy as the child grabs his shoe back. [Source: Rebecca Moon, NextsharkAugust 19, 2022]

Twitter users praised the elephant for the kind gesture. “Elephants are the most loyal protective matriarchal animals that exist,” one user wrote. “How beautiful that it reciprocates the gesture of the child,” another user commented. The video has garnered over 2.5 million videos and 14,200 likes in the first week or so after being uploaded.

Some Twitter users, however, suggested that the elephant appeared “sad.” “It doesn’t belong in a zoo. Its eyes also look sad,” one user commented. “That's also obviously a routine, human throws something in and hands elephant some grass when it is returned. That small barren enclosure with shreds of grass on the floor. Nothing about this is lovely. So sad for that wonderful animal,” another user commented.

Elephant Rescued from 17-Meter-Deep Well after 14-Hour Operation

In 2020, a 25-year-old male elephant, which does not have a tusk, fell into the well in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu on November 19 afternoon and was rescued just after midnight on November 20. When the farmer heard cries of the animal from his well, he alerted the authorities who reached the site with 50 members and rescued the animal after prolonged efforts. [Source: Reuters, November 20, 2020, 11:38

The well was 55-feet deep but the water was shallow and was pumped out. Two excavators, trucks, and a crane was used in the rescue, meanwhile, villagers kept dropping banana leaves to feed the elephant, according to local media reports. The elephant will be reportedly released into Hosur forest area.

Around the same time, Newsflare reported: “A lost elephant was rescued from a eight-meter (25-foot) -deep well in northeast India after being floated out when rescue workers filled the well with water, raising it out. The elephant, believed to be around 30-years-old, was found in Amliya toli village, Gumla, Jharkhand, on January 28, when villagers were passing through that area in morning saw the distressed pachyderm. They immediately informed the local administration, who rushed to the spot and with the help of locals they rescued the elephant in a three hour operation. They filled the well with water using three motorised pumps, as well as excavating a ramp so that the elephant could float up and climb out. According to forest officials, the elephant had no injuries from its fall and went safely into the forest after climbing out. [Source: Newsflare, January 28, 2020]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated December 2024