My Time with The Elephants
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I am emotional to write this.
I have always loved animals and never even considered seeing an elephant outside of a zoo. To be honest, I rarely go to a zoo because it breaks my heart to watch an elephants pace or rock. Intuitively, I knew riding or bathing with elephants was not a good practice (more on that in a sec), so that was not an option. So standing in the jungle, watching these magnificent creatures eat, walk, play together, I was reminded that life, in all it’s messy beauty, bestows some truly unexpected gifts.
I marketed my Elephant Yoga Retreat with daily activities that included hiking in the the jungle to observe elephants. Little did I know (and much to the glee of my adventurous spirit) hiking on the jungle DOES NOT involve planned trails or any pre-made order. What hiking in the jungle DOES MEAN is trampling, scurrying, slipping, unsure footing, and finding your way through the brush in whatever available space you can find. IT WAS GREAT and challenged my deep-rooted conditioning to “Stay on the Trail.”
As we scrambled down a slope. I saw a banana tree come down and my friend exclaimed “Its an elephant!”
Although, I was looking directly at two large gray humps about 100 feet away, my brain, never having to make out and recognize an elephant in the jungle before, took a moment to catch up and register the two beautiful, young ladies knocking down banana trees, stripping leaves, and making their own jungle salad. For a moment, my breath stopped.. One lovely lady saw me and walked right up to me. In true human form, I was busy trying to get my phone to snap a picture rather than basking in the miracle of being seen by her
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In the tourist industry, especially in Chiang Mai, many tourist places label themselves as a “sanctuary” or “ethical” place for elephants and allow tourist to come ride elephants, bathe with them, and take selfies with babies (often with mama chained in the back unable to be with her young calf).
What I learned from the Never Forget Elephant Foundation is these “ethical” places are forcing elephants to bathe with humans six times a day and humans can feed the elephant bananas. This is very unnatural and often the elephants get skin diseases, blindness due to infections, physical injuries, foot infections from standing on concrete all day, and mental anguish. When the tourists leave at the end of the day, the elephants are put into chains.
In the wild, female elephants can chose who they want to breed with and when. In these “sanctuaries,” the females are forced to breed — which means they are chained up while a male elephant comes in to do his business (we can call it “forced breeding” or label it for what it really is…). Many of the females miscarriage in captivity and those who do have babies, the calves are chained up while moms spend their days working for tourists and/or sold. Or more heartbreaking, the moms are chained up away from their babies who are used for tourist selfies (because who doesn’t want to see a baby elephant!).
I got the honor to spend time with two mamas and their babies, Mo MO Lo and her 1 month old, Ban Mi Pa (Thai for “Home in the Jungle”). and Mo Pau Na and her baby, Freedom (6 months old) and they loved to nurse. Freedom reminded me of my son: he didn’t want to be far his mom and spent most of his time hiding under her head. While the sweet newborn, Ban Mi Pa loved to play and tackle his mahout and Yo, our guide and heart of NFEF..
The Asian elephant is a fairly domesticated animal and a mainstay in Thai Culture.
The Karen Hilll people I stayed with have a long history of owning elephants. The elephant mahaut stays with their elephant in the jungles just like a sheepherder with their flock. Due to the encroaching western world and need for money (the logging industy was banned in 1989 and so started the elephant tourist industy), the mahauts lease their elephants to these sanctuaries in the city where the elephants are exploited, forced breed, have their babies sold, forced to perform tricks (one place had the elephants paintinga man stood beside the elephant with a nail pressed behind it’s ear to make sure it painted. Elephants don’t paint!), forced to bath all day long (imagine having to take a bath six times a day every day), used for human rides, etc. This creates mental and physical damage to the elephants.
The Karen Hill people want their elephants back home. The NFEF works to bring the elephant back home by providing the families with the income they get from leasing their elephants out and allowing the elephants to be back in their habitat, wandering, eating a variety of plants, breeding as they chose with the elephant of their choice (there are wild male elephants in the area), raising their babies free of shackles.
There I was, with my yoga group, deep in the jungle, watching these elephants, having them smell me, and ignore me, and the fact that I was still part of the tourist industry was not lost on me. However, if I am going to give my money, my time, and my energy to seeing an elephant — I want the elephant foraging in it’s natural environment. free to ignore me (one sweet lady who worked in the circus DOES NOT want anything do with humans and leaves whenever humans come around), meander away (even lunge at us when annoyed), and raise their babies.