Ah, wilderness!
June 26th, 2006
We went to the Maetaman Elephant camp a half hour outside of Chiang Mai for a day of adventure June 23, 2006. We stopped first at an orchid and butterfly farm.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw at the elephant camp. I had never seen so many elephants — more than 60 — in one place. Everywhere you looked, there were elephants. I stopped for a moment and saw tourists on a platform boarding elephants for excursions into the jungle. The elephants were lined up like taxis at the Port Authority bus terminal in New York. (I remember seeing the yellow taxicabs in New York for the first time as a child. They made a similar impression.)
TAXI STAND
I was staring at the elephants, mid-gape, when a baby elephant sat next to me. The elephant squealed on cue. Our tour guide pulled me away. We were late for the elephant show.
We joined the elephant show mid-performance. I’m not sure what we missed, but I was amazed by what we saw. The elephants performed a wide variety of tricks: kicking a soccer ball, dunking a basketball, walking on two legs, picking up their trainers, and so on.
SOCCER! DO YOU SEE THE BALL HE JUST KICKED?
FREE RIDE
BASKETBALL
At the end of the show, the trainers gave each of the elephants a paint brush and canvas. The elephants then painted; flowers for the most part, but also some simple portraits of other elephants — the kind that human beings used to draw on cave walls ten thousand years ago. I’d call the elephant portraits an example of “primitive art,” but the flower paintings could be considered “contemporary art.”
I can only imagine what it takes to make elephants perform like this. I mean, how do you teach an elephant to walk on its hind legs — and then on its front legs?
The elephants were docile and thoroughly domesticated, like really smart donkeys. Their trainers shouted out commands; the elephants performed their tricks. No one seemed concerned that an elephants might go “postal.” Audience members sat behind a split rail fence made of logs, but after the show, humans and elephants mixed freely. (It’s hard to imagine such a scene in the United States. The government would never allow an elephant camp to operate without implementing extensive safety measures — measures that would suck the life out of the entire experience.)
We walked to the taxi stand and joined the queue of people looking for a ride. At the front of the line, my colleague Leah and I each stepped off the platform, placed a foot on the neck of our elephant, performed a pirouette and sat down on a cushioned chair — an elephant “hood” in Thai — secured to the back our elephant. A camp worker dropped a safety bar in front of us and we lumbered out onto the trail.
Our elephant moved deliberately toward the river, not needing and not receiving any instructions from his minder, perched just below us, on the elephant’s neck. We walked just a hundred yards or so before walking down a steep hill to the river. I began sliding off the chair, looking in vain for a seat belt to secure myself. I pushed against the safety bar and moved back into the chair.
We road across the river and up and down the jungle trail about an hour, our elephant driver singing much of the way. It was thrilling to see these giant animals moving in formation. (I could visualize Hannibal crossing the Alps two thousand years ago.) Each elephant kept its place on the narrow trail, until a clearing, and then the faster elephants moved ahead of the slower ones. Traffic came to a halt occasionally — a tie up on the jungle expressway. The elephants resolved these situations with no fuss, guided by their trainers.
ON THE TRAIL.
REAR VIEW MIRROR.
PASS ON THE LEFT.
TRAFFIC CONGESTION EASES.
I can’t say how the elephants are treated. I’m sure that they are well fed. I know they get plenty of exercise. I am told they have free reign of the jungle in the evening, though I don’t know how much land the camp encompasses. I’m fairly certain they have a better life than zoo or circus elephants. They probably have an easier life than wild elephants — and these elephants aren’t wild. They’re domesticated and they’ve been domesticated for a long time.
Even if the elephants are well treated, the elephant show represents a bit of a comedown. Elephants used to be considered sacred in Buddhist mythology. Only royalty had access to elephants. Later, elephants became work animals. Today, they exist to amuse tourists.
We road an ox cart for the last leg of our journey back to the center of the camp. Although I had just stepped off an elephant, I was still impressed by the size of these animals. They’re very big and very strong. I took the reins of the ox cart for a short time. You don’t have to do much to get the ox to move, but you can “steer” them by pulling one of the reins instead of the other.
We ate a fabulous lunch at the camp and then took a lazy raft ride down a steaming river. A perfect way to end a wonderful morning.
Entry Filed under: Freeman Fellowship
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