Elephant Village

Sunday, January 31, 2010.
A few of us went to the Elephant Village today for “one day of Mahout training.” It was great and very relaxing. Laos used to be known as “the land of a million elephants” but now elephants are an endangered species. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants but are still huge and eat constantly. They also love fruit and other cultivated crops, so can be quite a problem for farmers. If they don’t eat the produce, they trample it which is of course still a problem. The 800 or so wild elephants still estimated to be in Laos are in danger because they are separated from each other by urban areas and so in-breed, leaving them less strong and more prone to disease, etc. They also have a hard time finding enough food. And poaching is still an issue with wild elephants, despite the fact that they are endangered.

Elephants have been domesticated for manual labour for a long time, but most recently have been used for logging. Often they were underfed and over-worked, with drugs being used to enable them to work longer and harder. Injuries happened and were often not properly addressed. So domesticated elephants have had a rough time of it, and now that logging is winding down, the fate of the domesticated elephants is unknown. It costs a lot to feed an elephant so people can’t just take them in. And they are domesticated and would not do well in the wild, even if the wild elephants had it good (which they do not).

The Elephant Village was set up to provide a home and gentle work for domesticated elephants rescued from the logging industry. There are nine female elephants there, and each has their own mahout (it is not common for an elephant to respond well to multiple mahouts). They vary in age from late 20s to 71. One is blind in one eye, one is blind in both eyes. They have scars that tell of the rough life they have had. In the elephant village, they are turned out (hobbled with about 40 meters of chain) in the jungle to eat and relax on the other side of the Nam Khan from about 16:00 until about 7 or 8 AM. I’m told that elephants sleep twice in that time, for about 30 minutes each - I think around 10 PM and 3 AM. As with any herd animals, they each have their buddies amongst the other elephants. In the morning their mahouts fetch them and bring them back to the Elephant Village on this side of the Nam Khan and clean them and feed them and tack them up. From as long as 9:00-4:00 they give rides, are used for trekking, give “training” lessons and get bathed by tourists. They get treats throughout the day. This gives them regular but easy exercise and daily handling. Their mahouts are with them the entire time.

When we arrived the elephants were tacked up and ready to go. I wasn’t sure about using the “benches” that are strapped onto the elephants with ropes (I still don’t see how it can feel balanced for the elephants) but was pleased to see that the ropes were in clear rubber tubes so they would not chafe the elephants. We mounted from a hut/platform. Each elephant took 2 tourists and their mahout (who started out on the elephant’s neck). We went down the river bank, into the river, along a sand bar in the river then back out and back along a dirt track. I was impressed with how balanced and careful the elephants were. They handled the uneven terrain on the banks and the drop into the water very slowly and competently. I could see the drop but didn’t really feel it. Their feet are impressive and can handle uneven terrain very well. We each got to ride on the neck/back of the head for awhile. It was wonderful. They have very dry, tough skin and thick black hairs/bristles on the top of their heads. They flap their ears when they are happy, which I was relieved to notice they were doing. When we got back to the camp we got off our elephants and were given water and coffee in a gazeebo in the shade, then were told some basics:
Never approach an elephant from behind. They need to see you.
Never run or move quickly
Always approach slowly and make sure the elephant is ok with you proceeding (their mahout will tell you when it is ok). If the elephant is showing signs of unhappiness, stop.
To mount the elephants from the ground when then are not tacked up, you give them a certain command and tap their right front leg. They will lift their right front leg to a right angle and you hold onto the back of their ear and step on their bent knee to hoist yourself up. This is somehow easier than it sounds. The elephant used for training was very accommodating (she was completely motivated by food and just kept looking for the sugar cane, which of course we kept feeding her).
All commands should be said short, sharp.
To get them to go you tap with both legs behind their ears (knees relaxed) and give a command.
To get them to stop you squeeze with both knees and lean back and give a command “How”
To get them to go backwards you lean back and give a command.
To go right, you tap with left foot and lean and turn to the right and give a command.
To go left, you tap with right foot and lean and turn to the left and give a command.

I didn’t have much (any) control on my training ride but the elephant’s mahout did (from the ground) and as we were just walking the same path around the yard, it was fine - fun to try. I challenge anyone to succeed in stopping that elephant when she knew where the sugar cane was and consistently made a bee-line for it. ;-)

The mahouts carry a hook (a stick with a nasty blade like a large nail) on it for keeping the elephants in line if they get out of control, but they didn’t seem to need them (good) and I do understand that they need to be able to put a moody elephant in her place immediately, should the need arise. I was told they tap the elephant on the forehead with the “nail” and since none of the elephants had a mark on her forehead, I was reassured that they were not misused. The elephants were all clean and had no marks on them (except for old scars and wounds) and seemed well-taken care of.

We then had a lovely buffet lunch over-looking the river, which was very pleasant. There were kids spear fishing in the river for the entire time we were there, and it looked like back-breaking work. They were bent over the entire time - whew!


After lunch and after two of the elephants came back from a trek they were on, we each got an elephant and rode her to the river bareback for a bath. The mahouts rode behind us and stood on the elephants’ backs when we got to the river - most impressive. I was again impressed with the elephants’ balance as we went down the bank, especially since I was riding the 71-year-old blind elephant. She used her trunk like a cane as she made her way down the uneven river bank. Her mahout sang to her, which she really enjoyed. I could not be sure she was actually blind, but remembered the descriptions and histories of the different elephants and couldn’t see any others that fit the bill. When I asked, sure enough - it was her! She hunkered down nicely for her bath and was very polite throughout the whole thing.

When we finished with the elephants we could see some being taken back across the river for turnout (not all - some had more tourists booked). It was early - still maybe 1:30 in the afternoon? We heading up the Nam Khan by boat to a waterfall which was largely dry but still impressive and had some pools for swimming. It was interesting to see that that Nam Khan was largely undeveloped and we did not see garbage in it (phew). We did pass families going about their daily lives - fishing, washing, etc.

All in all, a lovely day in Laos - sunny, relaxing, nothing hurried, nothing rushed, lots of hanging around in the sun with elephants. A nice way to spend a Sunday.