Elephant deities in Surin...
...those of you who have been following my travels and travails of the past month will probably already say I am the luckiest elephant boy there is. But, ever ungrateful, I sit here shrouded in thick Autumnal mist of my home - dog tired from 2,000 km of driving and e-mail down again.
I sit here and I have to think of reasons to feel lucky.
But it isn't really difficult, what a weekend! I have just returned from the Round Up in Surin and the weekend provided many learning issues, many new projects and lines for investigation, these will be the subject of another blog. Some very sad as well as some very inspiring sights.
The Round Up is perhaps the one time a year when the Surin diaspora of street, travelling and show elephants come together to their traditional home - a motley mix of mahouts, families, the revered tuskers to the smallest, saddest street baby. I cannot think of anywhere else in the world when 300 elephants of all shapes and sizes will be found on one football field and where a mahout community that still clings to some of its old ways whilst struggling for a place in the modern world can be found and spoken with so easily.
So, the show was fantastic, re-enactments of the old elephant capturing days (the last wild elephant was captured sometime in the 1930's), re-enactments of old battles, a few circus tricks as a nod to the modern era where elephants struggle to find a place but the emphasis was definitely on the past and the glory days of the domesticated elephant.
But for me the back stories and the networking were the important part. On the backlots I gathered material to keep us busy for months, with the vets and the conservation community we chewed the fat (literally, actually) and put faces to names, with the mahouts and their stories.
Not all the stories are good, but I'll deal with that elsewhere, this blog is about the sheer privilege of seeing all those elephants in one place and meeting those old time, old school mahouts who's heritage reaches back 1,000's of years and is so much a part of the landscape and the area.
...Surin Deva the original elephant god opens the show, descending from the clouds...
...the mighty tuskers of the capture team bow before the blessing ceremony...
...and 300 elephants in one place, a re-enactment of the capture.
I sit here and I have to think of reasons to feel lucky.
But it isn't really difficult, what a weekend! I have just returned from the Round Up in Surin and the weekend provided many learning issues, many new projects and lines for investigation, these will be the subject of another blog. Some very sad as well as some very inspiring sights.
The Round Up is perhaps the one time a year when the Surin diaspora of street, travelling and show elephants come together to their traditional home - a motley mix of mahouts, families, the revered tuskers to the smallest, saddest street baby. I cannot think of anywhere else in the world when 300 elephants of all shapes and sizes will be found on one football field and where a mahout community that still clings to some of its old ways whilst struggling for a place in the modern world can be found and spoken with so easily.
So, the show was fantastic, re-enactments of the old elephant capturing days (the last wild elephant was captured sometime in the 1930's), re-enactments of old battles, a few circus tricks as a nod to the modern era where elephants struggle to find a place but the emphasis was definitely on the past and the glory days of the domesticated elephant.
But for me the back stories and the networking were the important part. On the backlots I gathered material to keep us busy for months, with the vets and the conservation community we chewed the fat (literally, actually) and put faces to names, with the mahouts and their stories.
Not all the stories are good, but I'll deal with that elsewhere, this blog is about the sheer privilege of seeing all those elephants in one place and meeting those old time, old school mahouts who's heritage reaches back 1,000's of years and is so much a part of the landscape and the area.
...Surin Deva the original elephant god opens the show, descending from the clouds...
...the mighty tuskers of the capture team bow before the blessing ceremony...
...and 300 elephants in one place, a re-enactment of the capture.
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