An unforgettable up-close encounter with Laos’ sacred elephants and their keepers
ELEPHANTS never forget, and the rare privilege of getting close to these sacred animals is an experience you’ll never forget either.
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THROUGH my wide-angled lens, Moukhao the 38-year-old Lao elephant appears to be some way off in the distance – until I feel her trunk rifling in my pocket.
I move back, only for four tonnes of elephant to move in even closer. She stands so close I can count her eyelashes. I put my camera away. Clearly, elephants have no regard for personal space.
“She wants a banana,” Moukhao’s mahout, or elephant-keeper, says smiling.
Realising I do not have one or any other acceptable treat for a hungry pachyderm, she turns and wanders off to join her wrinkly mates.
We are standing on the sandy shores of the Mekong River in the rural outskirts of Luang Prabang in Laos where the local mahouts take their elephants for an evening sunset swim and play.
Moukhao is one of three elephants here this afternoon; they were all were rescued from the logging industry where they were used in place of trucks to haul timber through the thick Laos jungle.
Unable to be returned to the wild due to years of domestication, the trio now spend their days taking tourists trekking – a lifestyle their mahouts say they enjoy compared with the long hours of hard labour they once endured.
Once called “the land of a million elephants”, elephants are sacred in Laos where they symbolise the ancient kingdom of Lan Xang that gave rise to the Lao people’s culture and identity.
Images of elephants can be found throughout Laos, from ancient temples to textiles as well as featuring in traditional folk tales.
Head down any street in Luang Prabang, and there is a good chance you will see them walking with their mahouts by the roadside, often trailed by squealing local village children wielding bananas and sugar cane who never tire of the show.
However, their numbers are in drastic decline. Poaching, war and landmines have ravaged the wild population, with some estimates putting the number as low as 400 with about 450 in captivity.
Deforestation is also a problem, with a global market for hardwoods, palm oil and rubber providing scarce income for one of Asia’s least-developed nations.
During our tour of Laos, our guides from Helloworld time our visit to Luang Prabang to coincide with the arrival of an elephant parade. Organised by the local Elephant Conservation Centre, the parade has been organised to raise awareness of their plight.
Luang Prabang is the final stop for the caravan of 20 elephants and their keepers who have trekked for 45 days across the country.
It also coincides with the ancient royal capital city’s 20th anniversary as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Thousands of tourists, locals, members of ethnic minority groups together with government officials turn out for the spectacle, with neat, orderly lines quickly disintegrating as the crowd starts to follow the parade. The biggest “oohs” are saved for a rare white elephant, long regarded as a sacred symbol in Laos.
Before the country became a republic, the national flag featured a triple-headed white elephant on a pedestal, signifying the “million elephants” of Laos.
Parade organiser Sebastion Duffillot, who has been working to save Laos’ elephants for a decade as part of his organisation ElefantAsia, says he hopes the caravan will become a regular event.
“The people are really touched by the elephants,” he says. “It is really a part of their national culture.
“Protecting a healthy stable captive population is vital to maybe in the future breeding with wild elephants and supplement the wild population that is under very high pressure.”
Back at the river, the keepers explain how the villagers in the past captured a few young elephants from the wild to use for work for a few years before releasing them to breed. The system ensured elephant numbers remained sustainable.
Mahout elder Boualoy, who was given his first elephant to care for when he was 15, tears up as he speaks of his love of the animals. While his children have chosen not to follow the family tradition of looking after elephants, he is hopeful his four grandchildren will develop a similar obsession. Boualoy also says he believes tourists will play an important role in saving the local elephant population with the encounters inspiring many to become involved in helping conservation centres while also steering clear of unethical trekking operators.
“The tourists love the elephants like we do,” he says through a translator.
Another mahout we encounter walking just outside of Luang Prabang with his elephant jokes that he loves his elephants as much as his wife. “I love my wife very much, but I also love my elephant,” he said.
The writer was a guest of Helloworld.
Originally published as An unforgettable up-close encounter with Laos’ sacred elephants and their keepers
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