Thailand: Elephant Roundup!
SURIN, THAILAND: Explosions from cannon fire filled the air as warriors astride silk-bedecked elephants swept through a battlefield in northeastern Thailand.
Hundreds of actors and their pachyderm steeds re-enacted the wartime tactics of centuries ago as part of Thailand’s 47th annual Elephant Roundup over the weekend.
The festival, which attracts thousands of tourists to the small city of Surin, 460 kilometers (285 miles) northeast of Bangkok, celebrates the elephant as both a noble patriotic symbol and a longtime companion of local tribal minorities.
For a week, members of the region’s Kui minority celebrate the elephant, holding daily parades and lining the streets with treats for the elephants to eat.
The grand finale is the weekend roundup, in which some 300 elephants perform circus tricks, engage in tugs of war, and take part in spiritual ceremonies for tourists and locals alike, in addition to playing at war.
Pun Sen, a member of the Kui, is a mahout _ a traditional elephant trainer _ who is as much a companion to the beasts as a boss. His current charge is Ben Sen, a 19-month-old elephant with a playful demeanor attending his first roundup.
“He loves to play with the other elephants,” Pun said, as Ben feasted on bananas offered by giddy German tourists. “And he loves all the attention he gets.”
When Pun commanded Ben to “Sing a song!” the elephant responded with an atonal moan like an off-key whale, and then reached with his trunk for more fruit from the obliging tourists.
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Elephant Roundup has become one of the most popular attractions for tourists to the northeast.
For the elephants, who used to cut a mighty swath as logging animals just half-a-century ago _ but have since been marginalized by industrialization _ it is a rare occasion to relive their former glory.
Early last century Thailand’s domesticated pachyderms numbered some 100,000, while hundreds of thousands roamed wild, according to Bangkok-based NGO Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation.
Today there are fewer than 3,000 domesticated elephants eking out a living as tourist attractions or with keepers who roam Bangkok and other cities to beg. There are another estimated 3,000 wild elephants in national parks and other sanctuaries. (By MATTHEW STREIB/ AP)
