Elephant Camp Generations! (kids and eles, a winning photographic combination on National Elephant Day)

By John Roberts 14 March 2008 01:18:00

As more and more of the world are coming to realise, March 13th is Thailand's National Elephant Day - when we first celebrated it, back in the day, when we had four elephants, it was hardly even recognised in the local press.

    Yesterday was our 4th Elephant Day here in camp, this time with 26 eles across both camps - Four Seasons have a quiet ceremony, Anantara have a big buffet bash - and the event was so large throughout Thailand it even made BBC World and the Nation rewarded me for a harrowing time talking at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Thailand by printing a piece on our work in their new Daily Xpress format. 

    During my stumbling, bumbling, rambling, rabbit-in-the-headlights talk I must have got some of my message across as he mentioned how important it is to have the wives and kids of mahouts with us - to see the elephant, at this stage at least, as a unit of elephant mahout and family.

    I was thinking about this yesterday as I was looking for shots to share with you - and not only does it make good ele sense, it is great to see the kids so involved!



...Natasha introduced to Nong Dah as the eles await their feast...



...Ja's son listens intently to the Sanskrit sermon...



...as does the human Pleum...



...Oum knows how to pose and doesn't listen quite so intently to the spiritual side...



...Natasha knows no fear when feeding Makam, running the gauntlet with Lamyai and Nam Khong.



Moskva's new mahout is learning elephant commands as her first words - she's got a pretty good 'bon soong' going!



Hmmmm... and then Oum, the Booer Tong family, what can we say, she knows where the camera is!

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