With Elephants in the Mekong - Liebe zur Erde

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With Elephants in the Mekong

A bath with Elephants in the Mekong

Laos was once the "Land of the Millions of Elephants" - and therefore named as Lane Xang. Elephants were even part of the coat of arms. However, this was once ...

Laos elephants are living for a small part still in a wild state in the jungle. Another part is traditionally used as workhorses, and still used today in the timber production: the land is frequently so steep that one can not use machines for deforesting, therefore they use elephants for the sought after rosewood and teak. But the nearby border with China makes more and more large holes in the jungle: today they no longer take the single wooden beam out and leave the remaining forest intact. Nowadays they cut just everything in the chosen area. The villages imagine that they benefit twice: once by selling timber and other by regular income through the rubber tree plantations, which came through Chinese businessmen. The demand of rubber is China is to big to get matched there, so they plant them in Laos and replace the rainforest. Result for the elephants: they are no longer needed, except as Ivory supplier - and their mahouts no more, too.

Mahouts is called the leader of an elephant, which is often associated for decades with the animal. Our mahout tells us the word meant something like gentleness, because you have to be patient with the elephant. Used formerly a tamed elephant meant wealth for its owner, it is with the absence of work orders today rather a burden: the animals munch on a day 150-250 kilo and will weigh up to five tons - this amount of food must the owner first has to get from somewhere. Although Laos is sparsely populated, people dismiss yet with their homes and plantations of the forest, home to the animals. Today no longer live a million, but barely 1500 elephants in Laos, of which less than 1000 in the wild, some figures speak of only 700. About 500 are in human hands, and the numbers of both the wild and the captive animals are plummeting: according to an article in the German "Die Zeit" there are only only 46 farm animal cows of childbearing age in the country.

In the picture: left Mahouts with working elephants during a morning bath, right with animals for tourists

The rescue for the elephants is now seen in tourism, and so now elephant riding is offered everywhere. What is meant is as a rule that you will sit in a "back bench" and go for an hour's traveling somewhere.

This animals have always fascinated me, so we try to spend a whole day with them to see what they eat, how they work, how they live and, above all: how am I going to approach such a large animal?

Andreas Suchantke describes in one of his books the sensitive perception of the elephant, which seems to extend usual levels: leading cows of a herd have become known who were obviously blind - and still led the herd. Mahouts report that an elephant recognizes often years later people they like and that they can react with strong emotion: pleasure of dismay.

Asian elephants are crepuscular and nocturnal and rest during the day. Sometimes they fall into plantations and eat there all the sorts of things they find - but they definitely love sugar cane and bananas! The plants are pulled out with the trunk - our Mahout made use of the elephant in the undergrowth and we where surprised about the power of this trunk: the effortless in which the trunk tears arm-thick branches away out, stunned and fascinated us.

First off, it's pretty far down here, when you're sitting on it - and the animal has surprisingly thick skin, the hair feels like bristles!

As I try to go to the animal to feed him bananas, I hesitate - and the animal can feel my hesitation, even hesitates also. But there is a sensitivity in the animal, which makes it easy to talk with him - and the encounter is concluded in an almost caressing nearby. And yes - the pleasure of this small half-ripe banana is certainly obvious!

The greatest pleasure for us is the shared bath with the animals. The mahouts have trained the elephants so that they throw on the command the riding tourists into the water - much to the delight of all concerned as well as any audience. We enjoy this nightly ritual before the animals are moved back into the jungle to eat overnight.

And a side note: if you bath in the Mekong, look very carefully where you are going to do that. In some places the river is like a sewer and sometimes carries all the things which in the following treatment then is good and expensive at home ...