“It has long been a tradition to use elephants for labor in Thailand,” claimed Joseph Pontecorvo, who produced and directed the documentary. “The relationship between ‘mahouts’ and their elephants is also very intimate.”

“Mahouts” is a Thai term for describing elephant handlers who traditionally ride elephants for clearing forests or plowing rice fields.

“However, the only work left for elephants in Thailand is now tourism,” explained Pontecorvo.

The documentary thus reveals that “mahouts” barely make enough money to support all their elephants when the tourist season is slow.

Even though children don’t want to be “mahouts” anymore, Pontecorvo unveils the story of a 17-year-old Thai girl who decides to become a “mahout.” The documentary also describes her eagerness to learn from her father, as well as her intimate relationship with her elephant Nong Bo-ong — they are the same age.

“In my documentary, I show that domesticated elephants are part of the Thai culture and that the human-elephant relationship is valued,” noted Pontecorvo.

According to statistics of the Department of Livestock Development, under the authority of the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, in 2006, the number of elephants in the wild was estimated at under 1,000, while domesticated elephants living on farms number between 1,500 and 2,000.

“Before filming this documentary, I was opposed to the idea of domesticated elephants,” emphasized Pontecorvo. “However, I could see during the month I spent in Thailand that the domesticated elephants were very happy because of their relationship with their ‘mahout,’ which I would now describe as a ‘labor of love’ relationship.”

The 90-minute documentary “Kingdom of the Elephants” will be broadcast on Animal Planet, a channel of Discovery Network Asia, next September.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email