Surin elephant festival 2011

Although I had paid for a good seat in the shadow area, I prefered to stay among the mahout houses, and watch the show from there, together with  Apple from Surin elephant Kingdom in Ban Ta Klang, where I stayed a week this spring, listing their 127 elephants, as well as the 56 elephants administrated by the Surin elephant study center at the same place. Both organizations provide economy for the elephants owners, so they dont have to go streetbegging in towns, like the did before. From the mahout house, one has a good overview of the elephants, and the show, and its pleasant with the wind. From here you can also most of the elephants, which will take part in the battle later.

From the left mahout house you get a nice overview.

King Naresuan´s elephant is now standing out on the stadium field, prepared to battle. I think that black and gold caparison looks great on this elephant. The black color also has a reason; Naresuan (then known as Prince Naret) was also known as the Black Prince (Thai: พระองค์ดำ). His younger brother Ekathotsarot was known as the White Prince, and his elder sister Suphankanlaya was known as the Golden Princess. In 1563, both princes were sent to Pegu by their father Maha Thammarachathirat as captives to ensure the king's fidelity to the Burmese. Naresuan used the time to study war and war strategy. 

In 1569 Maha Thammarachathirat was installed as king of Ayutthaya.

I was also happy to meet Sangduen "Lek" Chailert, owner of Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. I have had correspondence with Lek for some years, but visited to her park only some months ago, upon her kind invitation. Lek and I have a slightly different approach to elephant management, but still I respect her work a lot, and Im impressed of what she has achieved, in taking care of elephants. Now and then politics in animal management becomes the nuclear issue in discussions, and people tend to focus on diffrences, rather than which opinions they have in common, in various discussions, almost forgetting the elephants, during their debate. Lek does not posses such extreme attitude, and I know we share a common passion for elephants, in such an extent, that elephants have become an important, maybe a major, part of our lifes

She told me about an elephants babys death yesterday, which was killed by its mother, and showed me the spot, still giving evidence of a tragical accident. Throughout the modern history of captive elephant breeding, it has now and then occured that a female elephant, mostly giving birth for the first time in her life, has attacked her baby, sometimes killing their babies. In my database, I have listed many such cases. Its not as rare among captive mammals as one would think, and the numbers of this in the wild is unknown. And though those news was very sad, indeed a tragic for the baby elephants owners, such things occur very seldom, although hundreds of elephants concentrate on the Surin stadium during the festival. Dozens of young elephants and babies were brought to the elephant this year, without any accidents, except for this single one. The mother was transported to the owners village, and hopefully, her next birth will be more succesful.

Hardly any country in Asia are so succesful in elephant captive breeding, as Burma and Thailand. On the pictures, a small baby is peacefully sleeping beside her mother, while houndreds of elephants stand around, and people pass by her every second. If used to people, activities, and public, elephants cope well with gatherings like this. Stress only occures for poorly, or untrained elephants.

Lek also showed me her favourite photo spot, a platform for the public to mount elephants for riding, and from there we followed the show, competing in taking pictures. When I was proud to have taken hundreds of pictures, (in reality x) Lek claimed she took over thousand, and I believe her, her camera clicked like a machine gun...
After spending her life with elephants, she still seem to be highly passionate for elephants, and their coexistence with humans.

From our spot we watched the football elephants and other elephant showing tricks, while the most enjoyable is the final part of the show, the war elephants.

So what was the war about?
In 1592, Ayutthaya was attacked by the Burmese again. Minchit Sra, along with the Lord of Pyay, Natshinnaung the son of the Lord of Toungoo, and the Burmese King of Lanna, led the Burmese into Siam.
King Naresuan was now fighting for the liberty from Burmese rulers.

The history legends say that King Naresuan of Ayutthaya confronted his enemy Minchit Sra with a single combat on elephant: Naresuan then urged Minchit Sra to fight with him: "My brother, why do you hide yourself in the canopy shadows? Let us fight the elephant battle for our own honors. No future kings will do what we are going to do."

This single battle between the two warlords is known as Yuddhahatthi, the elephant battle. 
After narrowly missing Naresuan and cutting his hat (on display in Bangkok) Minchit Sra was slashed to death on the back of his elephant. This was on Monday, the 2nd waning day of the 2nd month of the Buddhist calendar Chulasakarat Era year 954. Calculated to correspond to Monday, 18 January, AD 1593 of the Gregorian calendar, this date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.

In spite of strong firework crackers, not a single elephant pannicked, or went nervous, which is a good indication of quality training, where the elephants have been used to various things, slowly, step by step. Maybe they are not as well trained, as war elephants were before, but not far behind. The logistics also include good food, a pool to drink and bathe, and infrastructure for the elephants owners.






This show is supposed to be the largest gathering of elephants throughout the world, and is kept annually on the third saturday in November. Its highly enjoyed by the excited visitors, and people come from all over the world to Surin during this weekend. But its not only an elephant show, the visitiros also get a brief insight in the culture bewteen man and elephants, which, in spite of so many welfare organisations, still survives and prosper in Asia.

The show ended with a gathering of all elephants, this years reaching a number of 280 elephants of varoius ages.

A homage was made to Bhumibol Adulyadej, king Rama IX of Thailand.

The Tatto of one of the mahouts

Only a few hours later, dozens of trucks left Surin with elephants, while most of the elephants living in Ban Ta Klang, some 62 km north of Surin town, will start the march home tomorrow, after some rest. Ban Ta Klang will also be my next stop on this elephant journey.

Ban Ta Klang is situated some 62 km north of Surin town, and is accessable by bus, which takes one hour. This ancient Kui (or Sui) village has raised elephants for hundreds of years. In the old days, Pachi, the head of the Mahouts, led a number of fellow mahouts to catch wild elephants in border of Thailand and Cambodia. In Ban Ta Klang you see hundreds of elephants in one single day.

Preparation of the elephants before Surin elephant festival

Inside the military area is a place where the owners, assisted by the soldiers, put on different items on the caparisoned elephants, like howdas, head-crowns, matresses and forehead pieces. Although this area gets pretty crowded by tusked bulls, everything is made in a very relaxed way, and I could not see any tension on the elephants. The bulls, unchained and attended by only a single mahout/owner, also accept all sort of strange people walking around and between them, without a single indication of irritation. Impressing indeed.

The most important elephants, playing a vital part in the show, got war howdahs on their back, where weapons as spears etc can be kept during a fight.

Soldiers assist the mahouts to put the howdahs on their elephants. ... The howdah was secured on the elephant with a beautiful tail cap, and finally the double forehead caparison was attached. 

Some others got gold colored head crowns,

and others got different kind of equipment, like cannons and other weapons.

Elephant trainer Puy Jay Mau  Sabmak from Pi  Man village, Tamon, Chompon.

It was easy to see that this trainer was an experienced veteran, having a very calm and obedient elephant. And with his proud poisture and well cared beard, he was a real character.
The whole operation, incuding a large number of elephants, followed a structured rutine, while the elephants had some food to eat. Everything went very relaxed and smoothly, and I did not see a single elephant in bad mood or being nervous, exposing stereotypic behaviours.

The result. The star elephant Num Sek is prepeared for the battle.

After the equipment was attached, the elephants had some palm leaves leaves for later hunger, had water to drink, Isnt it nice to see that big bull peacefully drinking from the pipe, beside a younger cow, and her baby?

After drinking, the elephants were taken out to the corner of the stadium at the mahout houses, where they stood in groups, browsing leaves, waiting for their different stage inputs.

Early morning at Surin elephant festival

I arrived already 04.00 in the morning to the Surin elephant festival grounds, when it was still night and black. The Stadium looked rather different than in daylight, black and deserted, although some spotlights were on. Went behind the Stadium, and walked into the military area, where some of the smaller elephants were kept, one was actually sleeping with half its body on the road, and when I passed it first time, I thought it was some stones...

At the "Sui mahout houses" at the end of the stadium, close to the dam, a mother with her new born baby was heavily sleeping, as well as her owners upstairs.

Its remarkable that the elephants doesnt tear down the house structures, or try to break out, when unattended in the night. To the right is a closeup of the sleeping mother.

Most of the elephants were sleeping out on a field, adjoining the festival grounds, with the mahouts tents mounted closeby. At around six, the mahouts started to fetch their elephants for morning care. It was nice to see how relaxed the elephants were in the night, and the lack of stress in the morning. This is highly depending on the management of their owners, and as I have seen before, many Thai elephants are excellent trained and used to various situations.

Now trucks with food started to arrive for the elephants which were not staying on the grass field. After the grass was was off-loaded it was stored in the shadow.



It was nice to see that many elephants gets fresh food every day, preventing the food to go bad and dry up. It seems that the mahouts wifes takes a special responsibility for the food of the elephants, unloading, storing and also feeding their elephants. I couldnt see a single pineapple plant, fruits, or other sugar rich food, which are fed to many Thai elephants elesewhere, here they got some sort of palm leaves similair to the ones I have seen being fed to elephants in South India. Rich of cellulosa, sugar free, and much better for the stomachs, probably...

One hour later, new elephants arrived with lorries, and among them, three lorries, according to the advert sign, from the same owner or company.

The first lorry was carrying a large bull with crossed tusks, which activities I followed throughtout the morning preparations, without knowing how lucky I was.

(You can see on the picture how the right tusk is pointing into the left one, and how the surface of the left tusk has been slightly destroyed while growing.

I learned first later about his important role, being the star of the festival, a tusker who is playing the role of King Naresuan of Ayutthaya, who fought himself in Yudhahatthi, the Elephant battle.










While one caretaker was putting the chaining stakes into the ground, the owner of the tusker unloded his elephant, while chatting relaxed with his wife, and his elephant stepped down from the truck without a lot of commands. I decided to follow him, when leaving the truck, after mounting his elephant.

Surin in Thailand

After finishing the last blog, I had a 30 hrs trip to Surin in Thailand, first flying via Doha to Bangkok, and then, since I missed the 15.20 train, with bus from Mochit bus station in Bangkok, partly through areas east of Bangkok were the streets were still flooded.

Surin is a province in the Isan region, and its capitol is Surin town (Mueang Surin) which holds the annual elephant roundup in November each year. Its very close to border in Cambodia, and a lot of people here speak a dialect of the Khmer language, called Khmer-Surin. Most mahouts, however, are not really Thai, but belong to the Sui, (sometimes refered to as Kuay) a people having their own language.

Arriving in a town 03.00 in the night, hungry and tired, with no pre-booked hotel is normally not a good idea. But I sat down at a night open coffe shop at the bus station and had a noodle soup and a beer, and then went to Sang Thong Hotel where I stayed last time, and managed to check in 05.00.

Already jumping off the Tuk Tuk in front of the hotel, there was a typical smell of elephant dung which was so inspiring, so I didnt even take a nap, although I could hardly sleep on the bus. (No pictures today, so I add some from my last visit in the spring of 2011. The elephant on the street was actully pictured utside the same hotel in March this year) Sang Thong Hotel is a rather simple, but OK Hotel in Chinese style, it has a large number of rooms, so theres good chances of getting a room even in peak season.

07.30 I went to the Srinanong Stadum. On the way, you may pass a junction with natural size elephant statues. Theres also a sign mentioning the Guiness world record of the largest elephant buffet, which took place in 2003, including 260 elephants and over 50 tonnes of fruits and vegetables.


The show included similair concepts I have seen before in Thailand, but The Stadium gives the large number of elephants a significant stronger impact. The speaker said that the first roundup was in 1960, but other sources state since 1955. After the show I was happy to meet Apple, who works in the elephant village Ban Tha Klang, nort of Surin town. Apple hepled me a lot, during my last visit, when I was listing most elephants in Ban Tha Klang in the database.

A populair picture of the first roundup can be seem in many places, above is one I took in a Farang restaurant in Surin in March. In the closeup you can clearly read 1955.


While writing this blog, at least 20 elephants passed by, walking on the street. Although streets are definitely not the natural environment for a wild Asian elephant, I noticed that the culture and traditions in Surin town are different from Bangkok and Chiang Mai. On many places people and shop owner put out large water buckets on the street, so the elephants can take frequent pauses and drink and blow water on the skin.

Later I was standing in a crossing for 20 minutes without finding a tuk-tuk. All of a sudden an elephant turn up, why I bring up the camera to take a photo. In the next minute the mahout and the elephant bring me back to the hotel.




Also got some news, an sms from an animal transporter in Europe, saying he just transfered the asian female elephant Raja in Mallorca Safari Park to La Barben in France.