They are most intelligent creatures honoured by many cultures. In Buddhist tradition, the Buddha picked the form of a white elephant as one of his many incarnations, thus the rare appearance of a white elephant is still heralded as a manifestation of the Gods.
Elephants have always been my favourite animal by far and a spirit guide that has always appeared regularly at very poignant times on my journey in life... Described by many cultures as majestic, these creatures feel vibrations in the earth through their feet and have continually shown signs of telepathic communication amongst each other. One example of this was an animal documentary I watched about elephants, where animal rescuers had to transport a herd of elephants from one village to another to protect them from poachers. They had to take the herd in 2 goes, as they only had room for half of the herd in their 2 big trucks. As the first group of elephants had been moved to the next village, they were very distressed from being separated from the rest of their heard. As the 2 hour wait almost came to an end for the other elephants to turn up, the awaiting group of elephants suddenly started showing signs of excitement when the other half of the heard was about 2 minutes away.... As you may have heard, they also mourn their dead and visit their graves regularly. We MUST honour these animals.
You may have seen the breathtaking video clips on youtube of the elephants painting. It has only recently come to my attention that these animals are actually tortured brutally to perform these tasks as well as other tricks that bring in money from tourism in Thailand.
The Phajaan is a horrific ritual performed by evil shamen, where elephants as young as 4 are separated from their mothers for the first time to be taken away and tortured. As the elephant screams for its mother, its legs are tied up tightly with rope before being forced into a cage that barely fits their bodies and chained in place.
Photograph by Jennifer Hile
They are deprived of food, water and sleep and are poked and proded with bamboo sticks with nails imbedded in the end, knives and are also shot with stones and other projectiles. This is meant to “break the spirit of the elephant”. Watching parts of this process certainly breaks the spirit of humanity. The torture is endured by the elephant for up to 6 days until the shaman senses that the spirit has been changed.
This 91-year-old shaman is the spiritual leader of the phajaan. He believes that phajaan is the only way to train an elephant.
Photograph by Jennifer Hile
After Phajaan the elephant is never allowed to see its mother again and it is believed that even if it did, the mother would no longer recognize the elephant as its own since its spirit is changed so drastically. All in order to force them to perform ridiculous tricks for tourists.
Not for the faint hearted...
The Elephant Nature Park is a sanctuary set up by a lady who goes by the name of Lek. She has dedicated her life to saving elephants from the Phajaan and has received many death threats, as well as had her youngest baby elephant poisoned to death.
Lets put a stop to this bullshit.
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/
http://www.helpthaielephants.com/
http://www.elephantnaturefoundation.org/
"There is no creature among all the beasts of the world which hath so great and ample demonstration of the power and wisdom of almighty God as the elephant"
Edward Topsell
