THE MODERN ROYAL WHITE ELEPHANTS OF THAILAND

The modern Royal White Elephants of Thailand have been in the care of Dr. Diskul, the royal veterinary surgeon. With His Majesty the King's permission (which must be secured in all matters relating to these venerable creatures), Dr. Diskul has worked to modernize the treatment of the white elephants while still keeping the elevated status traditions. He included reforms in elephant exercise, sterner discipline, revision of medical procedures and dietary improvements.

Elephants, especially if excessively protected like a Royal white elephant, are remarkably delicate in health. Even working elephants are given an upcountry holiday because they get sunstroke in the summer. Years ago, when a white elephant fell sick, treatments had first to be tested on other animals. The delay often aggravated the condition and prolonged the creature's distress. But nowadays, cure is readily available. The stables, two of which were recently constructed at a cost of 3.9-million baht, are kept pretty isolated as a health precaution.

Modern white elephants -- with the exception of Phra Savet Adulyadej Pahon (the King’s favorite, pictured above) -- are ridden by their mahouts and gently disciplined when they misbehave. But still the best incentive to good conduct is rewards. Each elephant has two mahouts, one of whom is often many kilometers away in Samut Phrakan province gathering choice grasses. An elephant may consume over 300-kg of grass, 30-kg of bananas and up to 6-kg of sugar cane a day. Coconuts are a special treat.

Dietary supplements are equally epic. An experiment with feeding bananas spiked with a couple of vitamin and iron pills worked only once. The elephants became aware of it and they promptly rejected -- with remarkable precision -- all other tampered fruits. Unfortunately, the alternative is an annual encounter with a syringe of truly elephantine proportions. On that black day, Dr. Diskul is treated as an "uncertain friend", and the white elephants are quick to trumpet news of his prickly antics.

Not all innovations at the royal stables have worked --this includes the highly regarded giant herbal energy pills from Burma which proved too effective by half. Purchase of a tranquilizer gun costing 100,000 Baht was meanwhile vetoed at the highest level as an unnecessary extravagance.

While it would clearly be improper to ask the actual cost of maintaining a white elephant, retaining such stables in the heart of modern Bangkok is not an easy task. A few years ago, there was a serious consideration to move the royal elephants to a 200-acre site near Phuping Palace in Chiang Mai. Although moving the white elephants away from the capital would certainly raise eyebrows among traditionalists, practicality is still under consideration. The white elephants, accustomed to their safe and regal Bangkok environment, are simply unsuited to wilder climates.

A white elephant is after all, by definition -- not a jungle-dweller.


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CHARACTERISTICS OF A TRUE WHITE ELEPHANT

The importance of a white elephant to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia was featured in our previous post. The last King of Laos believed he had a white elephant – but on close inspection, unfortunately it wasn’t – and led to the eventual fall of his kingdom. What are the special characteristics of a true white elephant as mentioned in the ancient texts?

It appears that there wasn’t any mention of the requirement that a white elephant has to be entirely albino. The appreciation of the shade and the location of light spots are the first step in deciding whether the white elephant is worthy of being cherished as the most important possession in the entire kingdom.

Other skin tones are features that have to be considered as well -- subtle yellows, blacks, reds, blue-grays. But ideally, the creature’s skin tone is lotus-bud-pink. Eyes should be large like those of a cow and rimmed with white. Jet black irises are best of all, pink or blue tinged ones are remarkable enough.

The two bumps on the forehead (a major distinguishing feature between Asiatic elephants and their larger African cousins, which have only one) should be pronounced enough for a man to rest his neck between when the creature is fully grown. The tail should hang straight away from the body and seem to have a life of its own. It would be best if the hairs on its tip touch the ground.

The finest ears hang "prettily" and are long enough to touch when drawn across the eyes. Toe-nails are best red, white or pink with fine patterning on their soles. If the elephant is endowed with 20 toes instead of the normal creature (with 18), the better.

Three hair strands must emerge from one follicle -- the characteristic most failed to meet. The distribution of hair behind the ears, on the head and back is also important. The gums are almost white or pale pink. The genitals must be of the same color.

And the trunk? The longer the better. Because the trunk is very important to the elephant’s well-being. An elephant with a badly wounded trunk usually faces a slow sentence of death -- the damage is psychological as much as physical.

Having taken note of the creature's physical attributes, they assess its personality. An intelligent elephant, for example, will run ahead of the pack at bathing time and enter the waters before they are churned and muddied by its older companions. When eating grass, a well-mannered elephant selects choice grass and elegantly swishes them from side to side before eating, thus discarding irksome insects.

Determining whether or not a white elephant possesses special features is an overwhelming task. One bad assessment is a huge mistake of putting the kingdom’s fate at stake.


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COMING UP: “How a White Elephant is Elevated to Royal Status”

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THE LEGEND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT

In the story of the Buddha, the white elephant is connected to fertility and knowledge. On the eve of giving birth to the Lord Buddha, his mother dreams that a white elephant comes to present her with a lotus, symbol of purity and knowledge.

The white elephant is not an ordinary elephant. It had sacred powers. It was the mount of the war god. It brought fertility. The Royal White Elephants were not taken to war and not ridden in processions. They were kept within the confines of the palace, entrusted to the care of senior officials, fed well, washed regularly, and worried over constantly.

For the kings of Burma, Siam, Laos and Cambodia -- the possession of these sacred beasts became very important because their rule depended on it. A king who had many fine white elephants would be successful and his kingdom would prosper. If his white elephants died, it foretold disaster for the king and his kingdom.

The Burmese King, Thibaw, made his last effort to revive his most favorite white elephant. Although it is clearly dying, he showered it with gold and precious stones. He decked diamonds on its forehead to ward off evil spirits. They set more diamonds on its tusks and even imported a mirror from France just for the elephant. But the poor animal still died. The next year – the British took over Burma and deposed Thibaw – the last Burmese king.

The Lao Kingdom suffered a similar fate. This time, the kingdom fell under the communists. The king was detained in a labor camp and his white elephant was put away in a zoo – the king died a few years later. He was the last Lao king. Why did his kingdom fell while his white elephant is still living? – A Royal Thai officer got the chance to see the white elephant in the 1970’s and after strict assessment; he found out that the Lao king’s white elephant does not meet all the major characteristics of a Royal white elephant mentioned in the ancient texts!

In the Kingdom of Cambodia, the last white elephant was seen and taken picture in the royal palace during the1960's. After that, civil war in the Kingdom took place for many years and nobody have seen or heard any thing about the white elephant ever since.

The Kingdom of Siam had different fate. The Royal white elephants endured and the kingdom continued to prosper and remained sovereign in the era of colonialism. Ancient Siamese laws required that all white elephants captured or born in captivity be registered and presented to the king. This law is still applicable up to this day. This is to make sure the Thai kingdom survives and continue to flourish.

White elephants are rare today and even if they are found, they have to pass the strictest characteristics of a true Royal White Elephant. If the legend of the white elephant and the powers it instill to a monarch is NOT at all true – why does history back it up?

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COMING UP: "Characteristics of a True White Elephant"

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