03-13-2005, 06:22 PM
Temple Giants - Elephants in the Culture of Kerala.
by Jane Schreibman
There are over a thousand temples in the state of Kerala, in south India, and nearly all of them have an annual elephant festival. Indeed, elephants are an integral part of temple life. "We cannot imagine a festival without elephants," says Jaypakash, a citizen of the state. "They are part and parcel of the package."
In all of Kerala there is only one temple where elephants are not allowed. That is the Trichambaram Krishna temple. The prohibition recalls an episode when the Lord Krishna was attacked by the elephant Kuvalayapidea. The animal was owned by the evil King Kamsa, the leader of the demons, who wanted to destroy Krishna. For this reason, devotees of the Trichambaram temple do not let elephants near their building.
Elsewhere, elephants are revered. The ultimate gift one may present to a temple is a male elephant. As economic conditions in Kerala improve, more and more people find themselves in the financial position to do this. The Guruvayoor Sri Krishna temple, one of the wealthiest in the state, now owns about fifty-five elephants. It has a sanctuary for them called Punnathoor Kotta. In 1997, Lakshmikutty, believed to be the oldest elephant in the world, died at the age of eighty-four. He had been donated to the temple in 1923.
In addition to temple-owned animals, the camp is home to about a thousand elephants owned by 314 families. These are used for logging or rented out to small temples for their festivals. Those who find their elephant to be a financial burden may also donate the animal to a temple, which is duty bound to care for it. Consequently, Kerala's temples are now supporting many more elephants than ever before.
Life with elephants
Visiting Punnathoor Kotta, I met a mahout (elephant handler or trainer) named C. Sathyapalan who works for the Sri Krishna temple. He told me that his father was an "elephant middleman," hiring the animals out for celebrations and festivals. "We always had elephants and their mahouts camping out in our backyard," said Sathyapalan. "That's how I became a mahout. I was always around elephants.
"I love my elephant like one of my own children. Together we make enough money to support three families. I work for the temple, which is funded by the state [run by a government trust], so my pay is regulated and I will get a pension."
Showing me the animals in the sanctuary, Sathyapalan explained that because the elephants were gifts to the temple, they were all male. "No one would ever consider giving a female as a gift to a temple," he declared, "because they don't have tusks. The beauty of an elephant is judged by the size of his tusks. His trunk and tail should touch the earth, and he should be pure black."
Elephants can be very loyal. Sathyapalan told me of one mahout who was a kind person but an alcoholic. When the mahout passed out from drink, his elephant would pick him up with its trunk and carry him home. Sathyapalan also recounted another story, about an elephant that arrived with its mahout in a new town. It would not obey the mahout and kept going to a certain house. No one knew why. Then an old villager remembered that its previous occupants had always given bananas to the elephants. The new owner began feeding his elephant bananas, and from then on it obeyed his commands.
Generally, an elephant is controlled by pushing or nudging on 64 of its 120 vulnerable points. Treats or rewards like bananas are also useful, as well as supplements to its feed. Elephants, of course, do not eat meat. Nevertheless, mahouts often add some ground meat to their feed in the belief that it will make their bones strong.
Until about twenty years ago, it was common for the children of mahouts to follow in the trade of their fathers. Usually the eldest son would apprentice with his father for about ten years. Now the offspring of mahouts are less interested in going into the profession. Many become drivers or enter another field altogether.
In India, there are thought to be only two woman mahouts. One is Nibha Namboodiri. She is a zoologist and is moving into the field of elephant welfare. She studied with the first female mahout of India, Parvati of Assam. Parvati learned her trade from her father. Namboodiri explained that mahouts may be classified into three types. Those who use love to control their elephants are called reghawan; those who use ingenuity to outsmart them, yukthiman; and those who control their animals with cruelty, balwan. It is common wisdom that if a mahout is cruel to his elephant, he may end up being killed, but if he is kind, it may one day save his life. There is the story of Subedar Ali, a mahout who was mauled by a tiger. His elephant carried him to safety, traveling several miles with the tiger in hot pursuit.
The great challenge in training elephants comes when they musth. This is a Hindi word that means intoxication, or euphoria. "My elephant is chained now," explained Sathyapalan. "He is starting to musth.
"Once a year we notice a discharge near the elephant's eyes. [Musth first manifests itself as an oily secretion from a gland located between the eyes and ears.] This means that it is mating time for the elephant, and he will become rogue, wild. He has to be chained, and no one can go near him. At this time he is very dangerous. We give him his food and water him but from a distance.
"See that elephant over there. He is very beautiful and very well trained. But every year he musths right at festival time, so he has never been in a festival."
Although man has trained elephants for centuries, not much is known about these musth periods. Male elephants first experience musth between the ages of fifteen and twenty. It can happen one to three times per year and can last from a few days to a few weeks. Musth periods tend to last longer as the animal gets older. For many years it was believed that male elephants only mate when they musth, but this is no longer thought to be entirely true. Rather, musth causes the males to be more aggressive, so they may be more successful in finding mates. This aggressive behavior can make caring for an elephant very dangerous.
Threatened behemoths
The most common use of domesticated elephants has been to transport people and goods. Despite their bulk, elephants are surprisingly agile when moving on mountainous terrain, and they are also good at walking through marshes or muddy land. Another point in their favor is that their huge size scares off other animals.
Many Keralans still own elephants and use them for transportation, mostly to move timber in the logging industry. In 1995, a proclamation ending indiscriminate logging in the northern states of India created a climate conducive to an illegal elephant trade. Elephant owners in the north, often no longer able to make a living and stuck with the cost of upkeep, may be anxious to get it off their hands. They are happy to sell, but elephants smuggled to the south have brought diseases with them.
Because many northern elephants are not brought into the state legally, they have not been subject to a proper veterinary check. They are also often not registered. But an elephant's death does not go unnoticed in Kerala. Recently two elephants owned by the same family died. From the autopsy reports, the veterinarians declared the cause of death to be poor treatment. Investigators discovered that these elephants were not registered, and it was assumed that they had been smuggled from the north. It may seem hard to believe that an animal as large as an elephant can be smuggled. The feat is achieved through the use of false papers and bribes.
In 1997 the Oriental Insurance Company began to offer insurance for elephants. The insurance covers payment in the event of an animal's untimely death, and related injury to a third party or the mahout. Payouts contribute to the burial or cremation of the elephant. The insurance company will pay toward its sedation if it turns wild during musth but will not compensate the owner if the animal is mistreated.
Elephants are also being lost due to poachers, who kill males for their ivory tusks. (Tusks are actually teeth, incisors, that just keep growing.) Some elephant owners shorten the tusks to deter the poachers. According to Iqbal Malid, an animal rights activist, 10 percent of the male elephant population is lost to them every year.
When I was in Kerala recently, I visited the Peryar Wildlife Sanctuary. This occupies about thirty square miles of jungle. On my ride around the sanctuary's lake I saw herds of elephants, but all were female. When I asked if there were any trips into the forests, I learned that entering the sanctuary was too dangerous because of bandits and poachers. A three-day trip could be organized, but it would have to be accompanied by two armed guards. Maneka Ghandi, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, believes that there are just eight hundred breeding male elephants in all of India. Temple elephants do not mate.
Government initiatives
Recently, India's government began to sponsor a monthlong training program for mahouts and other elephant-care workers in the south. The program covers medical treatment of elephants (including traditional treatments), interaction with the public, care of the calves, and the general welfare of elephants. This government initiative continues a long tradition of ruling-class involvement in elephant care.
The great temples of Kerala were built by ancient monarchs using government funds. In return, the temples became a source of funds for the government. When ruling dynasties changed, the control of the temples changed too. Now, in Kerala, temples are run by boards of trustees, including government representatives. Currently, the communist-led government is proposing bills that will protect and control working conditions for the elephants.
The government has proposed registering elephants, licensing mahouts, and issuing fitness certificates for the animals. They are planning to limit the load an elephant can carry according to its weight and height. Calf labor is to be eliminated, and a retirement age of sixty- five is to be set. They also want to require that each female elephant be mated every twenty years and are even discussing maternity leave.
Also, an Elephant Study Center has been set up to observe the approximately six hundred captive elephants in Kerala. The center is functioning in conjunction with the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and operates under the umbrella of the Kerala Agricultural University. All aspects of the elephants' well-being are being researched. The center will work closely with owners, mahouts, veterinarians, and biologists in sharing the knowledge. The World Bank has donated funds for Kerala to set up the Elephant Museum, which will create awareness and information about the Asian elephant. It will include a library and initiate programs to promote awareness of the elephant among the young. It is that these steps will help protect the elephants and preserve their unique place in Keralan culture.n
Jane Schreibman is a freelance photojournalist based in New York.
by Jane Schreibman
There are over a thousand temples in the state of Kerala, in south India, and nearly all of them have an annual elephant festival. Indeed, elephants are an integral part of temple life. "We cannot imagine a festival without elephants," says Jaypakash, a citizen of the state. "They are part and parcel of the package."
In all of Kerala there is only one temple where elephants are not allowed. That is the Trichambaram Krishna temple. The prohibition recalls an episode when the Lord Krishna was attacked by the elephant Kuvalayapidea. The animal was owned by the evil King Kamsa, the leader of the demons, who wanted to destroy Krishna. For this reason, devotees of the Trichambaram temple do not let elephants near their building.
Elsewhere, elephants are revered. The ultimate gift one may present to a temple is a male elephant. As economic conditions in Kerala improve, more and more people find themselves in the financial position to do this. The Guruvayoor Sri Krishna temple, one of the wealthiest in the state, now owns about fifty-five elephants. It has a sanctuary for them called Punnathoor Kotta. In 1997, Lakshmikutty, believed to be the oldest elephant in the world, died at the age of eighty-four. He had been donated to the temple in 1923.
In addition to temple-owned animals, the camp is home to about a thousand elephants owned by 314 families. These are used for logging or rented out to small temples for their festivals. Those who find their elephant to be a financial burden may also donate the animal to a temple, which is duty bound to care for it. Consequently, Kerala's temples are now supporting many more elephants than ever before.
Life with elephants
Visiting Punnathoor Kotta, I met a mahout (elephant handler or trainer) named C. Sathyapalan who works for the Sri Krishna temple. He told me that his father was an "elephant middleman," hiring the animals out for celebrations and festivals. "We always had elephants and their mahouts camping out in our backyard," said Sathyapalan. "That's how I became a mahout. I was always around elephants.
"I love my elephant like one of my own children. Together we make enough money to support three families. I work for the temple, which is funded by the state [run by a government trust], so my pay is regulated and I will get a pension."
Showing me the animals in the sanctuary, Sathyapalan explained that because the elephants were gifts to the temple, they were all male. "No one would ever consider giving a female as a gift to a temple," he declared, "because they don't have tusks. The beauty of an elephant is judged by the size of his tusks. His trunk and tail should touch the earth, and he should be pure black."
Elephants can be very loyal. Sathyapalan told me of one mahout who was a kind person but an alcoholic. When the mahout passed out from drink, his elephant would pick him up with its trunk and carry him home. Sathyapalan also recounted another story, about an elephant that arrived with its mahout in a new town. It would not obey the mahout and kept going to a certain house. No one knew why. Then an old villager remembered that its previous occupants had always given bananas to the elephants. The new owner began feeding his elephant bananas, and from then on it obeyed his commands.
Generally, an elephant is controlled by pushing or nudging on 64 of its 120 vulnerable points. Treats or rewards like bananas are also useful, as well as supplements to its feed. Elephants, of course, do not eat meat. Nevertheless, mahouts often add some ground meat to their feed in the belief that it will make their bones strong.
Until about twenty years ago, it was common for the children of mahouts to follow in the trade of their fathers. Usually the eldest son would apprentice with his father for about ten years. Now the offspring of mahouts are less interested in going into the profession. Many become drivers or enter another field altogether.
In India, there are thought to be only two woman mahouts. One is Nibha Namboodiri. She is a zoologist and is moving into the field of elephant welfare. She studied with the first female mahout of India, Parvati of Assam. Parvati learned her trade from her father. Namboodiri explained that mahouts may be classified into three types. Those who use love to control their elephants are called reghawan; those who use ingenuity to outsmart them, yukthiman; and those who control their animals with cruelty, balwan. It is common wisdom that if a mahout is cruel to his elephant, he may end up being killed, but if he is kind, it may one day save his life. There is the story of Subedar Ali, a mahout who was mauled by a tiger. His elephant carried him to safety, traveling several miles with the tiger in hot pursuit.
The great challenge in training elephants comes when they musth. This is a Hindi word that means intoxication, or euphoria. "My elephant is chained now," explained Sathyapalan. "He is starting to musth.
"Once a year we notice a discharge near the elephant's eyes. [Musth first manifests itself as an oily secretion from a gland located between the eyes and ears.] This means that it is mating time for the elephant, and he will become rogue, wild. He has to be chained, and no one can go near him. At this time he is very dangerous. We give him his food and water him but from a distance.
"See that elephant over there. He is very beautiful and very well trained. But every year he musths right at festival time, so he has never been in a festival."
Although man has trained elephants for centuries, not much is known about these musth periods. Male elephants first experience musth between the ages of fifteen and twenty. It can happen one to three times per year and can last from a few days to a few weeks. Musth periods tend to last longer as the animal gets older. For many years it was believed that male elephants only mate when they musth, but this is no longer thought to be entirely true. Rather, musth causes the males to be more aggressive, so they may be more successful in finding mates. This aggressive behavior can make caring for an elephant very dangerous.
Threatened behemoths
The most common use of domesticated elephants has been to transport people and goods. Despite their bulk, elephants are surprisingly agile when moving on mountainous terrain, and they are also good at walking through marshes or muddy land. Another point in their favor is that their huge size scares off other animals.
Many Keralans still own elephants and use them for transportation, mostly to move timber in the logging industry. In 1995, a proclamation ending indiscriminate logging in the northern states of India created a climate conducive to an illegal elephant trade. Elephant owners in the north, often no longer able to make a living and stuck with the cost of upkeep, may be anxious to get it off their hands. They are happy to sell, but elephants smuggled to the south have brought diseases with them.
Because many northern elephants are not brought into the state legally, they have not been subject to a proper veterinary check. They are also often not registered. But an elephant's death does not go unnoticed in Kerala. Recently two elephants owned by the same family died. From the autopsy reports, the veterinarians declared the cause of death to be poor treatment. Investigators discovered that these elephants were not registered, and it was assumed that they had been smuggled from the north. It may seem hard to believe that an animal as large as an elephant can be smuggled. The feat is achieved through the use of false papers and bribes.
In 1997 the Oriental Insurance Company began to offer insurance for elephants. The insurance covers payment in the event of an animal's untimely death, and related injury to a third party or the mahout. Payouts contribute to the burial or cremation of the elephant. The insurance company will pay toward its sedation if it turns wild during musth but will not compensate the owner if the animal is mistreated.
Elephants are also being lost due to poachers, who kill males for their ivory tusks. (Tusks are actually teeth, incisors, that just keep growing.) Some elephant owners shorten the tusks to deter the poachers. According to Iqbal Malid, an animal rights activist, 10 percent of the male elephant population is lost to them every year.
When I was in Kerala recently, I visited the Peryar Wildlife Sanctuary. This occupies about thirty square miles of jungle. On my ride around the sanctuary's lake I saw herds of elephants, but all were female. When I asked if there were any trips into the forests, I learned that entering the sanctuary was too dangerous because of bandits and poachers. A three-day trip could be organized, but it would have to be accompanied by two armed guards. Maneka Ghandi, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, believes that there are just eight hundred breeding male elephants in all of India. Temple elephants do not mate.
Government initiatives
Recently, India's government began to sponsor a monthlong training program for mahouts and other elephant-care workers in the south. The program covers medical treatment of elephants (including traditional treatments), interaction with the public, care of the calves, and the general welfare of elephants. This government initiative continues a long tradition of ruling-class involvement in elephant care.
The great temples of Kerala were built by ancient monarchs using government funds. In return, the temples became a source of funds for the government. When ruling dynasties changed, the control of the temples changed too. Now, in Kerala, temples are run by boards of trustees, including government representatives. Currently, the communist-led government is proposing bills that will protect and control working conditions for the elephants.
The government has proposed registering elephants, licensing mahouts, and issuing fitness certificates for the animals. They are planning to limit the load an elephant can carry according to its weight and height. Calf labor is to be eliminated, and a retirement age of sixty- five is to be set. They also want to require that each female elephant be mated every twenty years and are even discussing maternity leave.
Also, an Elephant Study Center has been set up to observe the approximately six hundred captive elephants in Kerala. The center is functioning in conjunction with the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and operates under the umbrella of the Kerala Agricultural University. All aspects of the elephants' well-being are being researched. The center will work closely with owners, mahouts, veterinarians, and biologists in sharing the knowledge. The World Bank has donated funds for Kerala to set up the Elephant Museum, which will create awareness and information about the Asian elephant. It will include a library and initiate programs to promote awareness of the elephant among the young. It is that these steps will help protect the elephants and preserve their unique place in Keralan culture.n
Jane Schreibman is a freelance photojournalist based in New York.