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The Nature Elephant
The Karen people have always lived naturally in the forest, and, for many generations have relied on elephants to help them.
Because elephants are ideal for carrying heavy loads they are essential for transportation through rural areas, and, more recently, for carrying tourists. The Karen people simply would not survive without them. The Karen people have always used elephants to help carry them through dense parts of the jungle which would be difficult on foot, such as down steep hills to fetch water from the creek, or carrying heavy bags of rice from the fields to the barn. What is little effort for an elephant would be a huge amount of labour for humans. Because they are so important to the Karen people, elephants are their friends, and are treated with respect.
To manage an elephant and gain its trust requires knowledge, love and understanding. This is why the Karen people look after their elephants so well, and only certain members of the Karen family are trained enough to do this. Some of them call elephant-care a kind of black magic, and this black magic is passed down through families.
Part of the skill of caring for elephants is to ensure the elephant is listened to. Karen legend has it that if a female elephant is ignored, it is likely that her eggs will become infected, and therefore she will not be able to continue the elephant family. This serious consequence acts as a grave warning to those handling elephants. A sense of duty, honor and patience are as important to the elephant as they are to the Karen people as a whole.
The legend of Chang Karen
This is a story about how elephants became so important in the life of the Karen hill tribe. The legend goes that once upon a time, there were two brothers living in the forest. One day, their mother needed to leave home for a business, so instructed the two boys to look after the house, be good, and by no means split open the bamboo tree, as it contained many flies. Being the mischievous boys they were, as soon as their mother was out of sight, they crept up to the forbidden bamboo and cracked it open, curious to see what would happen.
Immediately, the room was filled with flies, two of which flew up into each of the boys' noses. Panicking, the boys didn't know what to do. Soon, they felt their bodies changing. Their legs began to itch, and grow longer and wider. Their heads began to swell, until they felt the size and shape of footballs. Their noses grew longer and their bodies became heavier and more clumsy.
When their mother returned home, she was shocked to see what had happened to her sons. She offered them cooked rice, but they turned it down with a slow shake of their large heads, their noses swinging from side to side. They were still growing, and were too ashamed of their bad behaviour to eat. The mother offered them water, but they did not want to drink it. Soon, when the sons had grown too big for the house, and could now only walk on four legs, they left the house to find grass. This was all they felt like eating.
Very soon the word spread, and people came from all over the valley to see the mutated boys. Their tongues had become too big for them to speak, so the sons had stopped talking. As if to compensate, their ears grew large so they cold hear very, very well. They had become elephant-boys.
One day, some workers came to see if the elephant-boys could help them carry heavy loads. They gave them wood and lead them to their workshops, and the elephant-boys were calm and obedient. The workers realised that what was a huge job for them, was little effort for these giant elephant boys. And life continued this way for many generations. This is the remarkable story of how elephants and humans came to work together in harmony, explaining how they can exist together in the forest.
Elephants and the Karen Hill Tribe people
Deep in the rich forests of northern Thailand, in the bowl of a green valley, lies the Karen hill tribe community. Making the most of their natural surroundings, this tribe has managed to forge an incredibly simple life in the forest using no modern machinery or medicine. They need only the trees, plants, animals, and are especially reliant on the mighty elephant.
The Karen people have a strong bond with elephants: their self-sufficient lifestyles are surprisingly similar, and intertwining. Wild elephants play a very important role in the Karen way of life, as well as the relationships of valley inhabitants, and the magic of the valley.
