
In the year 2000 I was awarded the Meridian TV taped Up arts bursary for my animation "Tally Bloody Ho!". It was a joint award of 1500 GBP and I decided that I would invest it in traveling somewhere where I would never have been able to go without the money to research something I cannot access in the UK (it was vague and open). Some friends were also going to Thailand and so I booked a visit for 5 weeks. I then started to research into topics I could realistically explore.
My criteria was that it had to be environmentally related, ideally with conservation at the centre. My friend Fran House suggested elephants, and so it all started.
This would be my first chance to see elephants... and to get close. I had a notion of what an elephant was to me... but on reflection I was naive and had no real idea at all.

E is for elephant. Barbar the elephant. Dumbo. Elmer. Ganesh. Billie Smarts Circus (yes I did go to see elephants at the circus as a child). London Zoo. David Shepherd's paintings (my Mum has a Print that I grew up with) and a few other vague notions...
It was I realised, a limited knowledge, so this would be money well spent. And hopefully I would be able to make an animation from the experience. Little did I know what I was getting in to.
Before I went I started my research. I establish connections with Richard Lair at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Lampang and Sangduen 'Lek' Chailert of Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai. Both were working with elephants and had ideas about conservation and the environment. So I set up to meet them during my initial stay.
During the five weeks that took me from 2000 to 2001, officially into the new millennium, I had all my preconceptions of 'what an elephant is' blown away. In fact it changed my life.
I was introduced to elephants in many new and unexpected contexts.
At Lampang I helped document a recording of the Thai Elephant Orchestra with Richard and Dave Soldier. I found myself following them into steelworks to get elephant sized instruments made. I saw the elephants at the conservation centre demonstrate their strength and skills in the logging show; I saw elephants giving rides into the forest; they painted and they played music.
My perceptions were being challenged. And at no point was this mere circus performance, animals following blindly command like Pavlov's dog.
My early sketches of what I thought elephants were, were sadly misguided. One dimensional. Dead. NO realisation. I hadn't got a clue. My head was full of myths and legend, tales and a very Western perspective. The drawings were full of shortcomings and so was I.


I went on to meet Lek. Less easy to pin down I finally met her in her office in Chiang Mai with Jo and Degs, my friends. We did not get to see her elephants, but she enthused us about her elephants and her vision for a sanctuary. She also told us a story aboout a mahout and his jealous elephant. How he had wanted to go and see his girlfriend but teh elephant had been stopping him leaving her and so he had to sllep in a hammock by her side. One day he bought a radio and left it playing in his hammock with a pillow. He was able to go off and see his girlfriend. Unfortunately the batteries died and and when the elephant awaoke she was so angry, she untied her chains and scented him out, sniffing through the vilage she located him at the girls bamboo house and promptly smashed the wall down and grabbed him back!



I loved this story. And left Thailand full of all these experiences and sure that I could make an idea for an animation. I worked on astory outline. My ideas were all based around this relationship between the elephant and the mahout... and the wife. I put a storyboard together and applied to various possible funding bodies to no avail. I was fascinated by the mahouts. Their culture. Who were they. Why did they do this job? What do they think about the situation with elephants in Thailand? What is their role in the future of elephants? I tried and tried to get some outside sponsorship to develop the animation. In the end I decided I eed more material. I had to go back. So in the summer of 2002, 18 months after my first vist. I returned. And so it all began... I came back again and again. I fell in love. With elephants. With mahouts. With Thailand.

Glad to see you started this blog about not just elephants, but mahouts as well. I've heard so many people say that they don't like people and would rather "save the elephants" without realizing how important a mahout is to the future of elephants. And these are people who have met elephants, and they take for granted that they can not be there and be that close to elephants without the mahouts. I think it's time people are made aware of the existence of mahouts and let them acknowledge the important role of a mahout in the future of elephants. Thanks for writing this blog!
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