CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
HUMAN TRACES:
ETHIOPIA
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
THE BALANCE OF FACTS
DESTINATIONS
DESTINATIONS
The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, portrays the Aboriginal beliefs in spiritual existence. According to the tribes that first settled down in the continent, the Dreaming's roots date all the way back to the very begging of the creation of the world. The meaning and ideology of the term is generally not so well-understood by non-indigenous people as it is referred to as part of the culture of one of the early nations, which differs from modern perceptions.
The Spirits were the creators of everything. They made the land and the seas, the rocks and the plants, the sky and the earth. They were the higher power and the Australian Aborigines spent their lifetimes honoring this power, which guided their path and shaped their way of thinking. Not only creators of everything, which could be seen as well as felt, the Spirits also gave the Aborigines the Dreaming.
The time when everything started existing according to the initial Australians, was called the Dreaming. This is the foundation of the continent's culture. The origin of the Dreaming goes way back - 65 000 years back in time to be exact. The Ancestors of the nation shaped the land, forming some parts of it as sacred. The Aborigines were very careful and overprotective of those places, strongly believing in their significance.
The Australian Aborigines are known to have believed that the world didn't have any shape and was therefore empty. Darkness dominated, and life was simply asleep, but this changed when the creation began happening. After the Dreaming and the influence of the Spirits, objects began taking shapes and came to be. They created the four elements: water, earth, air and fire, as well as all the planets, the Sun and the Moon. The Dreaming therefore is a continuous process, which never ended. It is a small cosmos on its own, unifying the past, present and the future into one.
The Australian Aborigines' home riches so many vivid areas of the continent, including Fraser Island, Tasmania, Palm Island, Groote Eylandt and Mornington Island. The Aborigines had very strong believes in relation to the powers of the land, claiming that they never owned it - it rather owned them. The only reason they were able to call it their home is because they were looking after it and the land was taking care of the people in return.
Equally important to the Dreaming was the tribes' understandings of the disappearance of the Spirits. There came a time, when the creators of everything vanished from sight. Some of them were thought to have started living in sacred places, which is why the Aborigines perceived their homeland to be so sacred. The ancestors of today's Australians used to believe that the creators started living in rocks, in water holes and some went up to the sky to guide the people from above and keep them safe. Others transformed completely, taking the forms of the rain, the lightnings and the thunderstorms so they could be part of peoples' life.
Among the hundred's different Aboriginal languages, there isn't a word to describe 'time', because to them this simply doesn't exist. Dreaming and Dreamtime are used to replace it and summarize the ideologies of the Aborigines about everything they knew, everything they could see, feel and experience. This is why the Dreaming has such a vivid, and overwhelming meaning and has survived the obstacles of time. For the past couple thousand years, the Dreaming has built a rich cultural heritage that can identify a whole nation.
Read more about the Land, its connection to people and the way it has been perceived from different generations in the very first print issue of ORIGIN. The Land Issue covers varied topics, most of which remain related to cultural aspects of the land and its importance.
A lot of people travel to explore places and learn about them which is the message that ORIGIN wants to spread. With traveling, however, comes certain responsibilities that we should all be aware of. Elephants riding has become a popular way to explore locations by land. People have been doing this as part of their trips, mostly to places such as Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia and other parts of Asia. It is a common thing to see in certain places in Africa as well. We investigated the activity to explain why it is wrong and riding elephants should be banned everywhere.
Our first print issue studies culture and traveling represented through the land. We explored various location around the globe and learned what makes the land so valuable, which nations cherish it and how it helps us establish an identity. Traveling is important to us but traveling responsibly and making an impact is what we feel proud to stand behind. This is why riding elephants as a way of amusement should be reconsidered.
Let’s talk about the details. Elephants are very caring and extremely intelligent animals. It is a well-known fact that they never forget anything. When kept in captivity instead of spending their life in the wild, elephants die younger. Unlike in other species, this is common for the gentle giants and is often a result for stress.
Many African cultures respect elephants, believing they symbolize strength, loyalty and power. However, power can be a very tender concept. Elephant used as a tourism tool suffer from great pain daily. Elephants can be hurt very severely from the weight of carrying people and a trainer on their backs. The reason for this is the design of their spines. They have sharp protrusions, extending upwards from their spine instead of having round spinal disks. The protrusions and the tissue that serves to protect them can be harmed easily from weight pressure. Once a damage to their spine has been made, there is no going back and sometimes the harm can be irreversible. While this can’t be physically seen, the harm that the chairs can do to the elephants’ skin is. It is often the case that the chairs and the weight on their back can damage the animal’s skin and cause pain to their body. The chair, called Howdah, that gets attached to their backs, rubs on their skin and can cause blisters, which can sometimes get infected.
The training that elephants are required to go through when in captivity sometimes adopts a traditional Thai ‘phajaan’ or ‘crush’ technique. Explaining the technique would compare it to the animals’ spirits constantly and continuously being broken by the means of torture and social isolation. This is done in order to tame them. Elephants are wild animals, this is their nature as they are born in such conditions. Making them safe and obedient around people requires them to go through such training. As horrible as it sounds, in some places young elephants are taken away from their mothers to be abused with nails, bull hooks and bamboo sticks to make them obey rules, given by people. The animals often lack sleep and are starved to become submissive.
Actions from such nature are cruel and harmful as the technique is used to crash the animals’ spirit. Once wild and free, elephants become a source of tourism and entertainment. Nobody, who cared about sustainable tourism should ever ride an elephant.
In a sense, elephants have a human soul. They socialise and feel everything – pain, happiness, grief, sadness etc. They spend their life building families and finding friends. The largest land animals are a gift from nature and it is our responsibility to take special care of them and make sure they live according to their nature. Many animals, who are kept in captivity, are forced to live in isolation and carry heavy loads all day long, which is a wrong way to treat them. Their strength and power shouldn’t be abused but treated gently and celebrated by people. Elephants require minimal care to stay happy and healthy, which comes from giving them freedom to behave naturally and socialise. It is our responsibility to be culturally aware while traveling and make sure to spread awareness about the problem.
You can read the rest of the article as published in the LAND issue.
CONNECTING WITH ELEPHANTS IN CHIANG MAI
Northern Thailand is abandoning the outdated practices of elephant tourism for ethical approaches to allow travellers to interact with the country's iconic mammals in a conscious way
Words: Emily Georgieva
Photography: Charly Pn
29 November 2021
Thailand's glamourous Bangkok with its diversity and the paradise-like beauty of the southern islands often take the spotlight when travellers plan a trip to the country, but cities such as Chiang Mai are steadily gaining popularity as an equal rival. Northern Thailand offers an eccentric array of culture, authentic gastronomic experiences and last, but not least, an opportunity to truly connect with the nature in the area. A growing number of expats and digital nomads are becoming aware of everything that Chiang Mai has to offer and so the city is turning into one of the must-visit places in Thailand. One of the reasons we fell in love with this magnificent place is the opportunity the city offers to ethically connect with the country's most conic animal - the elephant.
Over the past couple of decades, the demand to "authentically experience" remote places, has led to some poor practices, one of which is the exploitation of local animals. The elephants in Thailand are known as a working animal and until the late 80's, practices of mistreating the mammals have been allowed. Since then there has been a national ban on logging set in place to ensure safely conditions for the elephants to live and develop. Thailand often comes under scrutiny due to the exploitation of the mammals through harmful practices such as elephant ridings. During those widely and regularly practiced rides, the howdahs (elephant carriages) were proven to cause the elephants great pain and even spinal damage. The interest in conscious travelling has set the wheels in motion to ensure that those outdated tourism activities would hopefully soon cease to exist.
The welfare of the captive elephants is no longer just a concern of the Thai law and the owners of the animals, but it is of interest to the tourists as well. The demand to be informed about how the animals are raised and trained is opening up a conversation about how to be better, act with more awareness and put the safety, as well as the wellbeing of the elephants first.
"The demand to be informed about how the animals are raised and trained is opening up a conversation about how to be better, act with more awareness and put the safety, as well as wellbeing of the elephants first."
There are many campuses across Thailand which are paving the new way by abandoning those unethical practices in favour for a more conscious tourist experience. Visitors are now able to connect with the mammals in a respectful way. Instead of riding the animals, travellers can go on elephant-led walks. Helping with feeding and assisting with giving baths at ponds and rivers are also offered as options. By participating in the eco camps, travellers are able to interact with the elephants in a way that is most similar to their natural habitat. This way you will be contributing to keeping more conscious businesses across Thailand opened.
Since the start of the pandemic and the government imposed travel restrictions, the country has suffered great losses caused by the tourism industry. Close to 5 000 camp staff and mahouts have lost their jobs. Those impacts are especially crucial in the rural areas where the livelihood of the locals depends on elephant tourism. Hundreds of elephants have already been abandoned and sold to zoos due to financial difficulties that make the upkeep of the animals impossible. Over the course of the pandemic, more than 80 camps have had to close down, but with over 3 800 working elephants left, there is still a hope that we can collectively do better.
On your next travels to Northern Thailand, make sure to stop by Chiang Mai and support the local conscious elephant camps. We picked our favourite spots in the area where ethical tourism and the welfare of the animals are a top priority.
Ethical Elephant Campsites to Visit:
1. ChangChill
This was the first elephant camp to toss the interactive model out the window and adapt to an observation-only approach. Experience a jungle hike and interract with the animals in their natural habitat in this camp supported by World Animal Protection.
2. Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary (BLES)
BLES is a remotely locatet sanctuary-turned-home of retred and rescued elephants, where you can participate in activities such as collecting and transporting the food for the animals directly from the jungle.
3. Elephant Nature Park
Just 60km away from Chiang Mai, travellers can volunteer for just a day or t hey can choose to work on weekly projects. Elephants roam free and share the land with other rescued animals like buffaloes, birds and cats.
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NOMADSofORIGIN is an independent annual publication with a focus on sustainable travelling and global cultural values. Each issue features interviews, engaging articles and photo guides, which take our nomadic readers through different destinations and introduce them to local people's perspectives.
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