Elephant at work | other journal





I was coming out of a bend, just a few kilometers from Luang Prabang, on the road to Vientiane. All of a sudden, I met the animal. Even in Laos, the country of a million elephants, it wasn't frequent that you'd meet that nice a beast. It was large bull of about thirty years old, with beautiful tusks.

Without really getting off my motorcycle, I started to chat with the two men who were escorting it. They were on their way to the village of Ban Phanom. There, they were supposed to work for several days in a teak plantation by the river Nam Khane. They had been walking for two days, from their village located further down along the Mekong River. We weren’t very far from their final destination and they were hoping to arrive before night came.

I asked them if I could take a picture of them. They agreed. I seemed to me that they were enjoying posing for me. As I was taking a portrait of the crew, the « Mahout ”, perched on the neck of the animal, invited me to come and visit them in Ban Phanom and take pictures of the elephant at work.
The invitation appealed to me, and I left Luang Prabang the following morning, on a Sunday, to try and find the elephant. I was very enthusiastic at the idea of taking pictures of an elephant at work. Following the instructions given by the “Mahout” the day before, I easily picked up the trail of the elephant as I was coming out of the village of Ban Phanom, right on the track along the Nam Khane river. A few logs of teak had already been dragged on the side of the track. Enormous footprints invited me to take a track that led straight into the forest. I walked for not more than five minutes and met the elephant and the two men I had seen the day before, and several other people. Some were helping with the work; others, like me, had just come for the show.
   
The Mahout and the elephant had started their work very early to take advantage of a cool morning air. In view of their arrival, the owner of the plantation had had the biggest trees cut down. The logs that had to be moved were scattered throughout the plantation among the young trees left untouched. For today, the work would be rather easy. The logs, intended to be used for building traditional village houses, were neither very big nor heavy. The elephant had a short distance to walk to carry them to the track; moreover the ground was flat. On this first day, the mahout wanted to spare his elephant who had walked for two days in order to get there. The animal was allowed to take his time and was encouraged to eat a lot between two trips. I thought he deserved it.Wasn’t it Sunday,after all ?

As for me, I hardly had time to take a first shot. I couldn't use my camera anymore. The battery had gone completely flat. I needed a new one, but it was already noon. I asked the Mahout if I had time to go to Luang Prabang and come back before the end of the day's work. The answer was no: he never had his elephant work more than a few hours a day, and they were soon going to stop. My disappointment seemed to amuse him. He suggested that I come back and take my pictures the following day.

I stood there, watching the elephant at work with great curiosity, without taking any picture. He continued to drag quietly a few logs from the plantation to the track. I was fascinated to see how easily he could move. Of course, we all know what an elephant looks like, most of us have seen real one in a zoo or under a circus tent. But to see this animal moving in his natural environment is something quite different. I was also surprised to discover the type of movements this particular elephant was capable of. I would never have imagined that an animal as big as this one could move with such grace and agility.

Around one o’clock, the men decided that it was time to rest. The Mahout waved good bye from the top of the neck of the animal and led him into the forest to put him at rest until the following day. Without waiting for him to come back, I left for Luang Prabang. I was both happy to have seen this elephant at work and frustrated not to have been able to take any pictures. I had tried to photograph this activity for a long time, but I was lacking time to track elephants in the wilds of Laos and I was always postponing the project. It was indeed rather unusual to have an opportunity to observe an elephant at work so close to a city. This one, that I had met by chance, had been given to me as a gift. Moreover, the animal was beautiful; he had a certain elegance and the people who were with him were very friendly. Deep inside, I was angry at myself for having been careless about the condition of my equipment and for having missed such an opportunity because of a battery. And after all, I wasn’t sure they would still be there the following day.

               

Therefore, on a Monday morning, I rushed to buy a new battery for my camera. Then, after having finished hurriedly a few professional duties, I went back to look for the elephant and his crew, fearing not to find anyone. Once arrived, I was glad to see that the elephant and his workmates were still on the plantation. At work since dawn, they had made good progress on their task and had to fetch the logs further inside the forest. It had rained during the night and the track had changed into a stream of mud. This was no obstacle to the elephant, on the contrary. The logs that he had to carry slid even better on the damp soil. For me however, following his movements had become much more difficult. I had mud clear up to my ankles. But I was so happy to be able to take shots again that it didn’t trouble me very much.

               

I followed the elephant and his crew on the side of a small hill. There too, trees had been cut down and were waiting to be carried to the track. But the task was much more difficult than it had been the day before on a flat ground. Because of the vegetation and the layout of the place, the elephant had to pull the logs clear on top of the hill, in order to join a path that was large enough. From there, he could go downhill, on the opposite side, towards the track.

After few hours and numerous trips, there was only one log left. Apparently, the Mahout had kept the hardest for the end. A very big tree had fallen awkwardly and carrying this last log was going to be much more technical than for the ones before. The log was stuck between several trees and could only be freed by pulling it upwards, in order to bypass an enormous tree that blocked the access to the path. Because of the weight, the elephant was progressing very slowly. After over a half hour’s work, and big efforts, the log was almost freed. Now it still had to be lifted a few meters so as to bypass the obstacle; this would enable it to rotate and be lined up with the direction of the path. There was yet one meter or two to go, but the elephant could not move forward anymore. The slope had become too steep. It was then that I was the witness of such a feat that even today, I find hard to believe that it could be performed by an animal.The elephant stuck his two front feet solidly in the ground and suddenly threw himself forward. The power of this movement allowed the log to go upward and to make the few missing meters. The elephant had apparently planned his move since the weight of the log prevented him from falling. I couldn’t believe my eyes…How had the elephant been able to anticipate the result and fully feel the balance of forces in order to adjust his movement?

The crew was pleased to have finished with this refractory log, but no one seemed surprised by the achievement of the elephant. It all seemed too normal to them! The last trip of the day was done in a relaxed atmosphere. There was but to go down hill by the gently sloping path to carry the log to the flat track.

Once this last log had been put along the track with the others, the Mahout decided to come down from his elephant to take a few steps with me. For three days, I had seen him only on top of his mount, sitting on its neck. I realized that I had come to think that the Mahout and the elephant were a single being, a new king of centaur. If it wasn’t the case, how could one explain that this enormous and so powerful animal could obey so docilely the orders whispered by this mere scrap of a man! I was very surprised when he set foot on the ground. Not only was he small, he also was crippled. A childhood disease or an accident had withered his left leg and had made it smaller than the other. He could only walk with difficulty, slowly and with a limp.

Having climbed down from his throne, deprived of his majesty and power, he seemed to me like Charles Baudelaire’s Albatross, far from the sea or the deck of a ship.