Mahout

Mahouts helping an elephant to take a bath, Thrissur, Kerala

Mahout with a young elephant at Elephant Nature Park, Thailand

Mahout and his elephant Guruvayoor, Thrissur, Kerala

A mahout is a person who drives an elephant. The word mahout comes from the Hindi words mahaut and mahavat. Usually, a mahout starts as a boy in the 'family business' when he is assigned an elephant early in its life and they would be attached to each other throughout the elephant's life.

The most common tools used by mahouts are chains and a goud or Ankus, also called anlius, or Aṅkuśa - a sharp metal hook used in the training and handling of the elephant by stabbing the elephant in the head, and in areas like the mouth and inner ear, where the animal is most sensitive.

Phajaan or "Torture Training" Method

In order to tame baby elephants so that they are safe for contact with tourists, the elephants are forced through Phajaan. National Geographic

The name Phajaan comes from a hill tribe ritual in which a shaman separates two spirits. During Phajaan the elephants are separated from their own spirits and forced into submission. They spend many months chained in a cage while mahouts beat them with nails, sharp objects, and chains. They are starved and deprived of sleep. Many elephants die as a result of this "training" ritual. Used for centuries to domesticate wild elephants, the "torture training method" is still accepted as the only viable training method for elephant handlers.

The phajaan is a time of constant fear and pain for young elephants. It is the first time a baby infant has been separated from its mother. Baby elephants are captured, put into a pen that does not allow them to move, and then for 3-7 days everyone in the village takes turns breaking the animal using sticks with nails at the end, ropes and hot irons. The elephant is chained and hobbled; spears are used to make her raise her feet on command, and villagers force the elephant to accept people on her back for the first time.

When a new mahout takes charge, groups of villagers sometimes beat a chained elephant in a practice called Nunachattam.

Male elephants periodically undergo a hormonal surge known as musth, which can last up to 60 days, during which mahouts find the elephants difficult to control. Mahouts believe that when a male elephant is in "musth," it can be controlled only if it is made weak through torture and poor feeding. "Musth" is a Hindi word meaning `intoxicated'. For this reason, mahouts often attempt to shorten the duration of male elephants’ musth by tying the elephant to strong trees and starving them for 5-7 days.

Since males are seen as more difficult to control, the majority of working elephants are female. Due to the difficulties of breeding captive elephants, the majority of working elephants are captured as infants, many still nursing, from the wild. The removal of baby elephants from their mothers and poaching of baby elephants in the wild to use as performers is a rampant problem in countries, especially Thailand, where much of the economy is based on tourism and elephant attractions, including trekking.

File:Pooram Elephant 4.jpg

An elephant carrying Thidambu during Thrissur pooram temple festival in Kerala

Caparisoned elephants during Sree Poornathrayesa temple festival, Thrippunithura, mahout climbing on elephants.

Devices used to control elephants in Kerala

In India especially Kerala, mahouts use three types of device to control elephants. Thotti (hook) which is 3.5 feet in length and 3 inches thick, Valiya kol (long pole) which is 10.5 feet in length and 5.5 inches in thickness and cheru kol (short pole).

• 
  Mahout with his thotti (hook).
• Elephants in Kerala are trained not to move when the Valiya kol (long pole) is kept on them.
  Elephants in Kerala are trained not to move when the Valiya kol (long pole) is kept on them.

Use of Elephants in Thailand

Deeply rooted in Thai culture, elephant training has traditionally been a familial heritage passed down through the generations. Before 1989, most domestic elephants were used for logging business and forest service to haul logs up mountains. This became illegal as widespread destruction of Thailand's forests resulted in worsening monsoons. Unlike the elephant populations of India and Africa, 95% of Thailand's elephants are domesticated working elephants and privately owned. Today most work for mahouts is in the tourist business, since elephant rides are popular among travelers to Thailand.

In Thailand tame elephants are regarded as a type of livestock and are not covered under Thailand's Conservation Act of 1992. If legally owned there is currently little that can be done to help them, as animal welfare and protection laws in Thailand are minimal.

The tourist experience of elephants in Thailand usually includes any combination of the following: Elephant rides, trekking with elephants, elephant shows, and/or elephants begging on the streets of the big cities. Street begging elephants are used by mahouts who charge tourists to feed them. In some areas of Thailand, this practice became illegal due to the traffic dangers posed, however street begging elephants are still a common sight in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

The Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand aims to "provide a sanctuary and rescue centre for elephants". The majority of the elephants at the park were rescued after sustaining life threatening injuries from Phajaan. Most of these elephants have permanent physical and mental injuries, including blindness, broken backs or legs, abscesses, and post traumatic stress.

Miscellaneous

Elephants have been integral to politics and the economy in Africa and Asia. Many elephants are given away on requests of the ministers and politicians of the Government, and sometimes as gifts. Elephants traditionally have been forced to work for the forest service and for the logging business.

In India there has been controversy over elephants attacking mahouts and villagers due to the torture the elephants endure by mahouts, especially during Kerala festivals. More than 90% of the elephants in Kerala have been illegally obtained. See FrontlineIndia's National Magazine and The Hindu Kerala

A display advertizing "Mahout" cigarettes features prominently in the background of the "rain dance" sequence of the famous 1952 Gene Kelly film Singin' in the Rain.

The word mahout also features in the lyrics of the song "Drop the Pilot", by Joan Armatrading.

Another term for mahout is cornac (as in French, from the Portuguese; kornak in Dutch and Polish, also a rather current last name). In Tamil, the word used is "pahan", which means elephant keeper, and in Sinhalese kurawanayaka ('stable master'). In Malayalam the word use is paappaan.

In Burma, the profession is called oozie; and in Thailand kwan-chang.

See also

• Elephants in Kerala culture
• History of Tourism and Use of Elephants in Thailand
• War elephant, for soldiers in the mahout role, often armed and combatant
• Howdah, a carriage mounted on the back of an elephant
• Elefantasia, for information on mahouts living and working in Laos

Sources and references

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Elephant glossary