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| If you have seen
an elephant before, you will be amazed at its
cuteness and its ability. Elephants are the largest
animals on land, so people formerly used them
as workers to haul or carry heavy things. But
there are many more aspects of them. They are
very smart and friendly to human beings. They
can be trained to perform many activities such
as playing football, dancing and even drawing.
This time, I would like to tell you about one
of their abilities that I don't think you have
ever known. They can play polo! |
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A local band performing folk
music to
entertain both elephants and onlookers.
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| The
sport of elephant polo was founded in Nepal in
the year 1982 and it was extended to Thailand
in 2001. It was adapted from equestrian polo.
It has the potential for becoming a popular sport
in Thailand because this country has numerous
gifted mahouts who can easily train elephants
to play polo. |
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Offerings at the ceremony
of
blessing the elephants
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Annually, an elephant
polo tournament will be held around September
at the Somdet Phra Suriyothai grounds in Hua Hin,
Prachuap Khiri Khan province. This year (2003)
the third King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament
will take place from 16th to 21st September.
Last year, I had a chance to watch an exciting
tournament. I was greatly surprised at the elephants'
intelligence. It was a very interesting performance
that I will tell you about from the beginning.
On the morning of the competition day, there was
a ceremony of blessing the elephants. It is believed
that there are at least five guardian spirits
residing in each elephant. So, on some special
occasions, a ceremony will be held by the mahouts
to ask the gods and spirits to protect and strengthen
the elephants.The offerings used in the ceremony
include meat, vegetables, fruits and grains. There
are also monks invited to bless and pray for the
elephants in the ceremony. |
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After the blessing ceremony
was completed, the elephant parade began. The
competitors and their elephants formed a long
line of procession marching along the ground.
When the parade was over, they took a rest preparing
for the afternoon competition.
Before entering the polo event, I would like
to tell you about some essential things for
the competition. The most important factor in
the tournament is not human beings but elephants!
Usually, the elephants who join the competition
must be gentle and friendly in nature. There
are no restrictions on the sex of the elephants
so they can be either male or female.The height
of the elephants should be between 2 and 2.5
metres. In Thailand, each team joining the competition
consists of three elephants instead of four,
as required by the international standard rules.
To see whether the elephants enjoy playing or
not, you should notice their tails. If they
swing their tails from side to side, they are
happy.
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Warming up before getting
start
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In an elephant polo game, the
mahout is as important as the polo player, because
it is he who, sitting in the front, controls
the elephant. The mahout is the elephant trainer
so he understands its nature well. During the
competition, the player will tell the mahout
where to go. Then, the mahout will take responsibility
for commanding the elephant by using his voice,
hands and feet to control the direction. In
Thailand, it is a pity that few mahouts understand
English. Therefore, if any foreign players know
some Thai words, they will gain advantage.
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Polo sticks Opposite page:
Elephants seem
to know what their mahouts want them to do.
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The
indispensable equipment for playing elephant polo
includes the polo ball and polo sticks. In the
initial stages, a common soccer ball was used
but it could not bare the weight of the elephant,
so the polo ball was used instead. The polo stick
is made of bamboo about 5 to 12 feet long, depending
on the height of the elephant, with a standard
polo mallet at its end. If the player is a woman,
she may have to use her both hands in swinging
the stick.
Well, now you know the overview of elephant
polo, it is time to join the real event. At
first, you will see both teams standing near
the centre of the pitch on their own side. The
size of the pitch is approximately the size
of the football ground, so it is large enough
for elephants to run. The two umpires will mount
on one referee elephant. You can notice the
referee elephant easily because, normally, it
is the largest elephant on the ground. When
the chief umpire, from outside the centre circle,
throws the ball to the ring, the game begins.
The game consists of two chukkers of 10 minutes
each with an interval of 15 minutes.
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During the game, the mahouts
and players
need to be in harmony with the elephants.
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you know, there are two teams in the pitch and
I would like to call one as the attacking team
and the other as the defending team. When one
team hit the ball through the other side's goal,
they get a point. But it is not so easy as you
may think. In the goal territory of the defending
team or we will call it as 'D zone', there is
a large elephant which acts as a goalkeeper to
stop the ball from the attacking team. When one
of the attacking team's elephants comes into the
D zone, the others have to wait outside the zone
and let it competes against the goalkeeper one
by one. It is considered a foul if other elephants
invade the zone at this time. You should note
that there are no forwards in elephant polo --every
elephant can be attacker and score a point. |
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If
a player falls from an elephant back during the
game, the play will be stopped immediately and
will continue after the player remounts. In case
of injury, a replacement is allowed. In this tournament,
there was an ambulance service for both men and
elephants. Should an elephant excrete its dung
during the game, the ball can still be played
and the rules permit officers running freely around
the pitch to pick up the dung.
When the first half finishes, both players and
elephants will take a rest for 15 minutes. During
this time, the elephants can be given sugar cane
or rice balls with vitamins in order to reduce
their tiredness.
The two teams change sides and swap their elephants
at the beginning of the second half. At first,
I did not really know why they had to do so and
I am sure that you want to know,too. Luckily,
I met Mr. Prasop Tipprasert from Thai Elephant
Conservation Centre who gave me the answer: "Each
team gets their elephants by drawing lots. Their
elephants may be smaller or slower than those
of the opposing team. Therefore, they are required
to exchange their elephants to make the game fair",
he said.
The game in the second half will run continuously
until the time ends. The team who gets a higher
score will be the winner. In the case of a draw,
both teams have to take a penalty shoot-out from
a point 20 metres from the baseline of the D zone
without any goalkeeper. If it is still a draw,
a 'sudden-death' penalty shoot-out will be conducted.
Those are just a brief description of elephant
polo. For me, I was very impressed that the elephants
could play polo so well. They had unbelievable
agility, considering its big size. Besides, they
seemed to know the rules and, indeed, they were
born to be polo stars! In addition, the event
does not just provide you with a competition.
You can enjoy a variety of performances of elephants.
You will be fascinated with their intelligence
that you cannot imagine. For example, they can
paint and they can play music.
And I hope you enjoy the event and get pleasure
from the lovely elephants. Good luck! |
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| To
get to Hua Hin, please refer to How
to get Hua Hin Section.
*For more details of the event, call Anantara
Resort & Spa Hua Hin on 0 2877 5803-4 or
check at www.anantara.com.
*Special Thanks to Anantara Resort & Spa
Hua Hin for inviting Thaiways to witness the
event and for providing us with information,
and to Mr. Prasop Tipprasert from Thai Elephant
Conservation Centre for giving us further data.
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