White Elephant

Royal White Elephant

The Land of the White Elephant:

The myth and legend of the white elephant began in Southeast Asia - The Land of the White Elephant..

In the story of the Buddha, the white elephant is connected to fetility and to
knowledge. On the eve of giving birth to the Lord Buddha, his mother dreams that a white elephant comes to present her with a lotus, symbol of purity and knowledge.

At the heart of the first great Southeast Asian Empire, at the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the might of the war elephants is depicted on murals of the region's armies.

Over the next few hundred years, two states dominated the region - the
forerunners of modern Burma and Thailand (Siam). In both, the elephant was a very important animal. It was key to military success - both in mass battles, and in the elephant duels.

It was also key to royal pageantry - kings chose the biggest, most magnificent
elephants for royal ceremonies and processions. Kings and courtiers spent a lot of time and energy hunting elephants from the forests. And the most powerful kings kept thousands in their stables.


Siamese catching white elephant	Siamese Army on the March

The Royal White Elephant

The white elephant was something above an ordinary elephant. It had sacred power. It was the mount of the war god. It brought fertility. For the kings of Burma and Siam, the possession of these sacred beasts became very important. A king who had many, fine white elephants would be successful - his kingdom would prosper and his reign be long. If his white elephants died, it foretold disaster for king and kingdom.

This was set out in a Buddhist text, the "Three Worlds" says:
"The magnificent king has seven things: a perfect wife, and able treasurer, a wise chief minister, a swift horse, a wheel of the law and a precious gem to guide his actions: and the most noble of white elephants."

The kings hunted eagerly for these fine and special beasts. Occasionally they
presented them to one another as marks of diplomacy. Sometimes they fought over them. And always they looked after them well - because their rule depended on it.

The Royal White Elephants were not taken to war, and not ridden in procession, Rather they were kept within the confines of the palace, entrusted to the care of senior officials, fed well, washed regularly, and worried over constantly.

When the British envoy came to Amarapura in 1855, Mr. C. Grant, the artist, drew beautiful pictures of the royal white elephant Nibbana. Grant also made an eyewitness account of the noble beast as follow: "The colour of the animal was a cream very slight dun, his magnificent tusks nearly touch the ground. He was in bands of crimson cloth or velvet and gold, studded with large bosses of gold, margined with innumerable rubies,..."

By the nineteenth century, the white elephant was firmly established as one of the special wonder of Siam. The American Frank Vincent titled his book on Southeast Asia, The Land of the White Elephant,

The Norwegian traveler, Carl Bock, starts his book of Siam with a description of the king's white elephant. He also made a painting of the animal. But the attendants were dismayed that in the painting the elephant didn't look fair enough. So they washed the animal with tamarind-water for
serveral days and asked Bock back to redo the painting. Bock admitted that the color had changed: "So I made a second watercolor drawing... so that
my readers can form a correct idea of a real "white elephant", for this was
acknowledged to be the fairest ever caught at least within living memory."

From Burma too, came reports of the kings' extravagant care for white elephants. Though his favorite white elephant was clearly dying, the last
Burmese king, Thibaw, loaded him with treasures, making him the wealthiest
individual in the country. His forehead was decked with a spray of diamonds to ward off evil spirits. Diamonds were set into each tusk. A golden plaque, inscribed with his titles, Jung from his head. From his ears hung golden pendants. Four golden umbrellas protected him from the heat of the sun. Above his gold feeding trough, a mirror specially ordered from France was installed to reflect his splendor.
Yet the white elephant died. The pundits predicted plagues, floods, earthquakes. But the real disaster was more prosaic. The British took over Burma and deposed the king.

In neighboring Siam, the kings still revered the white elephant. Indeed, they put the white elephant on their new flag.

But with elephants no longer so vital for warfare, elephant hunts had become less common, and fewer of the rare white elephants were found. The Siamese king passed a law demanding that any white elephant found in the kingdom had to be presented to the king. He sent out scouting parties and offered rewards.

The discovery of a white elephant became a special event, a time for national celebration. The surgeon Finlayson arrived in Bangkok just after one discovery in the 1820s. With a scientist's eye, he noted they were not "snow white" oddities, but a kind of albino. And rather than spinning stories of gold mats, he noted they were well kept, in gold condition and clean surroundings

Thirty years later, Sir John Bowring also arrived in Bangkok a few days after a newly found white elephant had been welcomed to the capital in a glorious procession down the river. He was escorted to the corrals and shown the prized animal.


Praya Chang ( King's greatest white elephant) at Amarin Vinichai Palace	Pra Savej Vachirabhaha of King Rama 6

The Beautu of the White Elephant

After Sir John had negotiated the main trade treaty between Britain and Siam, the Siamese king sent to Queen Victoria a tuft of the white elephant's hairs; and to Sir John himself, a few hairs from the tail. Unfortunately the elephant died soon after, and Sir John received another gift, described by the king as "a portion of her white skin with beautiful body hairs preserved in spirit. I trust it will be an article of curiosity." Sir John passed it on to the Museum of the Zoological Society.

Both the king with whom Sir John negotiated (King Mongkut), and his son King Chualongkorn, were great modernizers. They welcomed foreigners. They pushed forward reforms which helped Siam to escape colonialism and emerge as a modern nation. But being modern reformers did not mean abandoning the white elephant. After all, both King Mongkut's father and grandfather had died only shortly after their own treasured white elephants had passed away. When King Mongkut's white elephant was sick, he nursed it back to health, and himself lived for another 14 years.

King Mongkut also wrote a manual describing the mnay points of a perfect white elephant - including yellow eyes, white nails, pinkish skin, white hairs, and a beautiful snore. The beauty of a woman can not be catalogued like this, he noted, because men have differing tastes. But the beauty of white elephant is more definite.

When King Mongkut heard that America had no elephants, he offered to send some over.
"If on the continent there should be several pairs of young male and female elephants turned loose in the forest where there was an abundance of water and ... if the climate there should prove favorable to an elephant, we are of opinion that after a while they will increase till the inhabitants of America will be able to catch them and tame and use them as beasts of burden making them of benefit of the country"

President Lincoln replied that the American climate was probably unsuitable, and that they preferred to use steam power. But he thanked the Siamese king for the gift of two magnificent elephant tusks.

King Mongkut's son, King Chulalongkorn traveled to Europe in 1907. One of his German hosts had heard about the Siamese love for the white elephant. He hired a local artists to make a flag with a white elephant and hang it all around the house where the king was lodged.
The King thanked him very much for the thought. It had made him feel very much at home. But it was a pity the artist had probably never seen an elephant. The animal on the flag looked more like a cow. He would send them a proper elephant. What he meant by this was the Order of the White Elepahnt - a decoration granted by the king for service to the state.

When Siamese envoys traveled to England and had audience with Queen Victoria. They were most impressed with her appearance:
" One can not but be struck with the aspect of the august Queen of England, or fail to observe that she must be from a race of godly and warlike kings and rulers of the earth, in that her eyes, complexion, and above all her bearing , are those of a beautiful and majestic white elephant."

In the Brahman text, The seven specific good attributes which the white elephants must have are:

1. A white or pinkish color around the cornea of the eyes.

2. The roof of the mouth white or pink and unridged.

3. White or pink toenails.

4. White or light brown hair that is transparent when held up to light. Two or more body hairs
growing out of one follicle.

5. The sking must be white, pink ,light brown, or light grey.

6. The tale's hair must be long.

7. White or pink genitals.

There are many more details about the attributes of white elephant


White elephant leads the parade during Songkran Festival	White Elephant leads the ceremony.	The last white elephant arrived in Yangon

White Elephant Today

In Laos, after the new form of government came into power, the king was put into the working commune and died a few years after that. One of the king's white elephant was kept in the zoo near Vientiane. This one the royal officer from Thailand got a chance to see it and he said that it does not meet all the major characteristics of a royal white elephant, mentioned in the ancient text:

Another white elephant of a better attributes is kept somewhere close to the house of the government's leader. This one seem to meet all the major characteristics of the royal white elephant as you may see in the above pictures. This elephant will lead the parade every year during Songkran festival (Thailand and Loas' New Year, on the 13th of April) in Vientiane. It would be dressed up in the old traditional maner.

In Cambodia, the last white elephant was seen and taken picture in the royal palace during the1960's. After that, the civil war in Cambodia took place for many years, and nobody have seen or heard any thing about white elephant ever since.

In Vietnam, white elephants were mentioned in the history on and off, but there are no records of the white elephant being found.

The white elephants are very rare today, due to the change in politic of the countries in Southeast Asia. In Burma or Myanmar, white elephant do not exist anymore. The last white elephant in Burma was found in 1961 in Intawgyi District of Kachin State, Norther Burma. It was a male elephant. The white elephant spent first few months in its homeland and was moved to Yangon Zoo for public interest.
It's complexion was not actually white but pinkish like a Scandinavian's. And the hairs growing thinly all over the body were all white and shiny. It was reported that the elephant had all the major characteristics of a royal white elephant, mentioned the ancient scriptures:

Despite its regality, the elephant didn't receive a VIP treatment later. Besides, the mother elephant was left in the timber production site in the northern Myanmar. The young white elephant therefore was looked after by a nurse elephant of ordinary colour. To make matters worse, he didn't enjoy the publicity he received every day in the zoo and the food quality didn't seem to be in accordance with the needs of the royal elephant either. Finally, he died an ordinary death in 1971 and has been put into oblivion since then.

White elephants' sculptures, paintings, wood craves, murals and archives can be found just about any places you can imagine in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand. You can find it in the temples, palaces, tourist souvenirs, and many other products. Some of the paintings which you will see in the following pages are among the oldest and the most famous collection.


Vessantara jataka Mural at Wat Prakaew, Bangkok	Catching a new white elephant Painting on glass at Watdusidaram	Shrine at White Elephant Gate, Chiang Mai	Elephant carving with reflective masaic tiles at Wat Xieng Thong, Laos

Sakamundurach Deva on Erawan mural at Wat Suthat, Bangkok.	Buddha mother' s dreams of white elephant mural at National Museum, Bangkok.	White elephant figures at Wat Chang Rop, Sukhothai.	Historical scene, bas-relief of the Bayon, Cambodia.