Let’s discover more about our Mahouts ! One can find definitions of this role describing it as “a person who devotes their entire life caring for an elephant.”, however their day to day is not obviously as romantic is it sounds. They work hard and often, across Asia, for a low salary.
As much as it is sometimes less true today that a Mahout only cares for 1 elephant all their life, Mahouts are indeed shepherds to the elephants. At ElephantsWorld, our caregivers are committed to providing them a good quality of life, which requires them to form a bond built around trust.
The Mahouts (elephant handlers), are integral to our ElephantsWorld family, if not the central part. They are the crucial safeguard between the visitors and the elephants, between the ancestral ways and the modern world.
Mahouts often start working when they are very young, so they can support their family. The work of a Mahout is as noble and beautiful, as it is hard and for that, they deserve our utmost respect. Today, being a mahout isn’t a job they do for a big salary, it is their vocation.
In South East Asia, Mahouts have always been predominantly men from ethnics groups such as the Karen, Lao-Isan and Guay. At ElephantsWorld, all our Mahouts are Karen, historically a hill-tribe ethnic minority from Myanmar, who have a long history of working alongside elephants.
Knowledge and skills have been passed down from generation to generation, where elephant keeping was traditionally a sacred undertaking.
For centuries, mahouts were respected as highly skilled men, crucial to the development of civilisation. They worked with elephants in wartime and nation-building activities such as agriculture and construction work. In Thailand, with logging banned since the 80s and now the tourism rise, many mahouts entered the entertainment and tourism industries with their animals, to provide themselves with an income and food for their elephant.
Over time, their status and condition has profoundly changed, especially in the past century. Today, most mahouts are low considered workers, poorly compensated and with little security, yet again taking care of one of the most sacred animals in Asian culture.
With a growing awareness of ethical elephant tourism, it is yet important to understand the economic, environmental, social and cultural background of mahout history and remember that not all cultures have the same perspective, history and relationship to animals, welfare and sustainability.
With this in mind, ongoing shifts towards more ethical forms of elephant tourism are helping to improve elephant welfare, while also providing an income for our mahouts.
