This document discusses the author's travels to Southeast Asia to research the treatment of temple elephants in Sri Lanka and Thailand. The author observes Ganga, a temple elephant in Sri Lanka, and notes the juxtaposition between the elephant's forlorn appearance and the surrounding religious worship. The document goes on to discuss how tourism, logging bans, and the demand for elephant experiences have negatively impacted wild and captive elephant populations across Southeast Asia as elephants are captured, trafficked, and forced to perform for tourists.

3. This is Ganga,
a Temple Elephant in Sri
Lanka.
What do you do when you can’t
turn away? You turn toward…
You get off your couch or your
cushion or your pew or your
knees and you turn toward the
very thing you wish you didn’t
know.

4. Temple Elephants
I traveled to SE Asia to make sense of an injustice
I couldn’t quite believe was happening.

7. Not only does The emperor have no
clothes on, but the elephant in the room
is invisible…
Monks walked by in prayer while
friendly locals worshipped and
carried their children under Ganga’s
belly to be blessed.
Tourists from all over the world
walked past her too, but usually
after looking around the courtyard
uncomfortably, willing themselves to
make sense of the Temple’s
reverential beauty juxtaposed
against the forlorn little creature on
display.

10. tourism
Learning about Temple Elephants only
opened up Pandora’s box…

13. From Thailand to Sri
Lanka
I started out in Thailand, researching wild
elephants near Myanmar, but with Thailand now
having more elephants held in captivity then
there are in the wild, a different conversation
needs to be had.
All of it is connected; from the capture of baby
elephants that fuel the temple’s desires to the
smuggling of former logging elephants from
one country to the next, to the capture of wild
elephants for zoos as well as the unknowing
tourists who demand trekking and circus shows.

14. Except for all those elephants…
WHERE DO THEY GO?
No more logging? That’s great!

15. Setting all of them free is
not an option
After the Bangkok floods in
1988, logging became illegal in
Thailand, leaving captive
elephants (and their mahouts)
out of work.
With most of the elephants’ wild
homes turned into cropland,
they had nowhere to go and
mahouts could not feed their
elephants or their children.

16. Elephants in tourism became
big money overnight
Last April, logging also became
illegal in Myanmar and it is
expected that many more
elephants will be smuggled
across the border in the next few
years, all to feed the tourist
industry.
Baby elephants are highly
sought after and many calves do
not survive the Breaking of their
Spirits.
Compassionate Tourism can help
change this.

23. that’s Some vacation…
Enter “The Bucket List”.

27. Circus shows
Everyone loves an elephant, right?

32. Bull hooks are not spirit sticks
Mixed Messages

36. Wait, what?
“But your zoo built the rape rack.”

38. Parallel Universe
Back Home in Portland.

39. Temples and Tourism
in ASIA
=
Zoos and Circuses
in the U.S.
It’s a cultural thing…

41. Not in my backyard
Out of 26 captive births, 15 are dead.
7 calves did not survive 2 months.
2 of 9 surviving calves are in the Ringling Brothers circus.
This is Conservation and Education?

43. Martin LUther King
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.”

44. may compassion fuel our
freedom of choice
“Just as you can’t un-ring a
bell, you can’t unlearn what
you learn.
After we learn about
injustice and suffering of
another being, each of us is
presented with two choices:
Action or Non-Action.”

54. –Margaret Mead
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”