Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus indicus) and the Thai Elephant Conservation Center Orchestra

Lampang exists as one of the Thai Kingdom’s northern provinces since 1892. Its climate gets hot and humid, with annual averages of:

• 41.16 inches (1,045.5 millimeters) for rainfall events;
• 113 for rain-filled days;
• 72.8% for humidity;
• 75.38°F (24.1°C) and 92.59°F (33.66°C) for respectively low and high temperatures;

Its geography gives locals and visitors scenic experiences at:

• Chae Son, Doi Khun Tan, Doi Luang, and Tham Pha Thai National Parks;
• Huay Tak Teak Biosphere Reserve;
• Khun Tan and Phi Pan Name Mountain Ranges;
• Wang River valley.

Its resources include:

• Artifacts from seventh-century Haripunchai, twelfth-century Khmer, and thirteenth- to eighteenth-century Lanna rulers;
• Ball clay, china stone, lignite, and limestone mining;
• Ceramic, concrete, cotton, sa-paper, and wood-carving production;
• Pineapple-growing;
• Rice-farming.

Thirteen districts (อำเภอ, amphoe) function as the kingdom’s equivalents of the English-language county in Lampang Province:

• Chae Hom;
• Hang Chat;
• Ko Kha;
• Mae Mo, Mae Phrik, Mae Tha, Mueang Lampang, Mueang Pan;
• Ngao;
• Soem Ngam;
• Sop Prap;
• Thoen;
• Wang Nuea.

Each district includes subdistrict- and township-like communes (ตำบล, tambon), which in turn subdivide into hamlets and villages (หมู่บ้าน, muban). The provincial total involves 100 subdistricts and 855 villages. For example, the Hang Chat (“Arch under Royal Umbrella”) district is made up of:

• 7 subdistricts;
• 73 villages.

It lies immediately south and southwest of Lampang Province’s same-named district capital, with:

• 19 subdistricts;
• 180 villages.

It most famously shelters the Thai Elephant Conservation Center of:

• Government ownership;
• Royal patronage.

Government ownership attaches the Thai Elephant Conservation Center to the Veterinary Section in the Northern Timber Work Division of The Forestry Industry Organization within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The Forestry Industry Organization does not hold dependent department status. It instead functions as a state enterprise, as do:

• The Botanical Garden Organization of Thailand;
• The Thai Plywood Company Limited;
• Wastewater Management Authority;
• Watchan Eco-Tourism;
• Zoological Park Organization.

It simultaneously has royal patronage, with:

• Establishment celebrating in 1991 the thirty-sixth birthday of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (born April 2, 1955);
• Inauguration emphasizing the Princess’s participation on March 4, 1992;
• Stables housing six of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s (born December 5, 1927) ten white elephants.

The Thai Elephant Conservation Center borders the Thung Kwian Teak Forest Plantation. It claims acreage within the Ban Tung Kiew community forest of:

• Lotuses (Nelumbo nucifera);
• Mosses (Bryophyta division);
• Mushrooms (Auricularia polytricha, Lentinula edodes, Volvariella volvacea);
• Orchids (Orchidaceae family);
• Three-needle yellow pines (Pinus kesiya);
• Two-needle black pines (Pinus merkusii);
• Wild lilacs (Syringa spp), roses (Rosa spp), and violets (Viola spp).

It gathers together on its grounds:

• Elephant dung paper factory;
• Elephant Hospital;
• Elephant Nursery;
• Elephant Rescue Unit;
• Homestay, Resort, and Trekking program accommodations;
• Mahout (“Elephant Keeper”) Training School;
• Mobile Elephant Clinic;
• National Elephant Institute;
• Souvenir shop;
• Street and traditional cuisine restaurants;
• Temple drum and traditional sword-fighting ensembles.

It includes Pang La Sanctuary’s retirees within elephant care services.

Among Thai Elephant Conservation Center revenue-generating components are the Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project painting school and the Thai Elephant Orchestra, respectively co-founded by:

• Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid in 1998;
• Richard Lair and David Sulzer in 2000.

Richard brings to music-making:

• Artistry in California;
• Conservation of elephants.

David calls upon parallel careers as:

• Columbia University Neuroscience Professor Sulzer;
• Composer and musician Dave Soldier.

Their collaboration folklorically evokes:

• Kala Nag’s dances in The Jungle Book;
• King Babar’s marching band, opera house, and symphonic orchestra.

It factually recalls:

• Dancer “Juliet” and organ-grinder “Romeo” in 1850;
• George Balanchine’s (January 22, 1904 – April 30, 1983) and Igor Stravinsky’s (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) 50-ballerina Circus Polka in 1942.

Orchestral achievements affirm evolutionary biologist Bernhard Rensch’s (January 21, 1900 – April 4, 1990) intelligence-testing a female elephant’s twelve-note recognition and retention in 1957. They include 6 – 18 elephants multi-instrumenting:

• Dotted rhythms;
• Duple and triple meters;
• Five-note scales from northern Thailand’s Buddhist temple and traditional lanna music.

They involve customized, ergonomic, huge versions of:

• Bells;
• Electric bass-like diddley-bows;
• Gongs;
• Harmonicas;
• Marimbas;
• Mouth organ/panpipe-like kaens;
• Slit-drums;
• Thunder-sheets;
• Tuned rattle-like angalungs;
• Xylophone-like renaats.

They juxtapose:

• Improvisations;
• Performances responsive to mahout commands for starting, stopping, and striking a specified number of times.

They remain accessible:

• At the Center’s live “concerts”;
• By the internet’s supply of YouTube videos;
• Through Elephonic Rhapsodies (2004), Thai Elephant Orchestra (2001), and Water Music (2011) compact discs.

Asian elephants historically are understandable through:

• Circus performances;
• Forest clearances;
• Institutional, museum, private, and royal collections;
• Military campaigns;
• Wild observations.  

But elephant niches within resource-rich forest, grassland, and jungle habitats cannot withstand the aggressively expanding urban and rapidly shrinking wildland interfaces of:

• Export-controlled agro-industrialism;
• Globally-warmed climate change;
• Poached ivory trading.

Asian elephant populations consequently claim one-fiftieth of their guesstimated six-digit totals in the nineteenth century. Their sustainability therefore demands:

• Dignified domestication;
• Government protection;
• Judicious research.

Concurrent with wildlife re-introductions and conducive to environmental awareness and wildlife-loving activism will be the patronage of:

• Alex’s and Vitaly’s artistic elephants;
• Blake Dinkin’s Black Ivory elephant dung coffee;
• David’s and Richard’s musical elephants;
• The Thai Elephant Conservation Center’s elephant dung paper.

In memory of Raja the Baby Elephant on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra and with respect for Raju the Elderly Elephant in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

dynamic painting: Mahout (trainer) alongside Thai elephant artist
Chiang Mai Province, northwestern Thailand: Alex Valavanis, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/djsik/4160773258/

Thai Elephant Conservation Center's landscape in north central Thailand: Wang River Valley
Lampang, capital of Lampang District and Lampang Province, Wang River Valley, north central Thailand: AG Gilmore (Anita Gilmore), CC BY-ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/ag_gilmore/8174830040/

chang samkhan ("auspicious elephant"): sacred white elephants of Thailand, with whiteness referencing purity; carefully selected for housing in royal stables
19th-century pigment on wood, Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782 – 1932): Chapter 2, Vessantara Jataka: Kalinga Brahmins Are Given the White Elephant
Walters Art Museum, Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood, northern Baltimore, north central Maryland: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RoyalWhiteElephant.jpg

Baby Thai elephant stays with mama: the future is bright for this young-un, with options for artistic expression in art and music.
Thai Elephant Conservation Center, Lampang Province, north central Thailand: Seba Della y Sole Bossio (sebadella), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/sebadella/8370553318/

self-portrait of composer and musician Dave Soldier with JoJo, member of Thai Elephant Orchestra
Dave Soldier, stage name of Columbia University neuroscientist David Sulzer, co-founder of Thai Elephant Orchestra (2000): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DaveSoldierJojo.jpg

Richard Lair (left) and Dave Soldier (stage name of David Sulzer), co-founders of Thai Elephant Orchestra (TEO, 2000)
TEO was featured in Through the Looking Glass Science and Art Exhibit, April 15, 2011, held at Columbia University's (CU) Wien Lounge and sponsored by Columbia Science Review, Scientists and Engineers for a Better Society, and Postcrypt Art Gallery.
CU psychology student Ashley Duenas holds Soldier's self-portrait with TEO's JoJo; TEO founders Lair and Sulzer on laptop screen: Andra Mihali (LianaAn), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/andram/5632943046/

"Thai Elephant Orchestra" (3:01)
Uploaded April 29, 2006, by Miles Gilbert to YouTube ~ URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UMJ8qfw-4E

"baby elephant Mozart"
In addition to elephant musicality, Thai Elephant Conservation Center promotes elephant artistry via Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project painting school.
Thai Elephant Conservation Center, Lampang Province, north central Thailand: audrey_sel, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/forbiddendoughnut/375190035/

Elephant Family. "Baby Raja" (0:39). ~ Afterword: "Baby Raja died all alone, chained to a tree, crying out for his mum." YouTube, June 20, 2013, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8iLDJwXmoI

PatrynWorldLatestNews. "50 years a Slave: Raju The Elephant Cried Tears Of Joy After Being FREED" (8:51). YouTube, July 7, 2014, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhrjTFSDqTU

Golden elephants top lampposts at Thai Elephant Conservation Center.
Lampang Province, north central Thailand: PumpkinSky, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TECC-lamppost.JPG

Thai Elephant Conservation Center is assigned to the Veterinary Section in the Northern Timber Work Division of The Forestry Industry Organization within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Lampang Province, north central Thailand: Stefan Maurer, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/stee/5415236635/

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