SOCIETY

Culture IN THE ABODE OF KINGS Royal white elephants and the monarchical trappings of Myanmar’s elite

By Daniel Otis

haded by a gilded three-tiered pavilion, they rock from side to Sside, taking two steps forward, then two back, each futilely pulling against a short chain tethered to their right foreleg. “Weaving,” veteran Swiss elephant keeper Georges Frei writes, “is a surrogate activity caused by boredom, frustration and desolation.” Occasionally, an elephant handler (known in Myanmar as an ‘oozie’) in a longyi and undershirt approaches the animals with pieces of sugarcane. The squat, dust-pink female on the far left has been trained to kneel and beg for her treats. There is a thick band of scar tissue on her left hind leg, perhaps from when she was ensnared in the remote jungles along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. The other elephants – a large male tusker, slate-grey with irregular light splotches, and a young salmon-coloured female – are fed at trunk’s length. q

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office near Yangon’s Maha Wizaya Elephant’. In 1820, Thai King Rama II Pagoda. “Politically, socially and celebrated his possession of three white economically, they are signs of elephants by adding one to his country’s positive change.” flag. Burma’s King Sagaing Min con- Considered necessary adjuncts of royalty, fidentially referred to his royal self as wars have even been fought to obtain ‘Lord of All White Elephants’, and for them. Burmese King Bayinnaung, for its part, the government of Myanmar example, invaded Ayutthaya in 1563 to released a 5,000-kyat note emblazoned rob Siamese monarch Maha Chakkraphat with a white elephant in 2009. of his pale pachyderms. In 1583, Vene- If possessing a white elephant was a tian merchant Gaspero Balbi saw Bayin- sign of good fortune, to lose one was naung’s bounty whilst visiting the present- to be doomed. Following the death of day town of Bago: “When [the King] a young white elephant, 18th century goeth to his recreations solemnely, or in his missionary Vincentius Sangermano Robes, foure white Elephants goe before describes Burma’s king as being “over- him vested with Gold, having their teeth come by the most abject fear, expect- inclosed in a sheath wrought with Jewels.” ing every moment to be dethroned by Kings boasted of their possessions. his enemies, and imagining that there The vanquished Maha Chakkraphat remained to him but a few days of Beautiful beasts: Min Kyaw Khaung believes that white elephants herald a bright future had styled himself ‘Lord of the White life”. Thibaw Min, the last king of

from a democratically elected govern- ALL THAT GLITTERS... AND GOLD Burmese King ment. Back in the 1960s, this was seen he extravagant ways in which Southeast Bayinnaung invaded as a bad omen from the new junta’s Majesty: an illustration from Colesworthy Grant’s 1856 book, A Series of Views in Burmah taken during Major Phayre’s Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855 TAsian monarchs have doted on their point of view. white elephants has sometimes bordered on Ayutthaya in 1563 to rob General Khin Nyunt planned to build obscene. The following firsthand account of a a golden palace to honour the animals Burmese white elephant comes from British Siamese monarch Maha “The white elephants are a sign of soda, juice, water and Thailand’s Chang ease childbirth. Apparently, they are that blessed his reign. His dreams, journalist and colonial administrator James the good future awaiting our country,” beer – twin white elephants basking very popular with Thais. George Scott’s 1882 book, The Burman: His Chakkraphat of his pale however, were dashed when he was U Ottama says. The elderly monk, who under the limbs of a golden Bodhi tree “I don’t particularly like working Life and Notions. pachyderms ousted, charged with corruption and lives south of Yangon, comes to the on the perspiring green cans – to locals, here,” Ma Nu says, “but I believe in the “In his young days [the white elephant] placed under house arrest in 2004. In Royal White Elephant Garden whenever and the Chinese and Thai bus tourists power of the white elephants.” was suckled by women, who stood in a long the aftermath of the internal coup, the he visits the city. that visit the site. When Ma Nu’s husband captured the row outside his palace, and the honour was Burma, seems to have ignored such general’s portraits were removed from Ma Nu, 45, manages the viewing Ma Nu lifts a plastic basket of ciga- mottled male in Rakhine state in 2001 eagerly sought after… A hundred soldiers ancient misgivings. In 1885, he sanc- the Royal White Elephant Garden, the pavilion’s small concession stand. rettes off her stand to show me silver – the first white elephant seen in the guard his palace, and the Sovereign of the tioned the sale of a white elephant to animals’ assault rifle-wielding guards Golden Throne himself makes offerings and “I work here because my husband cap- rings, bracelets and amulets threaded country in nearly four decades – state American circus proprietor Phineas were reposted, the artificial waterfall pays him reverence... Every day he is bathed tured one of the elephants,” she says. with a thick strand of pale elephant hair. media proclaimed that the animal would with scented sandal water, and all his vessels Taylor Barnum; less than two years built to soothe the restive creatures was For his efforts, the family was given $70 She claims that the charms, which start bring the country “peace, stability and and utensils are made of gold. Troupes of the later, Thibaw’s kingdom was con- switched off and the site fell into rusted and a $90-per-month job selling snacks, at $10, ward off evil spirits and help prosperity”. In a lavish ceremony, the palace coryphées dance for his pleasure, and quered by the British and the monarch and overgrown disrepair. Myanmar’s eight-year-old bull was given the name there are choruses of sweet-voiced singers to was exiled to India. military elite, moreover, stopped bring- Yaza Gaha Thiri Pissaya Gaza Yaza – lull him to sleep.” The 2001 capture of a white elephant ing daily offerings, and the once-plen- ELEPHANTINE CONFUSIONS or, ‘Royal Elephant that Bestows Grace by Ma Nu’s husband was followed by tiful throngs of pilgrims dwindled to Upon the Nation’. the discovery of two pale females in the today’s trickle of curious locals and n the West, the term ‘white elephant’ fabulously wealthy – would inevitably go same region in 2002. With their monar- package tourists. Idenotes a valuable yet burdensome bankrupt. possession that cannot be disposed of. This Expecting snow-white pachyderms, Western * * * chical trappings, it is unsurprising The neglect of the site was by no originated from apocryphal 19th century visitors to the courts of Burma and Siam in that the deeply superstitious leaders of means an indication of growing secu- tales of Siamese monarchs bestowing lesser the 18th and 19th centuries often decried For centuries, Southeast Asian mon- Myanmar’s military, then fronted by the larism among the country’s leaders. A white elephants (such as a mottled animal) the pinkish, yellow, or grey ‘white elephants’ archs have coveted white elephants as brutal General Khin Nyunt, considered May 2010 article in The Irrawaddy to wayward rivals. Unable to give away the they saw as frauds. The English term ‘white embodiments of a divinely sanctified rule. these animals to be particularly auspi- suggests that General Than Shwe, the elephant for fear of offending the monarch, elephant’, however, is a bit of a misnomer: the “White elephants represent the great- cious. The country’s last white elephant, hardliner politician who seized power yet forbidden to have the sacred animal work Burmese “hsin pyi taw” roughly translates to ness of the king, queen or government after all, had died at the age of five in after orchestrating Khin Nyunt’s over- to offset the enormous cost of feeding it, “royal elephant” and the Thai “chang phuek” the recipients of such gifts – unless they were denotes something closer to “albino elephant”. that possess them,” fortune-teller Min 1963, a year after the coup d’état that throw, implicitly discouraged his subor- Kyaw Khaung says from his cramped saw the Burmese army wrest control dinates from visiting the animals q

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WHITE ELEPHANTS TODAY that glorified his rival’s rule. Intensely but one – much to the chagrin of the placidly pace as far as their fetters allow superstitious himself, it seems that fiercely independent local Arakanese pop- them. In its small pen, the energetic infant he Thai royal family is thought to have at only place where one can easily see these Than Shwe dreamed of having his own ulation – hail from Rakhine state. The rushes about under its tranquil mother’s Tleast ten white elephants in its possession. sacred animals. white elephants – perfect pale jewels to country’s eighth white elephant, another gaze, occasionally stopping to play with These elephants, which are rarely seen in Both Myanmar and Thailand currently crown his newly minted capital, Nay- female, was born in November 2011 to the dark grey elephant chained beside public, might soon be joined by another – in possess more white elephants than at any pyidaw, some 390km north of Yangon. the animal caught the previous June. it for contrast. April of this year, a young white male was time in history. Some see this as a sign of spotted in the country’s Kaeng Krachan both countries’ promising futures; others When a white elephant was spotted in Religious spectacles marked each of The oozies in Naypyidaw seem inti- National Park. believe that technological advancements and Rakhine state in 2008, a massive search these animals’ arrivals in the new capital. mate with their charges. They approach With Laos’ last white elephant dying in widespread deforestation are making it easier was initiated, with soldiers, oozies and Official statements declared that they the elephants without trepidation to Vientiane Zoo in 2010, Myanmar is now the to flush out these pale creatures. veterinarians scouring the region’s heralded “improvement in the country’s hand-feed them bits of sugarcane, caress jungles alongside legions of coerced foreign relations”, a successful “demo- their trunks and bathe them. and unpaid villagers. cratic transition” and that they are “a Elephant-wrangler Kyaw Aye, 23, cap- good omen when the State is endeav- tured the September 2010 elephant in his Gentle giant: an oozie * * * ouring to build a peaceful, modern and native Rakhine state. For his efforts, he gets intimate with his developed nation”. was awarded a house in the new capital charge in Naypyidaw From the summit of the hill on which The Naypyidaw elephants appear and a $120-per-month job caring for the the Uppatasanti Paya stands, one can docile, almost content with, or resigned animal. In past eras, men like Kyaw Aye see the wide, empty boulevards and to, their confinement. All but the calf are were given land, money and titles and expansive construction sites of Naypy- chained, yet none display their Yangon were exempt from taxation. The believer: “To dream of a white elephant is a sign of goodness,” says U Ottama idaw stretching into a hazy and parched cousins’ nervous behaviour. The adults “I’m just happy to be living here horizon. This city – the ‘Abode of Kings’ – replaced Yangon as the country’s capital in 2005. It is an artificial city, their days on display and their nights SACRED WRIT half-completed, concrete, and sterile; For capturing a white roaming the small, forested grounds grandiose in vision, yet tacky in execu- he 2nd century Buddhacharita and the elephant, Kyaw Aye surrounding their pavilions. Unlike tion with its towering grey and white T3rd century Lalitavistara Sutra both eras past, there are no gold adorn- façades and manicured gardens – like describe the Buddha’s mother, Queen Maya, was awarded a house ments, no prostrating masses, nor are a piece of American suburban sprawl dreaming of a white elephant bearing a lotus offerings of money, food and incense flower entering her side on the eve of her in Naypyidaw and a transplanted to a sweltering plain, then made. Still, one can’t help but think son’s conception. In the Jataka, a 4th century accented with Asiatic flourishes. BCE (before common era) text that details $120-per-month job of the irony of these sacred beings – Uppatasanti Paya, the golden centre- the Buddha’s 547 previous lives, the Buddha precious accoutrements of Myanmar’s piece of the city, is a tawdry replica of appears as both a magical white elephant caring for the animal new royalty trumpeted as celestial Yangon’s magnificent 2,600-year-old and a humble white elephant-owning prince. heralds of the country’s new begin- Shwedagon Pagoda. Positioned at the These tales are frequently depicted in temple with the white elephants,” Kyaw Aye ning – being forced to live their lives foot of Uppatasanti’s eastern entrance, murals throughout Southeast Asia. says. “I make a good salary, and I can in chains. Buddhism’s white elephants are likely twin gilt-and-green pavilions overhang a send money home to my family... This “They’re just diseased or genetically inspired by Airavata, the multi-headed white small, forested ravine. A tall steel fence elephant mount of Indra, Hinduism’s lord job is much easier than capturing wild abnormal animals,” says Saw Yan Nhin, and a young policeman with a new of heaven. Airavata appears in Indian epics elephants in the jungle.” a renowned Yangon astrologer and Chinese assault rifle guard the three- such as the 9th century BCE Mahabharata Steady streams of visitors come to numerologist. “They have no effect on tiered pavilions. Behind them stand and the 5th century BCE Ramayana. observe the animals: pilgrims, bureau- the country.” Naypyidaw’s five white elephants. 19th century scholars often stated that crats, soldiers, businessmen, politi- In his book-lined office near Shwed- The first two, both females, were cap- living white elephants are one stage removed cians, visiting diplomats and monks. agon Pagoda, Saw Yan Nhin creates from enlightenment. To possess one of these tured in June and September of 2010. The oozies supplement their incomes by intricate maps of his clients’ lives and animals, they claimed, is to possess the fortunes. Some, he claims, hold promi- That November, the Union Solidarity presence of a Buddha-to-be. selling laminated photos of the animals and Development Party (a political party According to Burmese and Thai tradition, for about a dollar apiece. nent positions in government. composed of former junta generals who there are four grades of white elephant, U Aung Yin, 57, travelled more than “Traditionally, kings collected white traded their olive uniforms for dark busi- identifiable by their physical and mental 300km with a group of pilgrims to elephants to promote themselves.” He ness suits) won an overwhelming major- attributes. Among other things, the highest be there. believes that by glorifying its white ele- ity in the country’s “historic” and widely grade must shake their food free of dirt and “I’m glad to see them,” he says, “but I phants as signs of progress, the current condemned general election. insects before eating, and they ought to have also feel sorry... They were once free, but government is taking advantage of the a uniformly lotus bud pink complexion, pale In October 2011, two more white now they will never be able to go where country’s uneducated masses. eyes, well-formed tusks, white hairs, 20 elephants – a male and a female – were instead of the usual 18 toenails and bodies they please.” “Education, sincerity and goodwill,” snatched from their forest homes. All of that turn reddish when wet. Like the animals in Yangon, the mystic says, “are the only things that these animals are perfectly pink, and all Naypyidaw’s white elephants spend will improve this country.” ¡

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