Behind that masked grey visage

On Sunday, September 20, Chang(e) Caravan joined the citizens of Chanchoengsao, in their local festivities that combined the Global Car-Free Day with the provincial river- protection day.

Strangely enough, this was our first day in a town, after walking for days skirting around the Khao Yai National Park, and none of us, including our great friends and fellow-travelers, the elephants were particularly happy about it.

But the enthusiastic welcome by hundreds of bikers from local bike club, students from the local schools and colleges, farmers and traders who are members of agri-nature foundation and soldiers of local military unit, made the short walk through town worthwhile.

To add to the increasing diversity of the Chang(e) caravan, a local horse-riding club joined with their ponies while para-gliders from the local flying club did salutary passes over our elephants who had donned brand new cotton banners that proclaimed “Our forests, our health cover” and “Don’t be Stupid, Chang(e) now”.

Thong Dang, the handsome tusker, whose majestic appearance and gentle ways, has earned him a massive fan following through out our journey, led the Chang(e) caravan, now a massive mob of 2000 people. Thong dang was of course absolutely unflustered and led mob with great aplomb.

Throughout this journey I have struggled to find words to describe Thong Dang, but I cannot do better than celebrated author Peter Matthiessen’s marvelous description of an elephant - ‘There is a mystery behind that masked grey visage, an ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome and enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires and the sea.’

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Dumbo Drop

No, I don’t mean what Um has to clean up, but the process of transporting elephants across provincial borders. An operation as complicated as the movie Operation Dumbo Drop.

As required by Thai law and provincial administration regulations, Elephants cannot walk across provincial borders, they can only be transported by trucks, with prior permissions of the livestock department.

So, early this morning after their usual enormous breakfast; with the help of the mahouts, our veterinarian and elephant transport experts, our great friends delicately clambered onto the back of a truck specially designed for them and were driven across the borders which an elephant can hardly tell, but let us not get into the irony of this bureaucratic joke.

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Washington, we have a problem.

Xiaowei, a Chinese rock-star, Tshepo, an African activist and Shane, an American+Indian student are part of the small Greenpeace team of Thai and Filipino staff and volunteers, that walked the entire distance of 12 kms with the Chang(e) caravan today.

Watching them through the view finder of my camera, I was reminded of Margaret Mead’s words, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

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