Being a rural, landlocked country in Southeast Asia surrounded by neighbors Thailand, China, Vietnam and Myanmar, Laos is called the country of elephants. The Mekong River flows 1500km along the borders of Myanmar and Thailand while the mountainous terrain has dense forests in the eastern and northern areas. Indochina holidays
Why do they call Laos the country of elephants?-source: internet
Laos is a mountainous and rough land mingled with plateaus and forests or in the other words, Laos is a non-sea country due to its location. The river plains that can be cultivated are essential to the production of food of this country as more than 70% of Laos is covered with mountains and forested hills. Apart from the flood plains, the only other level land is situated on the mountain plateaus.
Elephant is thought to bring prosperity to Laos-source: internet
The Mekong River, which runs through the length of Laos, not only is both practically and symbolically the lifeline of the Lao who numbered roughly 6 million but also supplies it with water to the fertile plains of the river valley/basin. The symbol “elephants”, according to the Lao values and beliefs, is derived from its capital called “Lane Xang” in which Xang is defined as “elephants” and Lane as “million”. Not only being sacred to the Lao people, the symbol is also considered to bring prosperity to their country.
Elephants are dream of many visitors coming to Laos-source: internet
Laos used to be called “Lane Xang”, through the long history, which means “The Land of Million Elephants”. In 1354, the King Fa Ngum named as “Lan Xang” since Luang Prabang, the capital of the Kingdom, was surrounded by enormous grazing pastures with wild herds of a large number of elephants living there. In addition, another reason is that the elephants were used as a main means of transportation for the Laos Royal Family back in ancient time and the principal engines of war. There was a sparse human population and there used to have extensive crops and forest to live on are the reason why Asian elephants loved to live in Laos. Tours in Laos
Elephants play an important role in Laos’ tourism-source: internet
However, the elephant population in Laos and the proud national heritage is dwindling fast due to forests being cut down resulting in less food for them as well as bombs and modern day wars which have scared the elephants away.
For every elephant lover visiting Laos, elephants were a dream, but today they are much scarcer. Now, it is estimated that there are only 700 elephants left in the wild in Laos. And among them, there are only about 400 domesticated elephants. The animals are made to work at a furious pace because of an increase in demand for elephants by the logging industry. Being exhausted and overworked, it is no surprise that, as a result, they cannot reproduce. So, safeguarding the remaining elephants and creating a breeding program for them are urgent need.
The number of elephants is decreasing-source: internet
They use tamed elephants for pulling large logs and many heavy works. The majority of them have to spend all the time working hard and have few chances for reproduction. In hopes that these elephants’ numbers would increase, he authorities are trying to reduce their workload.
As these large beasts was a vehicle for transport and work for centuries, elephants will always play an important part of not only history but also appreciation to Lao people. During the monarchial times, the 3 headed Elephants were contained in a Lao flag that represented Lao unity among Champassak, Luang Prabang and Vientiane.
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