August 5, 2010–Yesterday I shared that Mae Ka Pae, a 22-year old elephant, who stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Burma border, arrived at the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital in Lampang, Thailand. Below is an update from the Associate Press:

Vets treat elephant land mine victim in Thailand

(AP) – 10 hours ago

LAMPANG, Thailand — Veterinarians were treating the latest land mine victim from the Thai-Myanmar border Thursday, a 22-year-old female elephant whose foot was severely wounded by the explosion.

Mae Ka Pae, as she is called, is the 13th mine casualty to be treated at the innovative Friends of Asian Elephant hospital near this city in northern Thailand since it began operating in 1993. She arrived at the facility Wednesday evening, a week after the accident, which shredded the sole of her left rear foot.

“We have to monitor her condition for 48 hours now that we cleaned the wound and injected pain killers. We will give her a tetanus shot later today. Overall, she is a good condition. She is obedient and can eat normally,” said Dr. Preecha Phuangkam, a veterinarian and the hospital director.

The elephant was injured at the frontier, which is strewn with land mines from fighting between the Myanmar government and ethnic minority rebels. Preecha said her handlers might have let her wander to the less-developed Myanmar side of the border to find food.

She joins two other elephants, Motala and Mosha, who remain hospitalized but have recovered well enough to wear prosthetic legs. Mosha became the world’s first elephant with an artificial leg, attached in 2007.

Traditionally the truck, taxi and logging worker of Thailand, the elephant has lost most of its jobs to modernization. However, the tourism industry still employs large numbers of elephants for trekking and other activities. Some, including a number along the Myanmar border, are still used in illegal logging operations.

The question people keep asking me is: Don’t we have the technology to detect and remove landmines?

To answer simply, Yes, we do have the technology to detect and safely remove landmines; but human Ego keeps countries from making the right choice and protecting their own people and wildlife from these hidden killers.

To date, 37 countries have still refused to sign the Mine Ban Treaty, which requires signatories to de-mine their country and destroy their landmine stockpiles. Myanmar (Burma) is one of the countries who’ve refused to sign the treaty,  the United States is another. To view the full list click here.

We cannot let animals and humans suffer because of landmines.  We need a film that can crack our collective consciousness and demand all nations sign and enforce the Mine Ban Treaty!

I firmly believe that The Eyes of Thailand is just the film to do this and we can make this dream a reality with your help! You can help by making a tax-deductible donation to the film through our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society, so that we can edit and distribute the The Eyes of Thailand in 2011. Click here to donate.

Thank you for your continued support. Together we can tell the world about the plight of the Asian Elephants and the on-going threat of landmines!

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Director & Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

“The Eyes of Thailand” is the inspirational story of one woman’s quest to help two elephant landmine survivors–Motala and Baby Mosha–walk on their own four legs. Treating their wounds was only part of the journey; building elephant-sized prostheses was another. Directed and Produced by Windy Borman. Produced by Tim VandeSteeg.

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Photo Credit: Associated Press

June 29, 2010– Below is an excerpt from the Shanghai Daily:

A RARE white elephant has been captured in the jungles of Myanmar, a mostly Buddhist country where the animals are considered good omens, state media reported yesterday.

Forestry officials found the animal on Saturday, acting on a tip, in the jungles of Maungdaw township in northwestern Rakhine state, the New Light of Myanmar reported. It described the elephant as about 38 years old and 2.2 meters tall.

White elephants, actually albinos, have for centuries been revered in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and other Asian nations. They were normally kept by monarchs and considered a symbol of royal power and prosperity.

The elephants are not necessarily white. They can look similar to other elephants except for certain features like fair eyelashes and toenails, light-colored hair or a reddish hue to the skin [see above].

The newspaper did not say where the elephant would be housed. It will be the fourth white elephant held in captivity in Myanmar. The three others are at Mindhamma Hill park, Yangon, where they live in an enclosure with a man-made waterfall, ponds, trees and vegetation.

Soraida Salwala, of the Thailand-based Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation, said the group normally objects to placing elephants in captivity but stopped short of criticizing the capture of white elephants. In Thailand, all white elephants are traditionally handed over to the country’s revered king.

“The white elephant is a sign of great blessings and fortune for the land,” she said, adding that traditional Myanmar and Thai beliefs are similar on the subject.

Lavish ceremonies have been held in the past for white elephants. Myanmar’s leaders usually sprinkle them with scented water laced with gold, silver and precious gems.

A war was fought in the 16th century between Thailand and Myanmar, then Siam and Burma respectively, over disputed ownership of four white elephants.

Read more, click here.

Today I joined my friend, Peter, on a trip to Northern Thailand.  We stopped along the highway so I could film the scenic spots (i.e. rice patties at the base of mountains) and eventually made it to Mae Sai, the northern-most city in Thailand, bordering Myanmar (Burma) and part of the once notorious Golden Triangle.  Mae Sai had an interesting mix between Thai, Burmese, Chinese and English, as evidenced by the sign below and the Chinese style temple.

Store Sign in Mae Sai in Thai, English, Chinese and Burmese.

We crossed the border into Myanmar—which was quite an experience—and I bought a jade elephant and two Taiwanese style teacups, since one of mine broke this year.  Upon crossing back into Thailand, we did more jade shopping and I learned to feel the vibration of “live jade” and how to look for the Imperial Jade color.

On our drive back to Chiang Mai, we stopped at the Chinese cultural studies building at Mae Fah Luang University, which is a perfect example of feng shui architecture and landscape, and had dinner at a delicious hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Chiang Rai.

Outside the restaurant, not one—but 2—street elephants walked by.  The first looked about 4-years old and was playful and attentive when tourists and locals feed him, despite the elephant keeper’s bull hook poking into his ear on the side away from the feeders.  The second was only about 2-years old and his elephant keeper was cruel.  He pulled his ears and refused to let anyone feed it bananas, only the sugar cane stalks he was selling.  When the elephant took a banana Peter had in his hand, the keeper hit the elephant on the head with the sharp end of his bull hook and pulled him away!

I filmed both of these instances, including when we drove by the elephant and Peter threw the bunch of bananas for the elephant to eat.  I don’t know if the last part will make it into the film, but it was both good for documentary and hard to witness the elephants being so mistreated.  Especially considering that these young elephants were most likely wild-caught, meaning they were captured, had to watch their mothers die to protect them, and then endured more pain and hardship until they were “broken” into being street elephants.  If they survive until their 7th birthdays, they will receive their “license” (sort of like the title for a car) and then they can be traded, sold, purchased, exported at the whim of their owners.  This will continue for the rest of their lives, which can be up to 80 years old.

It’s a sad reality for an animal that is supposed to be the revered symbol of its country.

-Windy Borman
Producer, Writer and Director, The Eyes of Thailand

P.S. You can support the documentary production by making a tax-deductible donation through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society, by clicking here.  Thank you!