Culture Diversity: Elephants and Kui People

Kui Clan: A Proud and Distinct Clan of Thailand

           

The Location of Kui People(credit to:www.thailandsworld.com)

            

 Kui people can be found in a small rice farming village in Thailand’s northeastern. They can also be found in Laous and Cambodia. Kui people also known as Suai and Kamen-boran. The Kui language is Mon Khmer but in some places they are no longer using their own language. There is no written form for their language and traditions while knowledge are handed down orally from one generation to the next. 

kui lady(credit to: www.thailandsworld.com)

            One folk tale is that the village elders originally wrote their language on a pig skin but then the dogs ate it so their writing was lost.

            Most of the Kui people are rice farmers, but some of them plant vegetables, raise chickens, pigs and cattle. They also grow cashews and few other crops.

            Kui people are practising a mixture of animism and Buddhism. The practice of Buddhism is strongly modified by spirit beliefs and superstitions. They believe many spirits must be regained in order to avoid misfortune(Thailands World,2012). They also obey many taboos and accept the fortune telling skills of their sorcerers. For example, they wear charms and amulets to protect themselves from evil spirits.

            For Kui people in Ban Ta Klang village in Thailand’s northeastern Surin, every aspect of their lives has been defined by elephants. For them elephants is in their blood and they love them very much. They have made capturing wild elephants as their tradition. The Kui people have their own spiritual leaders known as khru ba yai or the master of all mor chang (elephant trainer). The khru ba yai also play role as a village leadership and administration, but the significance of the khru ba yai has always been tied to the art of capturing wild elephants.

The khru ba yai(credit to:www.inaagency.se)

To be a mor chaang is not as easy as wanted to be a president in a class. How many elephants been hunts and has caught will determines who will be called upon to become a mor chang.

The capture of wild elephants either for the domestic use, or to be sold onward for war or for heavy labour have long been known that the Kui of Ban Ta Klang people is a professional ethnics, that has play role in the capture.

The Kui has caught an average of 20 to 30 elephants annually during Thailand’s rainy season for the past hundreds of years. Normally they caught elephants in the lush forest along the Cambodian border. Hunting expeditions can last between three and five months.

The khru ba yai or mor chang will led the hunt because catching wild elephants is extremely dangerous, therefore, a leader who has a deep knowledge about elephants, the forest and spirit world is needed to lead the hunt. The hunters must has good skill and most importantly courage. The khru ba yai or mor chang will enter the forest on trained elephants and eventually set up a camp as a base to explore for signs of wild elephant.

Hunting Expeditions(credit to:www.phuketall.com)

As the kui people strongly believe in spirit and practising a mixture of animism and Buddhism, they trust that the success of the hunt comes from the believe of spirits inhabit the forest.  Besides hunting for the elephant, calling for the spirit, their unique practise is the members of the hunting are required to renounce their name, identity and any ties to the material world.

In order to gain protection and ensure a successful hunt, the khru ba yai will play role  by making contact with the spirit world. They have conversation with spirits, both good and bad, through prayer, ritual, reciting mantras and through direct communication using what they call Lung Miu as a “special spirit language”.

Communication to the Spirit Ceremony(Credit to: elephant-tail.anantara.com)

Behind the unique practices, the most important part is the pakam(Lasso). It is made from the skin of three sacrificed water buffalos, comes in lengths of 30, 50 or 80 metres, as it depends on the kind of elephants to be caught. They believe that, with pakam the lives of everyone in the hunting depends on its strength.

They need to give honour to the pakam with offerings because the pakam is believed to be a spirit itself. The offerings ceremony will take three days. Chicken, rice, sandalwood, alcohol and candles are made to the pakam. During offerings, the khru ba yai will reads the jaw bones of chickens sacrificed by village men to determine who will join the hunt. The lasso will tie around the neck of the trained elephant and the spotted hunter will uses the other end of the lasso, which is tied to a pole, to slip around the hind leg of the wild elephant. Once secured, the elephant will be drag to a designated area and tied to a tree.

The Offerings Ceremony(credit to: www.inaagency.se)

The rationale of this unique practice is the kui people have been taught and practised to respect the rule of nature and elephants hence, can tight the relationship between humans and nature. For example, the kui people will make a celebrations for a newborn elephant. For centuries, elephants have been a vital part of the Kui people who have hunted, trained, cared for and love these majestic creatures. But unfortunately, all that is now coming to an end.

From our opinion the Kui traditional culture of elephant hunting and keeping is slowly disappearing especially among the younger generation because now, they are in  modernized world thus to work as an elephant hunter could not help the Kui young generation to have a bright future in today's world context in term of successful life and career.

Many kui people have left the village because of little employment in the province and the high cost of feeding elephants. Some of the villagers work in the tourism industry while others walk their elephants on the streets of urban cities begging for money. There is a benefit when they stop hunting for the elephants, at least it can prevent the extinction of elephants so that the future generations can know and see the elephants for themselves.

Although they cannot catch elephants anymore, they still can continue in keeping the elephants to prevent abandon crisis on the elephants. They can also pass on their knowledge to the young generation such as to their own children and grandchildren in order to avoid this unique culture from disappearing to the modern days.

For us, this hunting elephants practice of Kui people should be respected because they are not only brave to hunt for the wild elephants but they also have a good skill, which not all people has in power and knowledge of elephants hunting as well as taking care of them. They also can be catogerized as nature lovers as they really take a good care of elephants and they also have respect to the forest.

They Love and Care for these Majestic Creatures(Credit to:wall.alafoto.com)

It is better to let the capturing of wild elephants as one memory, in order to keep the elephants lives peacefully in their habitat and have a balance ecosystem in the forest.