THE ROYAL WHITE ELEPHANT The legend of the Royal White Elephant of Thailand is upheld in the deep rooted Theravada Buddhism beliefs of the Kingdom & can be seen in the form of large statues & paintings throughout the temples scattered across the country. Within the story of the Lord Buddha it describes how Queen Maya (the mother of Buddha) on the eve of giving birth to him, has a dream that she is presented with a lotus flower, the symbol for both purity & knowledge by a large white elephant with six tusks. The royal white elephant has been considered to be a sacred creature in Thailand for centuries. As a symbol of fertility and success & it was believed that young kings would have long and prosperous reigns if they kept several white elephants in their stables. These elephants were themselves treated like royalty, they were not subject to any of the duties that normal Working Elephants would face, were cared for by a royal veterinarian, and fed only the best foods, as the death of one would signal disaster for the kingdom!. Between the 14th - 18th century the Royal Kraal at Ayutthaya was the home of these special elephants, that was until the whole power-base & capital city of the country moved from Ayutthaya & was established in Bangkok . The Buddhist text The Three Worlds covers this by saying the magnificent king has seven things: a perfect wife, and able treasurer, a wise chief minister, a swift horse, a wheel of the law and a precious gem to guide his actions: and the most noble of white elephants. The royal white elephant was so important that they were never taken to war, unlike their ordinary-colored counterparts & were also not ridden during processions, as they were seen as real life manifestations of their gods. Similar to a beauty pageant, there were specific criteria that had to be followed for an elephant to be approved as a royal white elephant, these were split into seven distinct features only present in the genuine pachyderm: youtu.be/x1spaYhmFCw
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 06:00:02 +0000
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