Exhibition（骑大象的人）组图

The word mahout derives from the Hindi words mahaut, which literally means “person who rides an elephant.” Traditionally, a mahout started as a young boy when he was assigned his elephant, who would be his lifelong companion, and the boy would learn how to respond to the elephant’s needs through body language, shared commands, and nonverbal communication practices. Mahoutship was once a highly honorable position in traditional Asian societies, but modernization has brought drastic change.

Mahout一词来源于印地语，字面意思是“骑大象的人”。一般而言，一个训象师与一头大象结缘时还是一个小男孩。这头大象将会成为他一生的伙伴。男孩会学习如何通过肢体语言，共享命令和非语言交流练习回应大象的需求。训象师曾经是传统亚洲社会中一个非常光荣的职业，但现代化给这一职业带来了巨大的变化。

Many mahouts in Chiang Mai – Thailand today are ethnic people – Karen or other minorities from Myanmar, a country that has been experienced in violent civil war for over many years. Refugees who flee across the border are required to remain in holding centers where they are barred from paid employment. As a result, many people make the illegal decision but help them to leave the centers and seek out the jobs most Thai citizens avoid.

如今，泰国清迈的许多训象师都是少数民族。大都来自缅甸的克伦邦或其他少数民族地区。缅甸这个国家多年来一直惨遭内战的蹂躏。逃离边境的难民必须留在泰缅边境的难民营，那里禁止他们从事有偿工作。结果，许多人被迫做出违法的决定，离开了难民营，在泰国从事那些大多数泰国人不愿意做的工作。

Working as a mahout is one of these jobs. Despite the fact that these young men, often just teenagers, act as the sole barriers between wild animals weighing three to five tons each and the thousands of foreign tourists that interact with them every year, mahout is considered a low-skilled, low-paying, low-status profession. There are no training standards.

训象师就是这类工作中的一种。事实上，这些年轻人，甚至只是青少年，通常一个人就要承担一只大约重达3到5吨野生动物的驯化任务，每年还要在成千上万的外国游客面前表演与它们之间的互动，尽管如此，训象师还是被视为没有技术含量、低薪和低地位的职业。训象行业也没有培训标准。