分类： 国际交流

Elephants have been involved  with Thai society and become  the  National animal of this country  for long time in history. They have been not only used for heavy work like logging and transportation but also used  for combatting war as the vehicle for the King. In ancient time elephant  had appeared  as national symbol on the flag of Siam ( former name of Thailand) . Thus Thai people   do not recognize elephants  just animal but consider  them as important ,sometime more than man .

在泰国，大象在各种事物之中都处于非常重要的地位，这种状况有着很长的历史。大象的这种重要地位直到变成了国家的标志被放在过去泰国的国旗之上，这就是一件泰国人不只是把大象看作动物的很直观的例子，而一直是把大象放到重要的位置或者在部分事件中大象比人更为重要。

​Raising elephant is much different from raising other animals because it needs one guardian  to one  elephant. The guardian (Mahout ) takes care of everything from feeding, bathing , giving medicine, etc. By doing so very strong and close relationship between them has developed.

很明显，大象和泰国人的关系有着很长的历史，泰国人养大象的方式不同于养其他的动物，因为这种养大象的方式是一头大象必须有一个人照顾，要给大象找草吃，要给大象洗澡，大象生病时要找药给它吃，因此形成了养象人和大象的这种紧密地关系。

​Because of the  story of  such relationship I would like to portray it by photography  .  This collection includes the culture and tradition of elephant raising in Thai society as well as the beauty of the relationship between elephant and it’s guardian

从养象人和大象关系的方面，我因此想通过照片传递这些养象人和大象的故事。这组照片展示的是泰国养象文化和传统的一部分，包括可以看到养象人和他们养的大象美丽和谐的生活场景。

A female white elephant plays with her friend in an enclosure near Uppatasanti Pagoda in Nay Pyi Taw. The pale pachyderm was caught in Thalatkhwar forest reserve, Pathein Township, Ayeyarwady Region in February 27, 2015. She is the ninth white elephant being captured.

在内比都大金塔附近的围场里，一头雌性白象和她的伙伴在打闹。2015年2月27日 在Ayeyarwady区Pathein乡Thalatkhwar森林保护区，一头白象被捕了，她是第九只被捕获的大象。

The decline in the number of Myanmar’s wild elephants due to the annual poaching becomes a serious cause for concern. Since about 40 wild elephants were poached during 2017, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute stated that this number exceeds the average annual rate of wild elephants’ deaths in Myanmar.

由于每年的偷猎，缅甸野生大象数量的减少成为一个令人严重关切的问题。自2017年期间，约有40只野生大象被偷猎，Smithsonian保护生物学研究所称，这一数字超过了缅甸野生大象死亡的平均年率。

A Kayin mahout Kalu Sai plays with his four-legged friend, a male elephant. They have their birthdays close to each other.

克伦的一名训象师Kalu Sai正在和他四条腿的朋友，一头公象在玩耍。他们年龄差不多大。

Within a few decades back Myanmar’s wild elephants numbered about thousands. Now their numbers are likely to fall immensely in reality though they are estimated to fall to between 1400 and 2000.

几十年前，缅甸的野生大象大约有数千头。现在，他们的数字在现实中很可能会大幅下降，尽管据估计他们会在1400到2000年间下降。

Captured elephant skins found in Ayeyarwady Region, lower Myanmar in April 2018. Most of the killings happened in Ayeyarwady Region.

2018年4月，在缅甸南部的Ayeyarwady地区发现了猎捕的象皮。大部分杀戮发生在Ayeyarwady地区。

 Not only the tuskers are targeted for poaching but also the female elephants and calves fall into victims because of the currently soaring demand for the elephant hide, so unless the conservation works are enhanced, Myanmar’s wild elephants can become extinct.

不仅象牙是偷猎的目标，而且由于目前对大象的需求激增，雌象和小牛也会成为受害者，除非保护大象。

A four-year-old male elephant is in training by mahouts to be tame. The elephant was left behind by its herd that had lingered in NyaungOo, upper Myanmar in search of food in 2015.

训象师在驯化一头四岁的公象。2015年，在缅甸北部NyaungOo，他与在此觅食的大象群走散了。

The family members gaze at mahouts in preparation for foot patrol to protect wild elephants from being poached.

为了保护野生大象不被偷猎，这些家庭成员注视着训象师，做徒步巡逻的准备。

The tip of an elephant’s tusk is being cut. Elephant picks a fight with another elephant or a human when he is in musth. The practise is believed to reduce his rage and to protect him from attacking other elephants. ( Photo – UU5A7991 )

切割象牙尖。大象在发情期会攻击其他大象或人类。人们觉得这样能减少大象的怒气，防止它们攻击其他大象。

Timber production was banned in 2014, leaving working elephants jobless. Elephants are hired to perform in cultural festivals for their survival.

2014年禁止木材生产，大象被迫失业。为了生存，大象被雇来在文化节表演。

The 18-year-old mahout and a male elephant are found in a cultural festival.

文化节上18岁的训象师和一头公象。

A white baby elephant learns to walk by mahouts. The ninth white elephant was caught in Thalatkhwar forest reserve, Pathein Township, Ayeyarwady Region in February 27, 2015.

一头小白象在训象师陪护下尝试走路。她于2015年2月27日被捕，是在Ayeyarwady区Pathein乡Thalatkhwar森林保护区捕获的第九头白象。

A mohout washes his elephant that belongs to a private owner. They are both 18 years old and perform in cultural festivals for a living.

训象师希望他的大象能归他私有，他们都只有18岁，为了生存，在文化节上表演。

A mahout and a male elephant from Myanmar Timber Enterprise. A herd of wild elephants, that got lost in search of new pasture and trespassed on the human territory in 2015, was driven back to the forest by the male elephant.

缅甸木材公司的一位驯象师和一头公象。2015年，一群野象在寻找新草场的时候迷失了方向，并侵入了人类的领地，后被这头公象赶回了森林。

An orphaned baby elephant is rescued by Myanmar Timber Enterprise. Her mother had been killed by poachers in Ayeyarwady Region in 2017. ( Photo – _U5A0148 )

缅甸木材公司救出了一头失去双亲的小象。她的母亲于2017年在Ayeyarwady地区被偷猎者杀害。

A mahout sleeps next to a 23-day-old baby elephant who became separated from her mother.

一位驯象师睡在一只23天大的小象旁边，这只小象和她的妈妈分开了。

Legs of an orphaned baby elephant and a veterinarian who cares her since residents had frightened her mother who left her behind.

失去了双亲的小象的腿和一直照顾她的兽医，她的母亲遭居民驱赶逃跑时丢下了她。

Mi Chaw, a 23-day-old elephant who became separated from her mother since its birth, plays inside the house of the veterinarian who looks after her.

一头23天大的小象Mi Chaw，正在照顾她的兽医的屋子里玩耍，她一出生就与她的母亲分开了。

Children of mahouts put consoling arms around the 23-day-old elephant who suffers from diarrhoea. She suffers from separation from her mother since her birth.

这头23天大的小象一出生就与母亲分开了，现在患上了腹泻，训象师的孩子在抚摸安慰她。

A veterinarian and mahouts show sympathy to the 23-day-old elephant who suffers from diarrhoea. She suffers from separation from her mother since her birth.

一名兽医和训象师很心疼这头只有23天大又患了腹泻得小象，她一出生就与她的母亲分开了。

Despite all their best efforts, the baby elephant died of severe disease at the age of 23 days. She suffers from separation from her mother since her birth.

尽管他们付出了最大努力，但这只小象还是因严重疾病死亡了，她只有23天大，一出生就与她的母亲分开了。

Children walk the 23-day-old female elephant every day together with the veterinarian who cares her. The baby elephant became separated from her mother since its birth

孩子们每天和兽医一起陪伴这头23天大的雌性小象散步，这头小象一出生就与母亲分开了。

Residents frighten wild elephants away. The elephants were found lingering in Kyautpadaung township in search of food in 2015 when floods hit many parts of the country.

居民在驱赶大象。2015年洪水袭击全国许多地方，在Kyautpadaung乡，大象在此地徘徊寻找食物。

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。

Human and animal are a part of nature. Both are associated with nature and ecological living environment. Wildlife and the other use nature space for living and housing as human resources needed to sustain life. Relation between human and nature is not just a bound object. People in the past will respect with a nature and there was a feeling that they are one with nature that expressed through vernacular traditions of their cultures to balance relationship for equilibrium in ecological. Because human in the past used ecological for factor in the life whether it is food, housing, medicine and so on. Today human society is growing rapidly and isolate from nature. Human activities disturbance the nature rather than utilization of resources for basic necessities until the environment has problem. Life has to adapt for survival. Some animals may be extinct eventually. This is the impact from the development of society and human thought in the modern environment by the attempt to use science and technology to management the nature and the concept of economic development. The growth makes humans visual about nature are distorted. Until change was just natural resources or just was only material for benefit . Problems or issues discussed may be a familiar story in certain degree of social. All kinds of media are trying to present it as movies new and various forms of art. Creators also recognize that this issue is still very important as a society therefor raised to create this photo series.

人和动物是大自然的一部分。两者都与自然和生态生活环境有关。野生动物和其他生物利用自然空间作为维持生命所需的人力资源。人与自然的关系不仅仅是一个束缚的对象。过去的人们会尊重自然，并有一种感觉，他们与自然是一体的，通过白话来表达。因为人类过去在生活中使用的是生态因素，不管是食物、住房、药品等等。今天，人类社会正在迅速发展，与自然隔绝。人类的活动扰乱了大自然，而不是把资源用于基本必需品，直到环境出现问题。生活必须适应生存。有些动物可能会灭绝尤利。这是社会的发展和人类思想在现代环境中的冲击，试图用科学技术来管理自然和经济发展的观念。陡崖。这种生长使人类对自然的视觉扭曲。直到改变仅仅是自然资源，或者仅仅是贝赋的材料。在一定程度上，讨论的问题可能是一个熟悉的故事。各种媒体都试图把它描绘成电影、新的、多样的艺术形式。创作者也认识到，这个问题仍然是非常重要的，因为之成立的一个社会来制作这一系列照片。