"An elephant never forgets," was the phrase he used. In this particular instance, our tour guide, John1, was referring to Doe and Darling's ability to remember the landscape easily. He explained that despite the vastness of the Cambodian jungle, the Asian elephants will remember the best places on the river to bathe and where their favorite ginger plants to snack on are. The couple towered above me, but against the trees that reached the heavens, vines disguised as giant cobras, and the copper-colored muddy terrain, the elephants seemed much smaller. With no semblance of where we were, remembering the nooks and crannies of the area appeared impossible.
"If they remember the landscape so well, does that mean they also remember everything that has happened to them?" one of our group members questioned. John answered in agreement. Memories span further than spatial recognition. The Cambodian elephants remember others they have met, lessons they have learned, and the awesome, the abominable, and the average scenarios and events they have witnessed or faced over the period of their lives.
The ancestors of current Cambodians are the people of the Khmer Empire, one of Southeast Asia's most expansive and powerful societies2. The Khmer were known for their lavish building skills, creating temples still renowned as the pride of Cambodia and as wonders of the world, Angkor Wat being the most well-known3. It is hypothesized that the temple of Angkor Wat, which spans over 400 acres, took about thirty years to complete – a task impossible without the aid of the elephants4. Carved into the temple walls, examples of the people's close ties with elephants are shown. Pictures of warriors riding elephants into battle, elephants dressed in riches, and ceremonies including elephants are depicted throughout the temple. Akin to the people, the elephants have worked, fought, and loved in Cambodia for centuries.
While at the Elephant Valley Project, a Cambodian organization that gives sanctuary to retired elephants, I learned that elephants have a relatively long lifespan. This, combined with their size and strength, made them the machines that the Khmer utilized. Both Doe and Darling were more than fifty years old! I thought of all that had happened in Cambodia in the last 50 years. I thought how they would never forget it.
In 1969, in hopes of gaining some leverage on the North Vietnamese, former United States President, Richard Nixon, approved a series of covert operations to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail5. (Super fun fact: the mission was titled operation "menu," alluding to the fact that the president had signed it over a gentleman's brunch, lunch, dinner, snack, and supper!). The Ho Chi Minh trail did not run exclusively through Vietnam – but also through Cambodia and Laos – two countries with whom the United States was not at war with at the time. From March 18th, 1969, to May 26th of the following year, the United States dropped an equivalent of seven nuclear bombs worth of B-52 bombs on Cambodia6. Because the North Vietnamese used elephants (stolen from Cambodian hill tribes) to carry supplies, the US explicitly targeted areas with elephants. Citizens and elephants alike lost their food, land, and lives.
The devastating effects of the Cambodian bombing were seen by Pol Pot as ample opportunity to gain numbers for his Leninist-communist guerilla group: the Khmer Rouge7. Pol Pot believed western ideals were tainting Cambodian society and wanted to implement a strict one-class agricultural society by abolishing private property8.
From 1967 to 1975, the Khmer Rouge fought the army of the US-backed president of Cambodia, Lon Nol. On April 17th, 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, as champions. They would brutally rule over Cambodia for the next four years9. Under their governance, almost 2 million Cambodians and ethnic Vietnamese lost their lives to disease, starvation, and/or torture. Using the justification of creating an equal society, the Khmer Rouge sent urban citizens to work on rice fields in the countryside. Private property was confiscated; individually owning any possession, whether food, clothes, or tools, was considered defamation of the government10. People with education, ties to the former government, or any suspicion (from saying the wrong thing to wearing glasses) were taken to prisons, where they were interrogated and tortured. Many left only to go straight to the killing fields; few escaped with their lives. Women and girls were raped and murdered naked. To conserve ammunition, holding children by their feet and beating them against trees was the Khmer's preferred method of murder. The Khmer Rouge killed anyone seen as a threat, including their own members11.
The Khmer Rouge reforms changed the future trajectory of Cambodia. The atrocities done to Cambodian people were immeasurable, but the impacts of these horrid actions affected more than simply the humans. The sad reality is that when one cares so little about another that they can kill and justify their killing, other wrongdoings do not appear to cause the slightest moral dilemma.
An elephant genocide paralleled the human genocide under the Khmer Rouge12. As a signal of their capability, the soldiers slaughtered family-owned elephants in villages and towns they traveled through. When confiscating property, elephants were one of the most valuable possessions taken. Elephants captured by the Khmer Rouge were used for labor: hauling materials and working on produce fields. Mirroring the people of Cambodia, many elephants abandoned their home country and fled to neighboring countries. Land mines killed many in the process13.
The number of elephants in Cambodia today is fewer than ever before14. The Cambodian jungle, once home to countless herds of wild elephants, has been cut down at exponential rates for both the profit of the wealthy and the survival of the poor15. Family-owned elephants are revered in many Cambodian hill tribes, such as the Bunoung, for they are seen as valuable possessions, status symbols, and integral parts of ritual activities16. Still, owning elephants has lessened in popularity as farming and transportation technology has progressed, and the price of living has increased17.
Luckily, the dwindling numbers and worsening living conditions for the elephants have inspired organizations such as the Elephant Valley Project (or EVP)18. The EVP is a nonprofit elephant sanctuary located in Senmonorom, Cambodia, that works closely with the native Bunong people. Together they house and care for elephants previously used for hard labor, tourist rides, or family-owned elephants people can no longer afford. Medical aid for elephants is administered both within the Bunong community forests, in which the EVP is based, and in towns they visit. The EVP recognizes that elephants are beings of compassion, intelligence, and feeling. As with people, the elephants' trauma is not as easily mended as the physical wounds they have obtained. Mental illnesses are not restricted only to humans; PTSD is common among the EVP residing elephants, with other mental illnesses, such as eating disorders observed as well19. The EVP strives to create a safe, friendly, and harm-free environment as close to the elephants' natural habitat as possible in hopes that they will be able to live out the rest of their lives as healthily and happily as possible, considering what they have been through.
While at the Elephant Valley Project, my peers and I had the incredible opportunity of observing the elephants. We watched them walk, eat, and bathe and could get reasonably near them. Asian elephants are about 8 to 9 feet tall, their feet are round (with toenails that look like smooth rocks you would find on the seaside), and their skin is brown and pink with a red tint from the mud rubbed over them. Like graying hair, pink skin is a sign of aging on elephants. The line of pink skin around one elephant's neck and the U-shaped mark across another's side, however, were the consequence of previous wounds.
Doe and Darling had no obvious scars, but while watching them, I couldn't help but think of the difficult memories they had to carry with them. As the elephants grow, the physical injuries scar, and scars fade. As they wander, day after day in the jungle, do the elephants cope and heal, or are they stuck in memories of times wished forgotten?
The people of Cambodia have lived through atrocities and horrors. Alongside them have always been the elephants. We must remember that the ramifications of war and genocide do not pay mind to who or what you are.
Ian, John, and Toin. Tour guides for EVP. Visited July 28-29, 2022.
Overton, Leonard C. and Chandler, David P.. "Cambodia". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Mar. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/place/Cambodia. Accessed 22 August 2022.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Angkor Wat". Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 Mar. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Angkor-Wat. Accessed 22 August 2022.
Wild Earth Allies. “The Cultural Significance of Asian Elephants in Cambodia.” Wild Earth Allies, April 16, 2019. https://wildearthallies.org/cultural-significance-asian-elephants-cambodia/#:~:text=Asian%20elephants%20have%20been%20integral,of%20the%20Angkor%20Wat%20complex.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Ho Chi Minh Trail". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Sep. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ho-Chi-Minh-Trail. Accessed 22 August 2022.
Rotondi, Jessica Pearce. “How Nixon's Invasion of Cambodia Triggered a Check on Presidential Power.” HISTORY. A&E Television Networks, April 27, 2020. https://www.history.com/news/nixon-war-powers-act-vietnam-war-cambodia.
Owen, Taylor, and Ben Kiernan. “Bombs over Cambodia .” The Walrus. YALE, October 2006. https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf.
“War Closes in on Cambodia.” United States holocaust memorial museum. Accessed August 22, 2022. https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/cambodia/case-study/background/war-closes-in.
“Chronology of Cambodian Events Since 1950.” Genocide Studies Program. Yale University. Accessed August 22, 2022. https://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/cambodian-genocide-program/publications/chronology-cambodian-events-1950.
Ung, Loung. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2017.
Tuol Sleng genocide museum. Accessed August 22, 2022. https://tuolsleng.gov.kh/en/.
Maltby, Matthew, and Gavin Bourchier. “Current Status of Asian Elephants in Cambodia.” Asian Elephants Specialist Group, n.d. https://www.asesg.org/PDFfiles/2012/35-36-Maltby.pdf.
“Cambodia.” The HALO Trust. Accessed August 22, 2022. https://www.halotrust.org/where-we-work/south-asia/cambodia/.
Mondulkiri Project. “Cambodian Elephants.” Mondulkiri Project, June 26, 2019. https://www.mondulkiriproject.org/blog/cambodia-elephants/.
Foster, Malcolm J., and Denis D. Gray. “Cambodia's Zeal for Rubber Drives Ethnic Group from Land.” The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company, March 26, 2016. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/cambodias-zeal-for-rubber-drives-ethnic-group-from-land-4/.
Simone, Arden. “Histories of the Bunong Indigenous People.” The School for Field Studies, April 24, 2019. https://fieldstudies.org/2019/04/histories-of-the-bunong-indigenous-people/.
Ian, John, and Toin. Tour guides for EVP. Visited July 28-29, 2022.
“Elephant Valley Project (EVP) - Elephant Sanctuary, Mondulkiri Cambodia.” Elephant Valley Project, January 26, 2022. https://elephantvalleyproject.org/.
Ian, John, and Toin. Tour guides for EVP. Visited July 28-29, 2022.