The Elephant Dancing Festival at Kyaukse

Elephants have been hugely important in Myanmar history. From the time of King Anawrahtha in the 11^th century elephants have been used to pay respects to the Buddha from the tops of hills and to ask for help, particularly at harvest time. At the time of the kings, they used real elephants. Today at Kyaukse, an hour from Mandalay, specially constructed elephants will be used in a competition, played group by group. Tomorrow, on the full-moon day of Thadingyut, the man-made elephants will pay respects to the Buddha from the top of nearby Shwe Tha Lyaung mountain.

There are three categories of elephants participating in the competition: Sequinned Elephant, Traditional Elephant, and Young Elephant. The winners of each group will receive many thousands of kyats so these are prizes for which it is worth competing.

The government owns all the elephants now and they are used in felling and hauling teak trees, clearing the land and generally helping out in rural areas. Elephants remain largely in forest reserves, though they can be hired for $100 for the ceremony of shin pyu at which all Myanmar boys are inducted into the monastery as part of their religious training.

We park the car in Kyaukse and follow a mobile band dressed all in white with green headscarves. We try to keep behind them as they make a thin channel in the otherwise masses of jostling people who are all making their way to the elephant dancing ground. All are looking their best. The women are wearing brilliantly coloured longyis, some are striped, others have stars and some are twinkling with sequins. Food stalls line both sides of the lane selling sweetcorn, peanuts, fruit, cakes, biscuits and all kinds of fizzy and energizing drinks.

We enter the elephant dance floor through a gate guarded by elephants (stone ones). We manage to find places in the tiers of seats under a plastic roof, which will help to shade us or keep us dry if it rains. October is the end of the rainy seasons – but you never know.

The sequined elephant is wearing richly embossed gold and orange velvet and tapestry on his back and chest. Below stomach level, the fabric is more restrained and hides the two men who are working hard to make the elephant’s whirling and twirling movements, twisting his head this way and that. The elephants face is of paper or papier mache, a malleable mixture of paper and glue. The eye is particularly distinctive: in some of them it looks quite fierce.

These man-made elephants have a framework of bamboo, but bamboo is not hardy and the frames will not last from one season to the next: so new ones must be made each year. Diminishing forests of bamboo have pushed the prices well above that which even groups of people can afford.  So now the elephant makers cannot sell new elephants. Instead, they have resorted to hiring them out for the day. Either way, if their elephant wins for his good dancing, costume, decoration or appearance in general, the owner of the elephant or the hirer of the elephant receives a prize. This is about $700 for first place followed by $400 and about $150 for second and third places.

Along with each elephant comes the group’s singer and band, which plays at the only decibels Myanmar people know- loud and LOUDER. The sequined elephant’s turn ends and the band escorts the elephant off the field. It is then lifted bodily onto its waiting truck and another elephant arrives.

This elephant is a traditional elephant and it looks (somewhat) as it would appear in the forest. The elephant trainer, or sin oozie, has his kettle and cooking pots hanging down on either side of its back. This elephant will be judged not for its luxurious appearance, but from its realistic movements. Its trunk moves up and down as it would in the forest as he begins to stomp along. The band accompanying this performance is keeping the beat with bamboo clappers about two foot long – easily obtainable in the forests around Kyaukse. This elephant has not one but two sin oozies and they are trying to catch him as they do after he has spent the night, hobbled by his front legs, in the forest. The elephant is resisting though not charging nor running away. At last the elephant goes down on bent knees and one sin oozie pretends to climb on board. Mercifully for the two men inside he is only pretending. The sin oozies then romp around the stage to show how clever they are and the crowd claps its approval. If we don’t clap loud enough or long enough they mimic handclaps until we do!

The next group of bandsmen enter wearing navy longyis, white shirts and pink headscarves. This band has a woman singer. Women have been notably absent in all other respects in the festival so it is good to see there is a place for at least one. Doubtless they work hard behind the scenes as do all Myanmar women. This elephant comes in the young elephant category. It toddles in wearing a shiny red satin scarf around its head, neck and shoulders. Lots of pink straps extend over its body and its ears flap around limply at every turn. Now the clappers and drums beat delightedly and are accompanied this time by a trumpet. The young elephant kneels endearingly forward onto its knees and wriggles its large bottom. The chairman of the band explains the ways to catch an elephant, which could come in handy should we ever need to catch one. This young elephant does not take as long to be caught as the adults. Next, and beloved by the audience, is a very young elephant. We note that the band comprises young students and unbelievably the sin oozie is about five years old! Young he may be, but his poise and accomplishments are notable.

Next an imperious elephant stalks on and regally and condescendingly bows to the audience. This band has an outsize gong and a very deep drum in addition to the usual instruments. This performance is a nagadaw’s dance. Nagadaws are the human representatives of a nat and nats are part of Myanmar’s very important spirit world.

All of the performances last about half an hour and we realize there are many, many more performances still to go. By noon, the sun is beating down remorselessly. We wonder how the groups keep going, but they have to – and we don’t. So at last we leave the Elephant Dancing Festival remembering that tomorrow the elephant groups and all the villagers will climb Shwe Tha Lyaung mountain. They will donate offerings at the pagoda which, together with the work and the love that has gone into making the elephants and the festival will help them gain their way to wei nei ya:  nirvana.