— Dok Ngern —
Dok Ngern’s name means ‘silver flower’. She was born in 2000 in the Surin province. She arrived at Elephant Nature Park in January 2006 with Sri Nuan, an adult female. Full credit for financing their rescue goes to Antoinette Van de Water.
Like all working elephants in Thailand, Dok Ngern is a victim of the cruel phajaan training ceremony. Some elephants are mentally and emotionally damaged for life from this ordeal and Dok Ngern is one of them. After Phajaan, she spent part of her young life in Pattaya, working as a street begging elephant performing tricks for money. Her owner decided that more tricks meant more money, so she was sent off to endure further training. It was a painful experience and resulted in many scars. As a result of being forced to learn so much at such a young age, and never being given the time to enjoy her childhood, she finally retaliated by injuring someone. Considered a liability waiting to happen, her owner decided to sell her.
In November 2005, Lek and Antoinette spotted Dok Ngern at the Surin elephant festival, bleeding and looking very sad. She had scars on her forehead, a result of physical abuse, and was displaying the agitated swaying motion typical of traumatized captive elephants. This sort of behavior is a sign of deep emotional and psychological scarring. When Lek approached her in an attempt to help, she would not accept food.
Antoinette decided to buy Dok Ngern as part of her ‘Bring the elephant home’ project. She traveled across Thailand from Surin to Chiang Mai with Dok Ngern, Sri Nuan, two mahouts and a team of Thai and western aides. Stopping to educate people about the Thai elephant’s plight at villages along the way, the journey ended at Elephant Nature Park.
Upon Dok Ngern’s arrival at the park, she was greeted with much fanfare and celebration. She quickly joined a new family group consisting of Sri Nuan, Malai Tong, Mae Tor Kor, and her three week old son Pupia. Dok Ngern loves her new position as big sister/auntie to the young Pupia and fiercely protects him. She is also benefiting emotionally from being part of a family group and being nurtured and protected by the older females. With a future of freedom ahead at the Park, Dok Ngern should heal from all of her past physical and emotional traumas and become a happy, well adjusted elephant.
To learn more about the histories and personalities of our elephants, please click on any of the links below.
