Mahouts

The hidden suffering of mahouts in the elephant tourism industry.
The relationship of a mahout and his elephant goes back to the beginning of captive elephants.

Traditionally, being a mahout is a lifelong job being passed on from father to son.
But today, the tradition of being a mahout is slowly disappearing.
Mahouts generally have a bad name; they are often known as elephant abusers.
But there is a lot behind this you don’t know.

Traditionally, mahouts were the owners of the elephants. Nowadays, most elephants are in possession of Thai people and mahouts are brought in as low-skilled laborers.
Many mahouts, as well as ours, are from the Karen Hill Tribe. The Karen hill tribe is the largest of the minority groups in Thailand. Many of them have fled from the longest civil war in Myanmar, and settled in Thailand.

Most mahouts and Karen people are stateless, which makes them face innumerable challenges. Without having Thai citizenship, stateless people can not travel freely. As a result they fear detention and arrest while traveling within Thailand. There are also barriers to accessing legitimate jobs. This puts some at risk of human trafficking in trying to access decent livelihoods.