Phi Khun Tong

Approxmately 7 years ago, while I was still working as a mahout, I came accross a most extraordinary female elephant named Phi Khun Tong. She was sick for nearly a year, but nobody could figure out what was wrong with her. I was taken off all other elephants and was told that she was now my only charge.
Early in the morning I would take her into the jungle at about 8am and would return around 5pm. I rode her going out, but just walked with her while she was allowed to pick what she wanted to eat and play with mud to protect her skin. She would be bathed 2 or 3 times a day in the nearby river and continue to graze along.
No matter what I did, she was not putting on weight like she was supposed to. One day I took her into the jungle to graze and I fell asleep under a tree. When I woke up, I found myself looking up at her belly. I was stunned. The sun had continued its course and I would have been sleeping under direct sunlight if it weren't for her. She had stopped grazing to come and protect me while I slept, by shading me from the sun and making sure that nothing could harm me. No one would have been able to come within 4 meters of where I slept. This behaviour touched my heart in a way that nothing had in a long time.
As time went by, her love for her mahout became more and more pronounced. It got to the point where I couldn't sit on the grass without her worrying about me. She would continue grazing, slowly moving in circles around me, checking all the while she was grazing. I never needed chains for this female when I took her out, because if I called her, no matter how far away she was, she would always immediately return to my side.
We were a team for a very short 3 months before her illness got the better of her.
She had TB, but nobody knew. We only found out after she died.
Here I must state that the diagnosis for tuburculosis in elephants is much more complicated than it is for humans. In a human being, TB is almost instantly diagnosed after a chest ex-ray and a saliva test.
In elephants it takes 3 months to make the diagnosis. A trunkwash must first be done. This proceedure an elephant does not like. That means chaining up 4 legs and her trunk, pouring saline solution into the trunk and getting the elephant to blow the liquid from her trunk into a sterile plastic bag. It took 8 people to do this proceedure with her. The sample is then sent for culture sampling and this is the part that takes so long.

Soon after the trunkwash sample was sent to the elephant hospital, Phi Khun Tong got worse and worse.
Looking back on the incident, I suddenly realised that, how can an elephant put on weight if it breathes through the mouth, because the trunk is all blocked up and swollen?
Another thing that we did, is take steps to see exactly how much food she actually takes in. That involves weighing the food, which was mostly pinnapple leaves, weighing what was left over and then weighing the droppings, to establish what she was actually taking into her body. Anything from 100 kg onwards per day is considered acceptable.

One day as I chained her up at a new spot that had hills to make it easier for her to lie down, she started to walk around in circles as if disorientated. This was the other problem. Phi Khun Tong would not lie down to sleep. I believe this was because she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to get up afterwards.
I immediatele informed the owner and that evening we tried giving her some 20 bottles of intravenous drips. We only managed to give her 15 bottles before the vein in her ear collapsed. This happens when the weather gets cool.
Early next morning, me and my elephant were put on a truck and sent to the elephant hospital in Lamphang.
I spent 4 days there with her, before the vet, who was more worried about me than he was about the elephant, told me it would be better if I returned home. The day before I left Phi Khun Tong was so sick that she hardly acknowledged me any more. It was also clear that if she fell, she would not be able to get up any more. For this reason, the vets ordered her to be put in a sling that was supported by a crane. The intravenous drips continued from the moment we arrived, right up to her death. She must have received some 70 bottles at least. Nothing the vets did seemed to help. The vets in a last ditch attempt to help her, took a blood sample to check for TB. Even that takes 3 days and the weekend didn't help, since the lab is then closed. This means 5 days till we could be certain what was happening. Unfortunately Phi KhunTong didn't have 5 days of life left in her. When I arrived back at the camp, the owner pulled me aside and told me that my elephant had died. I was in tears for a long time after that. The other mahouts tried to encourage me and comfort me. They were wonderful in that respect.

What I had not been prepared for was that even after her death, Phi Khun Tong's spirit would still visit me on a regular basis. She was still worried about her beloved mahout. As her last mahout I did a "sangatan" at the temple for her. Elephants are the only animals that receive the same chanting from the monks that deceased humans receive, because they are considered a very high form of incarnation, closer to humans than most people know.
After 100 days of her death, we performed a ceramony at the elephant prayer house. This involves offerings of chicken, pig's head, fruits, sweets, water, an orange drink and a bottle of "Lau Kau" [a local alcoholic drink that is some 35% proof], as well as a packet of cigerettes.
After the ceramony had been completed, Phi Khun Tong's spirit rarely came any more. She was free now to enter her new world and I can only hope that now she is happy.