Local traditions and culture in Khoueng Xaignabouli

Sayabouly province in general is famous for herds of wild (and domesticated) elephants and in Lao imaginery that's the place in the country with most of them. As their numbers are rapidly declining anywhere we hope that trend will stop. We wouldn't want to imagine former Lan Xang (Million of elephants) kingdom without them, would we? Some NGO groups in the country are working hard to inform public on elephant and other threathened wildlife species issues and ecology; activities like Elephant festivals and few days long elephant trekking through wilderness and villages of Sayabouly are impressive but even more important is continual education of local population and it concerns every patch of society as they still largely depend on nature.

Here most of domesticated elephants are used for working in forest, in timber industry. With their strong bodies they can pull the trees through difficult terrains without need to use other kind of machinery or tractros. That is very hard and dangerous work for both elephant and man. A lot of elephants in past were sold to Thailand and some of them became vicitims of illegal hunt. Deforestation is another big ecological concern for them and again for local societies who face degradation of soil and loss of water. Without forests many traditions will vanish as it already happens in large parts of these districts and elsewhere in Laos.

In Thongmyxay district there still happens to be many elephants for use in forests and you'll be able to see them sometimes near villages. However, most of them are kept in forest during the day for feeding and taking rest as it would be too hot elsewhere. Lao can tell many stories about them and they seem to be really proud of the elephants.

Traditionally women here are discouraged from being mahouts and even riding an elephant is thing local woman would not do. That thing is reserved for foreigners, so that's may explain question why women are not seen in command of elephants. Those things will probably change but woman here doesn't like to be in centre of attention of the whole village - for now.