Buôn Ma Thuột's Thriving Elephant Culture in 1957

In the not-too-distant past, elephants were an important part of highland lifestyles, including use in cultural activities, agriculture.

Before they had achieved their current position of closely guarded endangered creatures, elephants had many roles in Vietnamese society. As glorified by the Trung sisters and Bà Triệu, two hundred years later, they were once important war machines. The Nguyễn lords in Huế even built a large arena to watch them battle tigers to the death. They have also been used for more peaceful, but certainly not stress-free, purposes. As the VND1,000 bill pays homage to, they were instrumental in 20th-century forestry efforts. Meanwhile, hundreds of domesticated elephants tamed from wild populations were adopted into highland communities to assist with agriculture and take part in important cultural activities.

Elephants were used for routine transportation along the dirt roadways.

Seasoned photographer John Dominis (1921 - 2013) documented this later use for LIFE magazine. These photos from 1957 reveal how elephants were an everyday occurrence in an Ê Đê community in Buôn Ma Thuột. Saddled with baskets and chairs, they transported people and materials in the remote village while taking part in celebrations and gatherings. Tended to trainers and accustomed to the rhythms of daily life, they appear little different from domestic cats or dogs.

Elephants grow to great sizes but never outgrow their curiosity.

Economic development, as well as technological, ecological, and societal change, in tandem with evolving understandings of human-animal relations, have all made these scenes one sof the past. But viewing them allows us to more deeply understand the gentle giants that acted as intermediaries between the wild and developing world. 

An elephant arriving at a traditional Ê Đê stilt house.

Elephants at work would have been a familiar sight in this village, little different than a buffalo set to plow.

Elephants were enlisted in cultural performances. 

The few hundred elephants that remain in Vietnam are now allowed off the roads and out of the chains to stomp around in the forests freely. 

[Photos via RedsVN]