ហាមយកឯកសារនេះទៅប្រើប្រាស់ដោយគ្មានការអនុញ្ញាត
រៀបរាងដោយៈ លោក ឯក ច័ន្ទដារ៉ារិទ្ធ
Firstly, it is said that there are two kinds of elephant species, mountain
elephant and Roneam elephant or Treng elephant ,and there are also two ways of
catching elephant.
The mountain elephant, is big and head is taller than body, is found area of
mountain provinces such as kampot, Kampong speu, Pousat province... one
of the elephant species is called Damrey Roneam or Damrey Treng, this kind of
pachyderm is small, head is as high as body’s level and have been seen in
kampong Chnang, Kampong Thom province and along the Tonle Sap river.
Normally, the small elephant can be domesticated, is caught and the big species
is rear to catch. The elephant has to be catch is called Baras. Elephant men
are required to seek permission from the provincial governor and pay tax before
catching elephant. A permission letter issued by the provincial authority is
indicated with elephant catcher’s name, number of elephant, validity for 3
months from the issued date and prohibited to kill elephant, or can kill
elephant in case of strongly attacked by the elephant which is the catchers can
not defend themselves. if the elephant is killed, the catchers has to bring
task and feet to nearby authority to be reported for their complaint. When
elephant is caught, the catcher has to take elephant to the local authority to
be register for their own elephant identification and set the price for selling
elephant and catcher has to pay tax to authority for the national budget.
How To Catch Elephant
The elephant is caught during the dry season from the month of Meak to month of
Pisakh. Before going out to catch elephant, Mors (elephant catchers) are
to gather from 10 people up. When the permission letter is granted, the Mors
have to prepare food and other
instruments such rice, dry fish, smoked fish, fish past ( Prahok), salt,
plates, cooking pot ( clay pot is not be taken because it is fragile) and set
the abstinence to their wives. The abstinence set by The Mors for
their wives as below:
-Not to have
adultery
-Not to use fingers
take rice from pot
-Not to put big
spoon on the edge of the pot
-Not to comb and to
have hair-cut at night
-Not to clean the
dust from the betel trunk
-Not to tickle or
knuckle
If
the wives of the Mors do not follow this regulation, their husbands
would be dangerous or die. Then, The Mors have prepared all instruments
for catching elephants such as ropes, Brakams, hooks, axes,
kravil(ring)...............They load these materials and food on The
Thneak( bull elephant used for catching wild elephant), while travelling to
the forest, when they arrive at forest, all these staff load under the belly of
The Thneak instead because it is easy to move through the forest and in
case of encountering a herd of wild elephants. The Mors and Kongveals(elephant
kepper) have to choose a good day to overcome evils, then they dare to go out.
Some areas, elephant hunters do ritual offerings to spirits of Mrenh-kongvil
and Neak-Ta Bongbot(land ancestors) for granting permission to access to the
forest and success.
The
MrenhKongvil ritual ceremony is performed with 1 Proteas, a pair of water
containers, 1 Kantoung, 1 Sneng Phlom( horn used for blowing), hook, 8
Chroms,....5 pieces of betel leaves, 5 pieces of betel nuts, 5 cigarettes,
sweet for left and right site, and white and red skirts. They can leave, when
the offerings already made, Some of The Thneaks mark with a few swollen
places on them which are hit with The Kong by The Mor in advance for the reason that when they chase
and fight wild elephants, the Mor hit the swollen place to push the
Thneak run faster and catch up wild elephants. each Thneak, there is a Mor
sitting on the back and holding a head of The Thneak, he is waiting to
catch wild elephants with his Prokam, as for the Kongvil sits on the hip
and responsible for the rest of works.
When the hunting stop, The Kongvil have to collect all elephant-catching
materials and keep them at shelter called Thneus or Toub which is built about 3
or 4m from the ground in order to keep them away from the wild dogs (Chke
Trabeng). The shelter is to be built about 100 or 150m out of the village.
The pregnant woman is prohibited to pass this shelter in the front side,
because it could harm to unborn baby.
For elephants hunting, it takes from 10 up to 20 days walking in the forest,
sometime there is not a herd of any elephants is found.
Going to the forest, The Mor has more power than Kongvil. He has
to prepare a place for Mor to sleep and keep sack of rice at the feet of
The Mor and he sleep at the Mor’s feet too. kongvil has to
respect Mor strongly. When he catch any wild animal such as turtle,
large lizard, he has to give eggs to The Mor and he can eat only meat.
During sleeping, when there is something happed, Mor wake up Kongvil
by touching him with his toes because using finger to wake him up, when they go
hunting, wild elephant will attack The Thneak elephant. The Thneak elephant can
be chosen from the male or female or bull elephant. While taking bath in the
forest, Mor is not allowed to rub the dirt from his neck and wrists or
clean the dust with scarf because it is believe that the Kongvil can fall off
from The Thneak elephant by the wild elephant’s attack.
All the Mors try to listen screaming of elephants carefully along the
stream and valley where elephants can drink water, so that they can find them.
When they know habitat of elephants, they rust to cook and have food because it
is believe that the fighting and hunting keep them busy, so that there is no
time to have food. After having meal, they keep all staff under the elephant
and start going to find wild elephants.
When they find wild elephants, they make the Thneak elephants to gallop to a
herd of about 40 to 60 elephants and shout loudly so as to frighten them. While
those wild elephants run away from their herd frighteningly, the Mors
start throwing ropes to catch young elephants which is favorite for them, ( do
not catch a baby , it maybe die, not big, it is too strong, takes a medium
one). When the young elephant is caught in a rope, the Kongvil throw a bunch of
this rope to the ground, then he jump off to take the other end of the rope to
tie the tree trunk. The end of rope is tie with a hook made of buffalo’s horn.
It is not made of iron or wood because it can break. When the wild elephant is
caught with this rope, elephant will pull this rope with the buffalo hook to
get stuck with foot of the tree so that the elephant can not move far.
The other panic-stricken elephants are
not agree to allow the hunters to catch their young baby, so they return to
attack against the hunters in order to free their baby from the rope’s hook.
Meanwhile, Mor jump up his elephant with his sword and to attack wild elephant.
As for the Kongvil(mahout), he hits his elephant to chase the wild elephants to
run away. The Mor(catcher) can note that if a captive elephant try to escape
from the captivity when it run until he fall, the catcher know that this
elephant is too weak and going to die, so the catcher has to sell this
elephant.
Generally, catcher and mahout have to catch 3 elephants, one is for catcher,
one is for mahout and other one is for owner of elephant used by a catcher and
mahout. The duty of caring baby elephants is looked after by the
Kongvil(mahout), 2 or 3 times a day, he rides his elephant to lead baby
elephants to wash and drink water.
it
is very difficult to bring these wild baby elephants from the forest to a
village because of the separation from their herd and their family.
When they arrive at their village, elephant hunter withdraw abstinence from his
wife and order Kongvil(mahout) to find wood for making A-Nha or Sanlung for
domestication of wild elephants. These wild elephants are captive and starve
them for a few days, so that they become weak and can be domesticated. Beside,
these elephants are trained to understand the language as below:
Hav-Hav: Stop
Don-Don:
move back
Chhaun-Chhaun:
raise front feet
Troum
:
bend down
Dak:
kneel hind
feet
Dai:
don’t pull
Kan:
pull, hold, catch
When these elephants understand these words, Chabchoeung ceremony is held. (
ceremony for give a name to elephant).
According to Mr Daung Ouch, a former chief of commune in Prek Kambas district,
Takoe province had been seen for 50 years ago. The Chabchoeung is perform with
5 Chrom, Sinkhad rice put in 4 Kantoung, 4 Slathor( betel nut) and 4 plates
written with name of elephant. Elephants are kept near ritual place. The
catcher burns incenses to pray that:
Today is an auspicious day, we need to name elephants, if any name brings
good luck to the owner, we pray for help from The Great Magic Power of spirits
of village, Land, Nakta, Mrenh-Kongvil who protecting land, lake, and this
territory, let these elephants step on their name plate.
After praying 3 times, elephants are led to the Proteaksin( go around) the
ceremony for 3 times. Each elephant is named from the Name Plate which is
step by elephant, such as A-Chheab, A-Sdor, A-Kanlong, Mekramom...and a part is
also help. If any one at the ceremony does not joint the meals with them, later
elephant is sick, this person is blamed for not accepting their pleasure. This
is how the Giving Name ceremony is made.
In Pousat province, this ceremony is performed similar to the wedding ceremony.
This ceremony is called Sen Pdach Prey for giving the name to elephant. The
name of each elephant is not from Kantoung or Slak( name plate), it is given by
the wife of a catcher who is favorite the name. And performance of the prayer
is also different.
The ritual offerings of the prayer are Baseipakthem, Perot, a pair of SlaThor,
5 candles, 5 incenses, sweet, food for the left and right, pleated skirt,
chicken for making soup, a bottle of wine and blessing ceremony to chase bad
luck.
How To Hunt Roneam or Treng Elephant
According to Mr Meas Ham, a former district chief of KampongThom province
said that hunting Roneam or Treng elephant is made during the rainy season,
especially during Roneam forest( thick low forest) is flooded and elephants
move from this flooded area to
high land area which is not flooded. During the dry season, those
elephants return from high land for finding green grass along the river. it is
not to catch elephants during this season for the fear that elephants could be
in panic to step on their farm. They wait until the rainy season, the Roneam
forest will be flooded, then will catch elephants.
Hunting the Roneam elephants is also seek permission and it is differnent only
the way of hunting. There is no taught abstinence; there is only no argument between
catcher
and catcher because the caught elephant will not has no long life. During
catching elephant, every one in the village gathers to see this activity for
their entertainment. They are happy to see the evens except for generous people
who have a pity and feel very sad. Generally, the Roneam elephants stay
together about 100 up to 200 depending on a small or big herd of elephants.
Villagers takes their turn to petrol the path of elephants used to walk. When
they see elephants walking up to higher area, they ring Trolouk( animal bell)
and burn torch to panic these elephants to go back to lower area. When water
raises, from 100 up to 150 catchers take boats and bring along with food and
ProtProkam ( a kind of elephant catching instrument) to ambush elephants by
basing each place in row for about 20 people from low to deep flooded area.
They chase elephants from shallow water area to the deep water place where
boats are docked, then they get on boats and shouting loudly to panic those
elephants. Those elephants are frighten and screaming, Paddlers paddle to get
close to them and catchers start hunting them with their instruments to get
medium elephants. They tie them to trees and keep them to move away freely. For
those who got elephants, can have food, the rest who have not yet caught
elephants, still continue to catch them, in hope that these elephants going to
deeper water area. During hunting, if catchers chasing closely to those
elephants, these elephants can attack and hit boats to sink causing peddler and
catchers to swim. Catchers do not give up and they swim to catch the boat and
continue to fight and capture elephants. The caught elephants are kept there
for a few days, hunters take turn to keep an eye on them. Then, domestic
elephants are used to accompany those wild elephants to village. Other method
of training are made as the same as the mountain elephant. Sometimes, for each
time, they can catch from 10 to 20 elephants and some also died during the
attack.
Morthav ( The Master of Hunter )
The Morthav is similar to Barku ( Brahmin pries), a son of The Morthav is a
successor, when the Morthav died.
Although a successor of The Morthav is too young, he is required to
train as Morthav to be a successor of Morthav’s family. It is not allowed to
choose a successor of The Morthav from other family. There are 2 co-Morthavs (
left and right ) under the supervision of The Morthav. These co-Morthavs are
not required to have succession from the father to a son, any Morthav who is
more qualified knowledge of how to do the Morthav can be assign as Left or
Right Morthav.
In Posat province, Morthav is a master of mahout and elephant keeper. In the
month of Mek, they always do a ceremony of Loeung Preah Kambet Sdam ( right
sacred knife), which is a magic object keeping by Morthav. It is silmilar way
to the Arak students or Memots
performing the ceremony of Loeung Roung Leang Krou (washing the master)
.
Until the season of Loeung Krou Kambet Sdam, the left and right mahout
successors set the date to inform all Mors, Tramaks, Kongvils who are under
their power to bring Thneaks, Baras and Proatprakam with them to do annually
the traditional ceremony of Loeung Preah Kambet Sdam and build a ritual
platform near the Preah krou kambet Sdam’ shrine ( shrine which is used to keep
sacred knife).
On the day of the entering shrine ceremony, all Mor, Tramak, Kongvil,
Baras, Thneak and the Mor’s attendants gather. in the afternoon, the
procession ceremony is made, the Preah krou Kambet Sdam is taken from a shrine
to to do the Proteaksin for 3 times a round the new shrine, then install it on
a new fine wooden shrine where offerings are made traditionally such as
Chumcha, betel nuts, left and right Baisei, Houl Prei skirt, cakes, food,
fruits, banana, sugar can, Pe-Roat, one
Kantoung with rice , one Kantoung with Nhoamplear food are performed the
same as the performing of the Pisnuka or Krung-Pearli as well. Morthav wears
white dress. A band of live music is performed for the whole night.
The next morning, when left and right Mor finished his prayer to get rid of bad
spirit from a sacred knife, this sacred knife is pulled out from its sheath to
predict the village fortune. Mor opens a pack of skirts, a pack of Prei, a pack
of Satei, a pack of Kammanhei. Sometimes, rice seeds, beans, sesame
seeds, or ant’s eggs are found in side this pack. The sacred knife is pulled
out from its sheath and hold it down ward with blade facing the Mor, then put
it in the a water bawl nearby and examine this sacred knife carefully again.
They take a note that when this knife is pulled out from a cover it is loose or
tight, sometime they can see rusted blade, nicked blade or blood stained blade,
or it is just sharpening recently, then Mor can predict according to these
notes.
Then, all of Mors start sharpening sacred knife and insert it in a cover,
install it at a shrine with music performance.
The performance of elephant hunting is made by left and right Mors successors.
There are a herd of Baras and Thneaks, they are kept separately about 50m from
each other. Trameak(mahout) ride on Baras ( wild elephant) and Mor and Kongvil
ride on Thneak ( domestic elephants) holding Protprakam. This activity is made
the same as the real hunting. this performance is made for 3 or 4 times for
their entertainment, the audiences cheer and applaud happily, then they drink
cheerfully.
According to the report by Mr Daung Oun, former of You Kbat of Loloksar, Bakan
district, Posat province. In 1950, he was still alive, he was a member of code
of traditional conduct, said that since 1906-1907 there is no longer respect to
Morthav, left and right Mor successors by the Mors because these families are
disappeared gradually. Only women are left and have a short performance of this
rite.
The Elephant Hunting
Elephant is a large land animal with 4 feet which is considered by the ancient
Khmer as important animal for warfare, transportation, especially for a
heavy stuff transportation such as pulling tree trunk.
Therefore, elephant hunters dear to struggle for catching elephant, but he is
not afraid because he believe in his ability and for his livelihood.
Basing on the ability is a reasonable factor, important way is the
abstinence. Those people have many
believes which are different conditions for this abstinence. The abstinence is
only practiced by these hunters, but their wives also follow this abstinence.
The participation from their wives for the abstinence is the most important
factor because it causes them to die or success.
Abstinence
The instruction of abstinence must be followed by the wife while the husband is
going to hunt as belows:
●
Not allow to move sharing pillow and mat.
●
Not allow anyone to get close to and torch
sharing mat and pillow.
●
Not allow to put a big spoon on the edge of pot
●
Not allow to soak a big spoon in a pot
●
Not allow comb
●
Not allow to insult the other, even, their own
child.
