Elephant Cemetery (Elephant Graveyard) at Lampang

Pang Khomnoi, Seedor Boonchoo and Pang Chanpaeng tomb markers at Pond 1 at Mae Yao National Reserve Forest. To honor the dead elephants we created a cemetary for them near the place they died.

"Elephant cemetery" or "Elephant graveyard": In forest areas these are places where elephants go to die. In ancient lore there was something mystical about these places. Actually, from our research we found that this was a fairly natural thing. Elephants, having six sets of teeth during their life span, normally die of malnutrition after their last set of teeth has worn out and it can no longer eat. Therefore, when the old elephant's teeth are worn, the elephant will seek a level place in the forest that has soft grass and plants which it can feed on and near a creek or pond as source of water. In due course it will die there. Since these optiomal locations for an old and ageing elephant may be few in a certain forests, most elephants in this stage will congregate to the same location and finally die in the same place. Humans who run into these locations are surprised to find a large number of elephant bones and call them "elephant cemeteries".

สุสานของ พังคำน้อย สีดอบุญชู และพังจันแปง ที่มูลนิธิฯ จัดทำขึ้นบริเวณสระ 1 เขตป่าสงวนแห่งชาติ แม่ยาว จังหวัดลำปาง