Temple elephants are a type of captive elephant that are kept in temples in Asian countries such as India and Sri Lanka. Elephants generally play an important role in the Hinduism and Buddhism cultures of South and Southeast Asia and are considered sacred. Temple elephants are usually wild animals, poached from wild herds at a young age and then sold into captivity to temples. Temple elephants usually take part in religious rituals or processions; believers also allow themselves to be blessed by them. However, sometimes a temple owns elephants that are not all used for rituals. At large religious festivals (e.g. in Thrissur Pooram), privately owned elephants which are considered particularly sacred due to special physical characteristics are also used. In the literature these are also referred to as temple or ceremonial elephants. In the early 21st century, experts and conservationists strongly criticised the keeping of captive elephants in temples, as the living conditions are usually problematic and the elephants have little opportunity to fulfil their natural needs. Others claim that elephants form a vital part of the socio-economic framework of many temple ceremonies and festivals in India, particularly in South India.
History In Hinduism, the elephant-headed god Ganesha exists as an embodiment of wisdom, scholarship and prosperity. The sacred white elephant Airavata is considered the ancestor of all elephants and plays a prominent role as the mount of the god Indra. According to Buddhist legends, the mother of the historical Gautama Buddha only became pregnant with him after seeing a white elephant in a dream; Buddha is also said to have been saved later by an elephant that was supposed to crush him. There are other myths in Hinduism in which elephants play an important role. As a result, not only are South and Southeast Asian temples often decorated with elephant sculptures, but living elephants are also kept in temples to bring good luck according to Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. In some temples, elephants have a special meaning in connection with a deity worshipped at this place. The tradition of keeping temple elephants is ancient, but it is not known exactly when it began. Despite the religious associations, elephants are said to have originally been used primarily to transport water from the nearest river to the temple; they had to stand near the temple during certain 'auspicious hours', but lived freely in the forest near the temple the rest of the time. It is only later that other ritual functions are said to have developed. Some researchers suspect that war elephants were once also housed in temples between battles (Ghosh, 2005) - this mainly related to temples with a tradition of male elephants, such as in the Indian state of Kerala.
India
Origin and general characteristics Important temples, especially in South India, keep their own temple elephants in the modern era, which are acquired either by purchase or as gifts. However, it is possible that elephants declared as a 'gift' to a temple at the end of the 20th or in the 21st century were actually acquired on the illegal black market. This was a common practice after India banned the trade in elephants in 1972 and the capture of wild elephants in 1982. Illegal elephant trade (e.g. in Sonpur Mela) continued until the present day (2024). Temples and festivals in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and other states were determined to be involved in the illegal elephant trade. According to Suparna Baksi Ganguly, founder of the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in Bangalore City, elephant babies or children are usually caught illegally in the northern forests of Assam, Bihar or Arunachal Pradesh and smuggled across several state borders to southern Indian states, utilizing corruption and bribes. Only very rarely has an elephant been explicitly "rescued" in a temple; conversely, maltreated elephants have to be rescued from temples more often. Elephants that are already born in a temple are extremely rare, as many temple elephants are kept alone and in isolation. These elephants have little or no contact with the opposite sex, and the reproductive capacity of female elephants in captivity is greatly reduced, especially if they are not comfortable. Furthermore, male elephants in musth - an important requirement for mating - are usually isolated and strictly chained. Furthermore, according to Richard C. Lair (1997) "Hindu temples ... have specific prohibitions against breeding". In 2009, there were no animals under 6 years of age among India's temple elephants, with most of them aged between 16 and 60 years old. In the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, mainly female temple elephants are found. In the age of social media, some of these elephants are particularly well-known or popular, such as in Tamil Nadu the temple elephants Andal (or Andaal) at the Srirangam (or Sri Ranganathaswamy) temple in Tiruchirappalli, Akila at Jambukeshwara temple in Tiruvanaikkaval or Mangalam at the Kumbeswara (or Kumbeswarar Kovil) temple in Kumbakonam (2024). In the southern Indian state of Kerala, traditionally male temple elephants are favoured, but they are more aggressive and can be dangerous, especially during intermittent musth periods. The Guruvayur Temple in the Thrissur district alone in 2009 had 54 bull elephants, plus 6 females, in 2019, there were 45 bulls, of which only 13 were used for rituals, according to Sangita Iyer.
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