THE 2011 KING'S CUP ELEPHANT POLO TOURNAMENT
September 5 - 11, 2011
At Anantara Golden Triangle Resort, Chiang Rai
Spectator entrance is free.
The King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament is a charitable event that raises money for the benefit of all Thailand's elephants.
The highly popular event will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and will be moving to the royal seaside town of Hua Hin in Thailand.
The event which will bring the best of the last decade of the popular sporting event will take place from September 5 to September 11 and promises to have nail-biting action both on and off field.
Now in its tenth year the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament has gone from a small two-day event with six teams into a week-long extravaganza, which in 2010 featured 12 teams from four continents, encompassing 40 players from at least 15 countries.
In Thailand, the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament was first launched in Hua Hin by Anantara Resort in 2001. During the first five years of the tournament, the event took place in the Royal seaside town of Hua Hin. In 2006, the tournament moved to Golden Triangle and was hosted by Anantara Resort Golden Triangle.
Elephants are a key symbol of Thailand’s history, and nothing but utmost respect is given to the pachyderms and all proceeds of the tournament are used to ensuring their welfare, sustenance, employment, mahout training and medical treatment provision.
Through its own Elephant Camp located within the grounds of the Anantara Resort Golden Triangle, the property's focus on the future of Thailand's pachyderm population forms an integral part of the resort's operations on an ongoing basis. Resident Elephant Camp Director, John Roberts, worked closely with the Thai government's Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang to develop Anantara's camp as an elephant sanctuary and continues to work with them on several 'big picture' conservation projects.To date the tournament has raised over US$300,000 primarily for the National Elephant Institute, which provides medical care, sustenance, employment, and mahout training to Thailand’s elephant population. In recent years, the funds were used to custom build and run an elephant ambulance as well as provide housing at the Centre’s elephant hospital allowing it to offer free accommodation as well as medical treatment to any sick elephants in Thailand; these funds also provided a mobile veterinary centrifuge for their mobile elephant clinic. Proceeds from the 2009 and 2010 tournaments have been used to ‘rescue rent’ five street elephants to be trained in occupational therapy as part of a joint Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Chiang Mai University project investigating the benefits of using elephants to treat Autism.
It is estimated that Thailand has around 3,600 domesticated elephants and 1,500 wild elephants. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) fully endorses the King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament, having identified it as one of the country’s prime annual special events. It will take place on grounds adjacent to Anantara Hua Hin Resort & Spa, and spectator entrance is free.
BENEFITS OF ELEPHANT POLO
Since its inception in 2001, the King's Cup Elephant Tournament has built up a reputation as a not-to-be-missed event that attracts people from around the world to enjoy a unique week of sport in the most breathtaking settings Thailand has to offer.
But there is a serious purpose too. This event is crucial in raising much-needed funds to help conserve Thailand's elephants and their heritage. This important work is carried out in association with the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (TECC) and the National Elephant Institute (NET) — two government initiatives that have been endorsed by His Majesty The King of Thailand.
Through the generosity of participants and spectators at the lively annual auction and during the tournament, Anantara Resorts has raised US$300,000, much of which has been used to care for more than 60 elephants and their mahouts at the TECC in Lampang. Three pick-up trucks have also been donated for the transportation of elephant fodder and staff. And, in addition, individual polo teams hold fundraising events that help other elephant projects including the protection of Thailand's wild elephants.
In 2006, the proceeds from the tournament were used to custom-build an elephant-sized ambulance that has been donated to the NEI for use at their hospital providing free veterinary and in-patient care for any Thai elephant.
Minor International, owner of Anantara Resorts, has set up its own elephant charity — the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (www.helpingelephants.org) — that takes a unique holistic approach to rescuing elephants which otherwise face a bleak life scraping a living in the tourist areas of big cities.
When a contact is made to rescue an elephant, the "package" is extended to its mahout and his whole family. This approach ensures that rescuing one elephant does not put another in danger. To date eight otherwise street dependent elephants have been taken permanently from the streets and their mahouts given a chance at an alternative, more elephant-friendly, lifestyle.
In addition, the King's Cup Elephant Polo tournament gives 20 more street elephants the chance of a two-week 'holiday' in a calm, forested environment. It also ensures that they receive possibly their only-sustained veterinary attention of the year as well as an abundance of high-energy food.
The welfare of the elephants used in the polo tournament is paramount with strict rules in place to ensure that the pachyderms are well cared for at all times. Thanks to Thailand's advanced micro-chipping programme for all legal domesticated elephants and research into DNA lagging we guarantee, by imposing our "No micro-chip, No game" rule, that all our elephants have been domestically bred and not wild caught or smuggled in from neighbouring countries.
The chosen elephants must be young, preferably under 20 and still at an age that they will thoroughly enjoy the sport — just watch baby elephants chasing soccer balls in the elephant camp at Anantara — but big enough to carry a player with ease.
Each elephant is limited to a maximum of two games — that's less than half an hour — of play per day, with at least 90 minutes out in the forest, the river or eating a well balanced meal between each 14-minute game. Due to the nature of the game those 14 minutes of exercise are generally spread over a whole hour — even in a game with no stoppages there is a 15-minute break between halves.
For more information on King's Cup Elephant Polo, please visit www.anantaraelephantpolo.com Anantara Resort Golden Triangle is located 60 km north of Chiang Rai’s international airport.
For enquiries and reservations, please call
Tel: + 66 (0) 5378 4084, (0) 2477 0760
E-mail: infogt@anantara.com
Web site: www.anantara.com
Credit: Tourism Authority of Thailand (www.tourismthailand.org)
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