Sep 106 min read

Events & Conservation: 6th Airavata Foundation gala to save the Kingdom's elephants

A not-to-be-missed event this Saturday 14 September 2024, the 6th Airavata Foundation Gala, aimed at raising funds to enable the foundation to continue its valuable conservation work on behalf of the Kingdom's elephants. For Cambodia Mag, Pierre-Yves Clais tells us a little more about this event.

Dance show organised by artist Belle last year

You are preparing your 6th gala for the foundation. Tell us a little about the programme.

This year marks increased recognition of our work by the government. Airavata is the only association in Cambodia that defends elephants in their cultural, national and historical context, and the government is very aware of this.

In fact, to paraphrase the President of the National Assembly, I would say that our work is a tribute to all the former Kings of Cambodia and to the Khmer ancestors. Elephants form part of a complex whole that is part of the soul of the country, and the evening ahead will reflect this commitment.

On Saturday 14 September, we will have the honour of having two ministers preside over the evening, His Excellency Neth Pheaktra for Information, as well as our Minister responsible for elephants: His Excellency Dith Tyna from the Ministry of Agriculture. There will also be H.E. Thang Khon, Chairman of the Olympic Committee.

Tell us about the guest artists and what's new since last year

After the success of the dance show organised by the artist Belle last year, we wanted to repeat the experience, but in a different way. This year, Belle and her traditional Cambodian dance troupe will meet European classical ballet.

Our daughter Camille, a classical dancer, will play the role of a traveller discovering the Cambodian forest, where she will meet Noëlle, then her mum and finally a mahout who will take her with him to follow the elephants on their morning walk. A little later, Belle will arrive, playing my wife Chenda, to introduce Camille to the spiritual world of Cambodian elephants.

As far as the Bokator show is concerned, this year we'll have the honour of having the national team itself, which promises to be of a very high standard!

Singer Sai will be performing two songs; Sai is an endearing and rather unusual character, as he is not only an artist, but also an accomplished sportsman. A long-distance runner, a few years ago he completed a tour of Cambodia in short strides to raise funds for the Kantha Bopha hospital. He is a young adventurer and, what I find particularly touching, a passionate motorcyclist!

Our two friends, the famous painters Nou Sary and Chhim Sothy, have prepared works especially for our evening, drawing their inspiration from the Khmer past and nature. As usual, they will be sold at auction

Finally, actress and dancer Mademoiselle Sin Youbin and her troupe will be presenting a show on the importance of elephants in the culture of the Ratanakiri minorities.

As every year, there will be a fashion show featuring Cambodian silk outfits made by the Danama company, with a modern twist this time: Mexican-style denim jackets in Ratanakiri ethnic fabrics. It's vital to come up with contemporary ideas that will create a market for these superb traditional weavings, which aren't always clear what to do with once you've bought them...

Fashion show with Cambodian silk outfits

Mexican-style denim jackets in Ratanakiri ethnic fabrics

The auction will also feature Cambodian silks with very rare patterns (Sot Pidhan) made exclusively for decoration, as well as bronzes of exceptional quality, the result of thousands of years of work and techniques that miraculously survived the war. This craftsman, with whom we've been working for some time now, is the embodiment of a Khmer genius that has survived the ages. It's as if we could now legally purchase works from the National Museum!

How is the Foundation doing today, financially and with regard to the elephants?

The Foundation has now reached a sort of cruising speed; with the help of our expert and friend Dan Koehl, we have put in place daily rules for the training and well-being of the elephants, and then the horrors of this last dry season, without a single bamboo to eat for the elephants, are now behind us, the forest is once again hospitable and food abundant. The problem is that this small forest, the last to survive in the immediate vicinity of Banlung, attracts a lot of covetousness!

First of all, there are those who are clearing it by burning it to make illegal fields, and then there are those who are digging dozens of deep mine shafts to find gold, which represents a serious danger to humans and elephants. And then, in the immediate vicinity of our centre, someone decided to sell off what didn't belong to him, namely the Katieng valley, which our elephants use every day along the river to go to the waterfall of the same name. After clearing what was left of the forest by burning it down, the new ‘owners’ planted manioc, insulted us and threatened our elephants with the worst reprisals if they dared to take their old route. After Bak Maï's death by poisoning three years ago, we take these threats seriously...

Fortunately, we can count on the support of the government! A secretary of state who was visiting to check on our work was able to see for himself the difficulties we are facing and referred the matter to the higher authorities, so we are very hopeful that order and law will be restored around the foundation.

The food resources offered by the Katieng forest are in fact essential for our elephants, as the only truly balanced diet for them comes from nature. Without it, they will also lose the ancestral knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation, as elephants know how to feed themselves according to their needs at the time and their age, and they also know how to treat themselves with plants, so much so that when an elephant starts to fall ill, we leave it alone in the forest for a few days, and generally that's enough. We only call the vet in serious cases.

Pierre-Yves Clais and baby elephant Noëlle

Our little Noëlle continues to do well and to delight us all; she now weighs over 650 kilos and is full of mischief. She recently ate all the flowers we had planted around our new bungalows and tore up a curtain that we never found. She also tore off the windscreen wipers and rear-view mirrors of a mine-clearing car parked in the forest. She also likes chasing motorbikes and smashing up the neighbours' furniture... Generally speaking, she's becoming more and more independent and daring. At night, her mum is tied up in the forest, but not her, so she sets off on solitary expeditions to the neighbouring fields, which she cheerfully destroys, forcing us to compensate the farmers financially, even those whose fields are theoretically in a protected forest zone...

What is likely to change his life radically, however, is the probable arrival of a little brother or sister. Her mum is in fact pregnant again; unfortunately, after a night of complications and bloody losses a few months ago, we don't know if she will be able to carry the pregnancy to term, but following the miracle of Noëlle's birth and survival in difficult circumstances, we can only be optimistic!

When my family and I set out to launch Airavata nearly ten years ago, we had no idea what an overwhelming responsibility and financial burden it would be! That's why we're so grateful to those who have joined us on the new board - their help is invaluable, and I'm thinking of actress Duong Zorida, DJ Hero, Mr May Vichet and Ms Sok Channda, CEO of MekongNet. All these people have a lot of work and responsibilities, but they have chosen to put their time, their skills and often their money at the service of a cause that brings us together and is beyond us, the preservation of a world on the verge of disappearing. Indeed, when we look objectively at the reality, with around sixty domesticated elephants remaining in the country, we can hardly be optimistic about the survival of this ancient world, and yet we continue to work, with heart and enthusiasm, because passion is contagious and it alone can move mountains!

You offer attractive partnerships with corporate partners, tell us a little more about that

Over the years, the annual Airavata Gala has become an eagerly-awaited event in Phnom Penh, a rendezvous for lovers of Khmer nature and culture as well as a time for socialising and having fun. Since the evening has been held at the Sun & Moon Riverside, we've been able to welcome over 400 people, with press and television present, which guarantees great exposure for our partners, and then the ‘networking’ does the rest!

What are your expectations for the next gala?

At the moment, the main thing is to plug the financial holes while we wait for tourism and ecotourism to pick up again in Ratanakiri.

The generosity of our friends who contribute and buy the works of art sold at auction and the merchandise displayed in the stands is fundamental to the future of our work!

And then there's the official launch of a new programme at the instigation of H.E. Neth Pheaktra, the Minister of Information, who wants to help us in every way he can. It involves an annual membership of Airavata, at three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. A number of our friends, having heard about our work and visited Airavata, immediately got on board and ‘took their card’, so now all we have to do is make the cards and send them little gifts.

Now, beyond raising funds to continue our conservation work, the aim of the evening is to showcase and perpetuate living arts. Cambodia must not be a museum, but a breeding ground for talent, a modern country embracing the future with both feet firmly planted in its culture and, of course, respecting its nature.