To people that live in Central Highland (commonly known as Tay Nguyen) in Vietnam, Elephant is a greatly precious animal. The daily life and activities of local individuals are mostly linked to the elephants that work as their close friends. In fact, it is found out that elephants actually assist the locals in working, traveling, and transporting on a daily basis. To honor the significance of the elephants, Tay Nguyen community celebrates a meaningful event annually which is called Elephant Racing Festival.

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What Is Elephant Racing Festival For?

Since elephants have been most famous for their loyalty and obedience for decades, they hold a significant role in Vietnamese folklore. Hence, it is not the big surprise to announce that this animal is very familiar to the Vietnamese in general. Especially, the images of elephants have been pictured in the normal daily life of Tay Nguyen Community. For the purpose of reflecting the bond between humankind and this friendly creature, Elephant Racing Festival is celebrated as one of the largest festivals in Tay Nguyen. This festival is held in the 3^rd lunar month on an annual basis.

To prepare for the big days, the villagers feed their close elephants with a wide array of food apart from grass, corns, sweet potatoes, sugar canes, bananas, and papayas. Since this creature is easy to feed, it is extremely smooth to make their stomach full before the festival. In addition, the elephants are allowed to take a rest. It means they don’t need to do any hard work in order to preserve their power or strength.

When attending the festival, myriad of festival participants decorate themselves with the most colorful and beautiful holiday clothes. So, where does the event take place? It is held in Don Village (Ban Don). The elephants from some villages will be gathered in the village. As its name has stated, this Festival is about the racing of elephants. Each time, there are 10 elephants running at the same moment for approximately 1 or 2 kilometers. Thus, the racing ground must be spacious enough to contain up to 10 elephants at one time. To enhance the atmosphere of the competition, the villagers also use “tu va”, a kind of horn.

The first elephant that reaches the appointed destination will be rewarded with a laurel wreath as a signal of victory. Then, it also enjoys the greatest performance with sugar canes and bananas from the villagers around. Once the race at Don Village is completed, the elephants continue moving to Serepok River for swimming competition. Additionally, they also take part in football and tug of war games. At the end of the festive day, the festival participants gather at Ban Don’s community house to enjoy feasting, drinking steam wine, and dancing in a rejoicing ambiance with the knockabout sound of gongs and drums.

Again, Elephant Racing Festival is held in the 3^rd lunar month. Its core target is to express the intimate bond between humankind and elephants. Hence, if you want to witness how the elephants run, swim, and play against the others, take participant in the Festival whenever you have free time.