The word “mahout” is often misunderstood and misused
A mahout is an elephant rider, trainer, or keeper. Usually, a mahout starts as a boy in the family profession when he is assigned an elephant early in its life. They remain bonded to each other throughout their lives. (source Wikipedia)
The term derives from Hindi and means elephant keeper. In Thai the term is kwan chang and is often translated as “one who walks with an elephant“.
Traditionally, the role of a mahout passes down patrilineally along with ownership of a family’s elephants. Being a mahout was never very profitable: they were probably on a par with farmers. But historically mahouts were held in high esteem because they and their elephants were useful in times of war.
At Elephant Family Phuket we have 4 mahouts: Nong, Tao, Pin and Koi. They all care about our elephants. You find more about our Mahouts here, and about our elephants here.
