Mr. Dang Nang Long is a M'Nong ethnic, (born in 1962), in Lien Son town, Lak district, known as the owner of the largest elephant fortune in the Central Highlands with 6 out of 36 remaining domestic elephants.
Childhood memories among elephants
Born into a family with a tradition of hunting and taming elephants, Mr. Dang Nang Long grew up surrounded by the sound of elephants trumpeting and fascinating stories about the symbolic animal of the Central Highlands.
His father, Dang Nang Nhay, owned dozens of large and small elephants, buying and selling them from Cambodia, Laos and many other places.
Although his biological mother forbade him from doing so because she feared danger, Mr. Long secretly followed his father and hunters to learn how to tame and train elephants. The techniques of pulling wood, pulling straw, and even hunting animals with elephants gradually became skills that he mastered.
“Buon Ya” (Tranh village) is where he often followed his elephants to pull thatch to roof houses for the villagers. The bundles of thatch, dozens of meters long, were tied with bamboo and attached to elephants to pull them from the vast fields of thatch grass.
Those memories nurtured a deep love in him, making elephants an indispensable part of his life.
Unforgettable memories with elephants
In his life with elephants, Mr. Long has many memorable stories. One time, he redeemed the male elephant Y Trut - which his family had sold to someone else.
When paying the ransom, the elephant’s owner insisted that Mr. Long confirm that he was the son of the previous owner. After he accurately described his parents, the old woman agreed to sell the elephant and sent her grandchild to take care of the elephant.
The stories of Y Trut and H'Kun, the pair of elephants he successfully mated, are also proof of Mr. Dang Nang Long's understanding and affection for elephants.
One night, after mating, Y Trut broke the chain and went to look for food, while H'Kun lay exhausted, making Mr. Long think that the female elephant had died. H'Kun's sudden awakening brought a smile of relief to him in the middle of the night.
However, later, both Y Trut and H’Kun passed away. Y Trut, the largest elephant in the Central Highlands, collapsed after bringing passengers safely to shore during a trip across Lak Lake. H’Kun had his tail chopped off by thieves for his hair, leading to his heartbreaking death a few years later.
Mr. Dang Nang Long has tried to redeem many elephants from others, maintaining the number of domestic elephants in his family to more than 10. However, Mr. Dang Nang Long cannot help but worry about the fact that the number of domestic elephants is decreasing.
Why can't elephants in the Central Highlands give birth? This is a question that always haunts Mr. Dang Nang Long. He believes that the lack of suitable habitat and poor support from humans are the main causes.
"For elephants to reproduce, they need to be free to mate in their natural environment, without being constrained by chains or social barriers," Mr. Long once shared.
However, it is worth mentioning that the complexity of procedures and the fear of economic loss make elephant owners not dare to release their elephants.
