DokNgern (ดอกเงิน)

DokNgern’s name can be translated to mean Silver Flower. She was born in 2000 in Surin, and has spent part of her young life working in Pattaya as a street begging elephant. Her owner decided to teach her more tricks in order to bring in more money, so she was sent to elephant training school. The training was painful and resulted in many scars.

In November 2005, a team from Elephant Nature Park spotted DokNgern at the elephant festival in Surin. She was bleeding and looked very sad. DokNgern was displaying the agitated swaying motions typical of traumatized captive elephants. When Lek approached her in an attempt to help, she would not accept food. Scars on her forehead are evidence of physical abuse, yet this sort of behaviour shows the signs of deeper emotional and psychological scaring. Antoinette van de Water was also present at the festival. She resolved to buy DokNgern as part of Bring the Elephant HOME, a project which involved bringing two elephants across Thailand to Elephant Nature Park, while educating people about their plight along the way. This project also involved the purchase of a banana plantation, to provide for the elephants’ sustainable future. So DokNgern, along with an older elephant SriNuan, Antoinette’s team, and two mahouts from Elephant Nature Park, began their journey towards freedom at the end of 2005. Upon DokNgern’s arrival at the park in January 2006, she was greeted with fanfare and celebration.

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