Wall Street Journal Article on Elephant Polo

[Guest guest]

*http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/polo/wsj.html*

*Elephant Polo Is the Moguls' Sport

For Both Pros and Novices in Nepal*

 

*By JONATHAN KARP *

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

January 16, 1998

 

MEGHAULI, Nepal -- When princes in Mogul India created elephant polo in the

18th century, they married two rich South Asian traditions: a reverence for

elephants and an ancient Persian sport spread across India by descendants of

Genghis Khan's marauding Mongol horsemen.

 

Today, in the jungle foothills of the Himalayas, the Hindu kingdom of Nepal

hosts a modern version of the game each winter, but it is played by a

different sort of mogul.

 

*2002 Connection:*

Celestis Solicits

Alf's Ashes <http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/02/07/1bkk/part2.html#21>

 

Alf Erickson, heir to a bread fortune and a collector of corkscrews, cheers

from the sidelines as his team runs up the score against Steven Swig, a

wealthy San Francisco lawyer who, when he gets home, plans to blast some of

his father-in-law's cremated remains into space on a U.S. rocket. Dropping

in shortly will be action-film star Steven Seagal, Hollywood's first

reincarnated Tibetan lama. (He was proclaimed such last year by a Tibetan

monk.)

 

The 16th annual World Elephant Polo Association championship is off and

running -- sort of.

 

" We need to send in dung control, " shouts Margie McDougal, who works for the

event's promoter. Two Nepalese men with burlap bags dash onto the field to

collect a jumbo deposit, lest an even bigger [image: Polo in Progress (17771

bytes)]pileup occur. Suddenly, the pair, trapped amid flapping ears and

thundering feet, are dodging one of the day's few well-hit balls.

 

Towering overhead, jet-setters in jodhpurs, knee-high leather boots, pith

helmets and Harrods riding gloves flail about on four-ton beasts, swinging

8-foot-long bamboo mallets. Some players are touching their first trunk not

made by Louis Vuitton.

 

The spectacle is prime entertainment for barefoot villagers who have

gathered six deep around the field to gawk and gamble. They giggle at the

awkward teamwork between pachyderm, player and mahout, the elephant's

lifelong trainer who sits on its neck and drives it with wild hoots, an iron

bar, kicks to the ear and the pelvic thrusts of a rodeo champ.

 

" To play elephant polo, " says Jim Edwards, 61 years old and the tournament's

founder and promoter, " you need unarthritic hips, a well-padded bottom and a

hip flask at all times. "

 

A fellow polo-playing Briton broached the idea for the event over a drink at

a club in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 1981. Mr. Edwards, who has his own

elephant herd and has been organizing jungle safaris in Nepal since 1962,

thought his pal was joking until he got a telegram from him saying: " Have

long sticks and balls. You get elephants ready. "

 

Since then, the eight-team invitational tournament, held in one of the

world's poorest countries, has become the haunt of globe-trotters who can

afford the $5,000 entrance fee per team and the post-polo revelry at Mr.

Edwards's $400-a-night jungle lodge. This year's clique boasts aristocrats

from Nepal, India and Scotland, an Argentine-German baron and British Prince

Edward's private secretary.

 

As the dung collectors run for their lives on the field, Peter Prentice, a

British liquor executive, calls the play-by-play from the announcer's booth.

" That's a brilliant shot. It almost killed the cameraman and the

pooper-scoopers, " he tells the crowd of several hundred. Earlier, he set the

tone for the morning's competition by ordering four Bloody Marys over the

loudspeaker.

 

Along with Mr. Edwards, Mr. Prentice has helped revive a game first depicted

in Mogul-era miniature paintings of elephant-borne women, possibly royal

concubines, hitting balls with mallets. It resurfaced in India 50 years ago

when the maharajah of Jaipur organized a match during a pony-polo

tournament. " That was just stupid fun. This is serious, " says Mr. Prentice,

who captains the Chivas Regal team.

 

*First-Timers*

 

Forget the romance of elephants in Rudyard Kipling's South Asia.

Participants in the weeklong tournament are drawn by the novelty of playing

one of the world's fastest games on one of nature's slowest beasts. Most

know Mr. Edwards through elite polo or tobogganing circuits.

 

Not Steven and Mary Swig. These rookies discovered elephant polo on the

celebrity sports-event circuit. They won their place at a charity auction in

Puerto Rico, conducted by onetime child preacher Marjoe Gortner. " As a

former evangelist, Marjoe is a fantastic auctioneer, " says Mr. Swig.

 

Among Mr. Swig's other buys, he recalls against the backdrop of 21,000-foot

peaks: a Harley-Davidson fitted out by Louis Vuitton. " It's the only one in

the world, " says Mrs. Swig, a silk-underwear designer.

 

In a nearby tent sits Floridian Alf Erickson, from Fort Lauderdale, who gave

up a law career to indulge his passions: hot-air

ballooning<http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/balloon/index.html>,

Antarctic expeditions, his

corkscrews<http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/cork/index.html>-- a

world-class collection of 4,000 -- and elephant

polo <http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/polo/index.html>. " I don't take this

seriously, " says Mr. Erickson. " I take it obsessionally. "

 

His team, the Screwy Tuskers, is making its fourth appearance, and trying to

avoid another last-place finish. This year, Mr. Erickson's four daughters

politely kicked him off the team, scored more goals in one chukker, or

10-minute half, than they had in three previous tournaments combined, and

placed seventh, thanks to a sudden-death overtime win.

 

*Strong Incentive*

 

The loser, Mr. Swig, is upset. His elephant didn't move in the first half,

when he gave up six goals, and Mr. Swig suspects the problem with his mahout

is that he has been bought off. This year, hoping to prevent cahoots among

the mahouts, tournament organizers gave each driver, in addition to pay and

tips, 200 Nepalese rupees ($3.15) for every chukker he won. That's strong

incentive for someone who earns $35 a month. Mr. Swig isn't consoled.

 

Elephant-polo rules evolve. At first, the game was played on a 990-foot

field, as pony polo is. " But it took half an hour to get from one end to the

other, " says Mr. Edwards. They tried soccer balls, but the elephants kept

crushing them. A second mahout used to ride on the rump, but " the backswing

would knock the rear-gunner off, " he adds. To level the playing field, teams

swap elephants at half time.

 

Because of heavy rains, this year's tournament had to be truncated. The

field shrank to 70 meters from 100 meters, and each team fielded three

players on three elephants instead of the usual four, thus producing more

exciting, fluid action.

 

Showing finesse, Gurpal Singh taps the ball in a dribble as his grunting

elephant shuffles toward the goal in the championship game. Mr. Edwards's

team, packed with real polo players including Mr. Singh, upsets the

defending champs, Nepal's National Parks, 10-8. Knowing polo helps, but it

doesn't spare you embarrassing misses. " Horses are level, " says Mr. Singh.

" Elephants rise two inches when they inhale. "

 

*Seagal's Landing*

 

Mahouts insist that their gentle giants love to play. And Meghauli

villagers, basking in the celebrity glow, protested when Mr. Edwards

considered moving the venue. Their loyalty is rewarded when two helicopters

land at the airstrip next to the field.

 

Out steps Mr. Seagal, the brawny film star. Resplendent in a collarless

red-silk tunic, he is shadowed by his nutritionist, who frequently squeezes

a mystery fluid from a dropper into his glass. Mr. Seagal swigs, then spits.

 

The tournament is over, but he wants to play. Mr. Seagal daintily removes

his tunic, bead necklaces and rings, hands them to an aide and mounts.

Fawning bystanders offer him polo tips, but the martial-arts hero silences

them, saying: " I only did one thing in my life, and that was fight. I never

did sports. "

 

As the awards ceremony ends, participants are already looking ahead to their

next adventure. Mr. Edwards is planning a summer trip to Mongolia to

introduce equine polo in Genghis Khan's homeland. Mr. Erickson is ordering

leather chaps to upgrade his team uniform. And Mrs. Swig is negotiating to

buy her own elephant, which will ply the Nepalese jungle wearing an amulet

containing still more of her father's ashes.

 

<http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/home.html>

<http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/balloon/>

<http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/polo/>

<http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/cork/>

[image: Google] <http://www.google.com/search>

Search WWW Search corkscrew-balloon.com

 

comments

About This Site <http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/about.html> | Web Design

by Paul Fjelstad <webmaster