The King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament 2010 Returns on March 22, 2010!

This year’s event is once again sponsored by Audemars Piguet one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious watchmakers. The event will see a number of teams go trunk to trunk to win the coveted King's Cup trophy.

An opening parade and blessing ceremony will be held in Chiang Saen town on the frst day of event to showcase the culture of the Golden Triangle region with northern traditional-style dancers, hill-tribe villagers in traditional costume, elephant spirit men (Khru Ba Yai), and colourfully decorated pachyderms. The parade will mark the kick-off of the weeklong competition held on the banks of the Ruak River, which divides Thailand from Burma.



Elephants lining up at the start of a King’s Cup Elephant Polo match.

In just eight years the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament has gone from a small two-day event with six teams into a week-long extravaganza, which in 2009 featured 12 teams from four continents, encompassing 40 players from at least 15 countries.

Through its own Elephant Camp located within the grounds of the Anantara Resort Golden Triangle, the property’s focus on the future of Thailand’s pachyderm population forms an integral part of the resort’s operations 0n an ongoing basis. Resident Elephant Camp Director, John Roberts, worked closely with the Thai government’s Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang to develop Anantara’s camp as an elephant sanctuary and continues to work with them on several ‘big picture’ conservation projects.

To date the tournament has raised over US$250,000 for the National Elephant Institute, which provides medical care, sustenance, employment, and mahout training to Thailand’s elephant population. This has been distributed as cash, in the form of pick up trucks and a custom built elephant ambulance. In recent years, the funds were used to run the ambulance as well as provide housing at the Centre’s elephant hospital allowing it to provide free accommodation as well as medical treatment to any sick elephants in Thailand. These funds also provided a mobile veterinary centrifuge for their mobile elephant clinic. Proceeds from the 2009 project have been used to ‘rescue rent’ fve street elephants to be trained in occupational therapy as part of a joint Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Chiang Mai University project investigating the benefts of using elephants to treat Autism.

It is estimated that Thailand has around 3,600 domesticated elephants and 1,500 wild elephants. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) fully endorses the King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament, having identifed it as one of the country’s prime annual special events. It will take place in the grounds of Anantara Resort Golden Triangle. Spectator entrance is free.