| Laithongrien Meepan
Laithongrien Meepan (back row 5th from the left) received the
Tan Khun Pan Din (Outstanding Social Contributors Award). Tan Khun Pan Din
Project has been held continually for four years. The project selects candidates
from various career fields whose creative works and profile are inspirational,
beneficial to, and recognized by the public in the long run according to the
MInistry of Culture, Thailand website.
Seventy-six outstanding social contributors, honoured by the Tan
Khun Paen Din 2010 project, posed for photos together during the
award-presentation ceremony at the Centara Grand Hotel on Thursday night. In
collaboration with various organisations, Nation Multimedia Group Public Company
Limited organised this project. Posted: 2010-11-12 16:53:23 in the Nation
Photo Gallery.
Laithongrien Meepan was born
in 1958. A qualified zoologist and with a Masters Degree in Community
Development, he is the Founder and Director of the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and
Royal Elephant Kraal Village and the Phra
Kochabaan Foundation. He has lived on site in the village with the elephants
overseeing and directing everything since its inception. He is one of
the world's foremost experts on Thai elephant history and culture.
Meepan is the largest private elephant owner in the world, with
over 150 elephants. He is the foremost world expert on captive
elephant breeding, having personally bred 40 calves successfully in
only 10 years through natural breeding. His expertise extends to training,
unique nutrition development and meeting the special needs of elephants of all
ages, character and temperaments including successful retraining of elephants
that have killed people, to live in free contact with humans.
Meepan personally researched and started a farm
to grow special food for elephants.
He specialises in training elephants for
films, including work with Jackie Chan and Oliver Stone. In addition he trains
elephants for theatre productions that include re-enacting elephant
fighting during war time. He was the consultant on the Blue Elephant, Thailands
first animation feature.
Meepan also advises the government departments on elephant
problems. This includes advice and solutions for street elephants, and wild
elephants that have been injured and require relocating and
rehabilitation.
Most importantly Meepan encourages the development of
mahouts and staff to raise the status of elephants and their keepers to the
noble position they once held in Thai society.
Laithongrien with Plai Kachathong
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