The art of Touching an Elephant

The majority of us are blessed with the gift of sight. We take it for granted, without thinking how very lucky we are.

Imagine for a moment not being able to see, relying only on hearing and touch. Imagine being born blind, therefore not having any mental images stored for descriptive reference.

Imagine traveling to a foreign land, where your native tongue is not spoken and venturing to a place where elephants roam free and you can experience them up close, learning about them through touch.

Would you be afraid? Would you be excited?

For two years in a row we have had a very special group of teenagers from the Korean Art Association for the Blind who travel all the way from Korea to visit Elephant Nature Park, staying two days. They come from the Chungju Seongmo School for the Blind and their tour is titled “Touching an Elephant.” These students are training to be artists and are learning to ‘see by touch’ so that they can create works of art in various mediums.

Their stay at Elephant Nature Park included the group engaging in feeding the elephants, learning about them and having an up-close experience with Lek and Faa Mai.

During their close-up time, the kids felt Faa Mai to get an idea of what she looked like. Each teen focused on a certain body part.

The following day, the kids had an art project where they had to build an elephant, body part by body part using papier mache.

Upon returning to Korea they will put together the parts to create their version of an elephant.

Though lacking the ability to see, these kids are normal teenagers. Some are very confident and outgoing, while others are a bit shy. They all seemed to really enjoy their time in the park learning about the world’s largest land animal.

We owe a special thanks to the “Touching an Elephant” group for treating the ENP staff, overnight visitors and volunteers to an amazing Korean vegetarian buffet for dinner the night they stayed.

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