The elephant and ivory trade in Thailand (PDF, 800 KB) - Traffic

another ivory workshop “in the jungle” that manufactured trinkets of the kind found in Phayuha Kiri, which
he also sold at the Uthai Thani workshop-outlet. One of the other Uthai Thani workshops sent various ivory
and steel or silver items to the USA for sale in gun shops.
The equipment used in Uthai Thani to make these items is different from that employed to make the
Phayuha Kiri type items, thus there is a division of labour between the two types of craftsmen. The highquality
steel used for the knives and swords is imported from Germany and Sweden and the two largest
factories sell from websites on the Internet.
Only one of the buckle/knife/jewellery factories was found during a study in 2003, which at the time
employed only two craftsmen. During this survey in 2006, eight craftsmen were seen at work in a greatly
expanded workshop area and in 2008 the number had grown to 12. In total, eight similar workshops were
found in Uthai Thani, one in Chai Nat, one in Phayuha Kiri and three more were found in Bangkok. All
13 together employ approximately 45 craftsmen. One ivory carver works in Manorom, manufacturing
elaborate singhas and other items for Buddhist monks. Another jewellery workshop using ivory and gold
alloy was found in Bangkok, which supplied at least one shop in the Old Siam department store. All of the
ivory workshops supply retail shops in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Phuket and other tourist centres.
Three informants in Bangkok working in shops selling ivory confirmed that they could no longer obtain
worked ivory items from the craftsmen who supplied them in the past, as they had ceased working ivory.
When asked where these craftsmen worked they replied “Nakhon Sawan”, a term commonly employed for
Phayuha Kiri, which is in Nakhon Sawan Province. Other informants, both vendors and Bangkok ivory
craftsmen, stated that African ivory was either not available currently or was almost finished. This
information, if accurate, would indicate that ivory imports from Africa had ceased for some time and that
ivory stocks were running low. Whether all or most Phayuha Kiri craftsmen have stopped working ivory
due to a lack of raw material or other causes cannot presently be determined. One other ivory carver was
found at the Tha Prachan amulet market in Bangkok in 2008. He crafted small figurines and jewellery and
thought that he was currently the only one to do so in Bangkok.
In addition to the ivory workshops enumerated above, informants reported that there were ivory workshops
in Ayutthaya, Sukhotai and in Chantaburi on the eastern coast, but these locations were not visited.
Table 6 presents a summary of what is known about the development of ivory carving in Thailand.
On the basis of selective surveys and consultations, it was estimated that there were 50 to 60 ivory carvers
likely to have been active in February 2008, most of them in the Phayuha Kiri/Uthai Thani area.
The elephant and ivory trade in Thailand
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