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

Appendix 2. ISO Country Codes used in Table 2
CA
CH
CN
DE
DK
HK
ID
IL
JP
KR
LK
MY
PH
SE
US
Canada
Switzerland
China
Germany
Denmark
Hong Kong (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Peoples’ Republic of China)
Indonesia
Israel
Japan
Republic of Korea (South Korea)
Sri Lanka
Malaysia
Philippines
Sweden
USA
Appendix 3. History of Ivory Carving in Phayuha Kiri
The following account is based on interviews made in 2003 with 85-year old (in 2003) Gong Yangthan, his
46-year old son Somkit Yangthan in Manorom near Nakhon Sawan, and Boonyoung Hoonpah, a
community leader in Phayuha Kiri who started carving ivory in 1957.
The first person to carve ivory commercially outside of Bangkok was Boonrod Lohartrakool. He came
from Roi Et Province in the north-east of Thailand. He was a Buddhist monk for nine years in Manorom.
When he was a monk he carved temple doors, painted temple walls and made clay sculptures of Buddha.
Luang Paw Derm (“Senior Monk Derm”), a famous monk in Chai Nat Province about 25 km from
Manorom, accumulated a large quantity of tusks from temple elephants that had died. He requested that
the artistically gifted monk Boonrod carve Buddhas from the tusks. Boonrod taught himself to carve ivory
and carried out the senior monk’s request.
When Boonrod left the monkhood he married Gong Yangthan’s sister and they started farming, but he still
received orders to carve ivory from monks. Farming paid little so he moved to Phayuha Kiri in 1937 to
stay with his wife’s sister’s family (Gong’s sister) to carve ivory full time. There were no other ivory
carvers in the small village at that time. Gong moved there in 1939 when he was 18 and learned ivory
carving from Boonrod. The main customers were Buddhist monks, who bought the items to give as gifts
and sell in the temples. The only other people carving ivory in Thailand at this time were in fine arts
schools in Bangkok. Gong was a Ramayana dancer and Khon mask maker (worn in the Ramayana dance)
and eventually taught that craft to students, as well as ivory carving. As more monks requested ivory
Boonrod’s wife learned to carve as well, and then during World War II they taught others to carve, mainly
the Ramayana students, to satisfy increasing demand.
Boonyoung Hoonpah moved to Phayuha Kiri in 1953 to set up a printing shop, but switched to ivory
carving in 1957 because it was more lucrative. Boonrod taught him to carve. The monks wanted mainly
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