Medal - Surin Province ND

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Scenes from the Elephant Roundup festival.

Lettering: THE ELEPHANT ROUND-UP

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The provincial seal is an image of Indra atop his celestial white elephant, Airavata which is based on the design found on a famous Khmer temple in the province. Both Khmer temples and elephants are commonly found in Surin.

"Surin province - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surin_province

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The Surin Elephant Round-up is a cultural festival held every year in Surin Province, Isan, Thailand. Usually the event is organized during the third week of November on the weekend. The festival has its origins in the royal hunts which were conducted in Surin Province during medieval times. The indigenous residents of Surin, the Kuy, have been traditional practitioners of corralling elephants and training them as working animals. When the Ayutthaya Kingdom came into power these hunts were converted into a public extravaganza and wild elephants were replaced with tame ones. The festival, in its contemporary form, was first organized in the 1960s when civil war in Cambodia and the steady decline in economic value of elephants forced the elephant handlers (mahouts) to seek occupations in the entertainment and tourism industry.

"Surin Elephant Round-up - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surin_Elephant_Round-up