Philadelphia Zoo with the Elephants
I loved photographing animals at the Philadelphia Zoo with hopes of becoming a wildlife photographer. The elephant carries spiritual significance, stemming from the Buddhist belief that Queen Maya, the mother of the Buddha, conceived her child after having dreamed of a white elephant entering her womb. For Buddhists, elephants symbolize strength and the luminosity of an enlightened mind, achieved through meditation.
AMONG THE HUNTER-GATHERERS of Kenya, whose last remaining forests are in jeopardy due to deforestation, the Ndorobo, or Ogiek, share tales about their people having followed the migration paths of elephants for centuries. They tell of olden days when elephants used to live peacefully with humans. This was a mythic time, when the Ndorobo would eat the olerondo fruit in imitation of the elephant and boil acacia bark for its sugar. Tales of being given milk from elephant cows in times of drought, and of the Ndorobo giving the elephants honey as part of their family, are part of the lore of the first peoples of Kenya.
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