Thailand Festivals and Events 2010

The highly popular King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament will take place from March 22 to March 28 in the northernmost region of Thailand known as the Golden Triangle.

An opening parade and blessing ceremony will be held in Chiang Saen town on the first day of event to showcase the culture of the Golden Triangle region with northern traditional-style dancers, hill-tribe villagers in traditional costume, elephant spirit men (Khru Ba Yai), and colourfully decorated pachyderms. The parade will mark the kick-off of the weeklong competition held on the banks of the Ruak River, which divides Thailand from Burma.

In Thailand, the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament was first launched in Hua Hin by Anantara Resort in 2001. During the first five years of the tournament, the event took place in the Royal seaside town of Hua Hin. In 2006, the tournament moved to Golden Triangle and was hosted by Anantara Resort Golden Triangle.

The tournament is a charitable event that raises money for the benefit of all Thailand's elephants.

Elephants are a key symbol of Thailand’s history, and nothing but utmost respect is given to the pachyderms and all proceeds of the tournament are used to ensuring their welfare, sustenance, employment, mahout training and medical treatment provision.

In just eight years the King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament has gone from a small two-day event with six teams into a week-long extravaganza, which in 2009 featured 12 teams from four continents, encompassing 40 players from at least 15 countries.

Through its own Elephant Camp located within the grounds of the Anantara Resort Golden Triangle, the property's focus on the future of Thailand's pachyderm population forms an integral part of the resort's operations on an ongoing basis. Resident Elephant Camp Director, John Roberts, worked closely with the Thai government's Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang to develop Anantara's camp as an elephant sanctuary and continues to work with them on several 'big picture' conservation projects.

To date the tournament has raised over US$250,000 for the National Elephant Institute, which provides medical care, sustenance, employment, and mahout training to Thailand's elephant population, this has been distributed as cash, in the form of pick up trucks and a custom built elephant ambulance. In recent years, the funds were used to run the ambulance as well as provide housing at the Centre's elephant hospital allowing it to provide free accommodation as well as medical treatment to any sick elephants in Thailand, these funds also provided a mobile veterinary centrifuge for their mobile elephant clinic. Proceeds from the 2009 project have been used to 'rescue rent' five street elephants to be trained in occupational therapy as part of a joint Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Chiang Mai University project investigating the benefits of using elephants to treat Autism.

It is estimated that Thailand has around 3,600 domesticated elephants and 1,500 wild elephants. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) fully endorses the King's Cup Elephant Polo tournament, 'having identified it as one of the country's prime annual special events. It will take place in the grounds of Anantara Resort Golden Triangle, and spectator entrance is free.

For more information on King’s Cup Elephant Polo, please visit www.anantaraelephantpolo.com  
Anantara Resort Golden Triangle is located 60km north of Chiang Rai’s international airport.

For enquiries and reservations, please call + 66 (0) 5378 4084 or + 66 (0) 2477 0760 
or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   For more information please visit www.anantara.com