The Death of a Hungry God
The Death of a Hungry God
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![A farmer guides cows in circles over harvested rice straw, separating the grain from the stem. Rice is the staple diet of the Assamese, and the rhythms of people’s lives in rural areas are deeply tied to rice agriculture. Rice farming has shaped the landscape, diet, daily practices, and rituals of Assam. The state’s major celebration, Bihu, involves three annual festivals that align with the periods for sowing grain, crop protection, and harvesting.](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2018/01/2-1024x684.jpg)
![In the harvested fields of Hatibari village, traces of an elephant herd intersect with a path that divides the rice paddies. As elephants seek out new sources of food, their lives—like those of the local residents—have become tied to seasonal patterns of ripening rice grain. People have been settled here since the 1950s and report that until 12 years ago, elephants were never seen near the village. Now, every year, herds numbering up to 60 individuals gather in the neighboring forests, waiting for nightfall and the opportunity to raid crops.](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2018/01/3-1024x645.jpg)
![The morning after the young adult tusker was electrocuted in Hatibari, locals gathered to see the dead elephant. Many villagers arrived holding their camera phones to take photos of the spectacle. Some also came with their palms raised in prayer and in reverent sympathy for the elephant, a being who they believe shares its body and soul with lord Ganesh. This god is immanent in the world, simultaneously transcendent and embodied in his numerous earthly forms, such as the images and statues worshipped in temples—and the lives of wild and captive elephants.](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2018/01/4-1024x739.jpg)
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![A villager sacralized the dead elephant by placing a banana plant stem alongside his body; in Hindu traditions, the plant is strongly associated with Ganesh. In Assam, banana plants are used as a gateway for celebrations and auspicious events, and to frame sacred spaces or objects. Ganesh is the lord of obstacles: His blessing creates beneficial conditions in a person’s daily life. An image of Ganesh is always situated at entrances to temples, and he must be worshipped before all ventures.](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2018/01/6-1024x652.jpg)
![The fallen god’s right tusk was adorned with incense and a garland of flowers. The decorations were displays of hospitality for the elephant, carefully placed in the hope that they would attract the deity’s gaze and favorable attention. According to locals, Ganesh enjoys being dressed in this manner. Devotees seek to nurture a good relationship with him.](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2018/01/7-1024x817.jpg)
![Touch is an important part of Hindu worship. It transfers divine power between god and human, and communicates the lower status of the devotee. With the dead elephant, some human contact also turned into a curious exploration of the grooves of his toenails and the wrinkly texture of his skin. The shift between sacred and profane touch is fluid and noncontradictory for the Assamese—elephants are simultaneously god and animal.](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2018/01/8_NEW-1024x629.jpg)
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![The night after the accident, the gaon burra (village head) dreamed of Ganesh. The god demanded that a temple be built in his honor. Some people feared that elephants would come to destroy the village in retribution for the tusker’s death if they did not follow Ganesh’s instruction. Community members organized a collection and built a small temple on the headman’s property, a few meters from where the elephant died. With this act, private land was converted into a public, sacred space. A statue of Ganesh was housed inside the temple, and this manifestation of Ganesh is now worshipped twice a year on his major festivals, called Jayanti and Chaturti. People hope their offerings will help mediate human-elephant relations in these times of conflict.](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2018/01/10-1024x631.jpg)
One evening in August 2014, a wild elephant was accidentally killed in Gajbari village in Assam, a state in northeast India. [1] [1] The name of the actual village has been changed at the request of the author. He was a young adult male with tusks, or “tusker,” who, along with two other males, was known to regularly forage at night in the neighborhood. While eating bamboo leaves in someone’s yard, the elephant unwittingly touched a dangerously low-hanging power line and was electrocuted. He died instantly. The next morning, a steady stream of people from the local area visited the body. It was a rare spectacle to see a dead elephant, and villagers were curious to view the animal close-up in daylight. It was also a chance to see and interact with a god.
From 1880 to 2013, 61 percent of Assam’s forests have been lost due to human development, resulting in the destruction, fragmentation, and degradation of elephant habitat. A lack of adequate food and space means that the 5,700 wild Asian elephants scattered across the state have grown more dependent on domestic produce and are encountering people more often. Every night in the months prior to harvest, herds will “raid” village paddy fields, often for rice, which is the primary crop in Assam. Elephants can cause massive economic loss, sleep deprivation, and severe anxiety for impoverished farmers who are desperately trying to protect their farmland. Both humans and elephants become frustrated, aggressive, and sometimes violent with each other when competing over crops, at times resulting in the deaths of either party. The term “conflict” is commonly used to characterize the human-elephant relationship in the 21st century.
Yet the complex nature of the interaction between these two species is not wholly antagonistic, and the status of elephants is not simply that of “agricultural pest.” In 2013 and 2014, I spent 18 months doing ethnographic research on human-elephant relations in Assam. The people I worked with considered elephants as too intelligent, aware, and impressive to be mere animals. Many Assamese spoke of how elephants can perceive the hidden intentions and moral character of people. Villagers approached elephants with respect and sometimes communicated with them through worshipful gestures. Elephants seemed to recognize these acts and reciprocate by not disturbing reverent persons. More than simply animals, elephants in Gajbari and the surrounding neighborhood were living, breathing incarnations of the Hindu god Ganesh.