Claire Bailey

Elephants are majestic, wise creatures. They possess a compassion and an intelligence that is rivaled by no other being that I have ever known. They belong in this world with us. Although considered a sacred animal in Thailand, none remain left in the wild and many in captivity are mistreated and exploited. This photo was taken at a sanctuary dedicated to caring for and rehabilitating the elephants and giving them the best life possible in a rural setting akin to their native homelands.

I took this photograph atop the highest mountain in all of Thailand. This is a place where earth meets sky, a liminal realm where your feet sink down into soil but you breathe clouds. It is a place that aligns you with the timelessness of passing centuries.

I took this photograph while hiking from temple to temple in the mountains of Northern Thailand. In the Avatamsaka Sutra (one of the most important sutras of East Asian Buddhism), the image of “Indra’s net” is used to describe the interconnectedness of the universe. Indra’s net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels. It represents the interpenetration of the microcosmos and macrocosmos.

“We are all connected. I am not just myself alone, but the plants I eat that nourish me, the soil they’re grown in, and so on. Therefore, what I do to the soil, I do to myself. I am one with everything around me, and we all depend on each other.”

-Jo Jondai, Farmer

In Thailand, Buddhist monks will ordain trees by tying an orange robe around a tree and thereby granting it protection. It is sacrilege to cut down a tree that has been marked in this way. This simple act has made these phra nak anuraksa (or 'Ecology monks') powerful leaders of forest conservation in Thailand.

“I believe there are spirits that live in the trees.”

-Prasert, Village Chief

A cultivation of collective mindfulness and the creation of a more peaceful, balanced, and loving world requires action beyond the walls of one’s own mind.