White elephant (or albino elephant) is a rare species of elephant, but not a separate species. Although he is often portrayed as snow-white in color, his skin tends to have a soft reddish-brown color, turning into light pink when wet. White elephants also have light eyelashes and nails. White elephants are thus only nominally white.
Some of them (presumably three [1] [2] [3] ) are currently owned by the rulers of Myanmar - General Tan Shwe considers himself the heir to the Burmese kings - one is gray and the other three are pinkish, but they are all officially white. The king of Thailand also has several white elephants. Former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew once presented a white elephant to King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk .
In Hinduism, the white elephant is considered to be the master of all elephants on Earth created by the god Indra. In Thailand - a sacred animal and a symbol of royalty. The king of Thailand has ten white elephants; they do not have to be strictly white, but they all have fair skin. Candidate animals are selected for a variety of physical and behavioral criteria. In the past, white elephants in Thailand were also sometimes presented as gifts to the king’s friends, and it was forbidden to use them as working animals.
The term "white elephant" penetrated from the East into the English language, where it turned into the idiom of the same name .
According to some reports, 6 females of this species remained on the earth.
Notes
- ↑ 'Lucky' white elephant for Burma , BBC , November 9, 2001.
- ↑ Second White Elephant Found . Date of treatment March 11, 2007. Archived June 23, 2002.
- ↑ White Elephants Snubbed by Junta . Date of treatment June 7, 2010. Archived June 6, 2011.