Deeply rooted in Thai culture, elephant training has traditionally been a familial heritage passed down through the generations. A mahout, one who ‘drives’ an elephant, is typically young when he is entrusted with an adolescent elephant. As part of the daily routine mahouts bring their elephants to bathe in the river. Here the mahout ushers his animal into the river with a tender intimacy. The pair sleep twenty feet from each other at night. The pair will remain together throughout the elephant’s lifespan of around seventy years of age.