Tangkahan Sanctuary
Why You Shouldn’t Visit It
The Main Activities in Tangkahan: Elephant Washing & Riding
The Tangkahan Elephant Camp is a popular destination for travellers in Sumatra, thanks to its proximity to Bukit Lawang — famous for the Bukit Lawang Jungle Trekking tours to see Sumatra orangutans. You can visit Tangkahan from Bukit Lawang on a day trip. Although the two are only 20 km apart, the bumpy journey takes around two hours.
At the Tangkahan Elephant Camp, you can bathe the elephants, ride them, or do both. These tours are offered twice daily: at 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
The site presents itself as an ecotourism destination. While it originally began with good intentions to stop illegal logging, in our view, it doesn’t operate as a true sanctuary. The term is a classical greenwashing example, used to capitalise on people’s desire to support environmental causes.
Tangkahan Elephant washing sounds innocent but requires physical and psychological “crushing”
Seemingly innocent interactions with elephants could already be very problematic. According to World Animal Protection the bathing is oftentimes stressful for the elephants, especially when dealing with groups of excited people.
Visitors can wash elephants in Tangkahan Elephant Sanctuary. As beautiful as the selfies are, as brutal is the abuse it takes to get elephants into submission to show unnatural behaviour such as being washed by humans.
But the real horror is the torture required to bring the elephants into submission to safely interact with tourists: A technique called “elephant crushing”. This includes forcibly taking elephant babies from their mothers, chaining and cruel beating to tame them.
Elephants are chained in the Tangkahan Elephant Sanctuary.
Tangkahan Elephant riding can cause permanent spinal injuries and depression
As strong as elephants look, their spines cannot support the weight of people. Doing so frequently can lead to permanent spinal injuries. There are further complications from having a chair attached to their backs which painfully rubs on their backs and cause blisters that can become infected.
Visitors can ride elephants in Tangkahan Elephant Sanctuary. This can cause permanent injuries on the elephant’s back as it is too weak to carry people.
Moreover, elephants are a lot like humans: They socialize, have families and friends, feel pain and happiness. When they are in trekking camps, they are separated from their herd and can get depressed.
A mahout in Tangkahan Elephant Camp removes the feces of constipated elephant by hand.
The Tangkahan elephants are structurally stressed and therefore they have chronic constipation. An inconvenient consequence is that the mahouts in Tangkahan put their arms in the anus of the elephants to remove their feces.
Animals in a real sanctuary live in freedom with little human contact
Ethical wildlife sanctuaries care for animals that have been rescued from abusive situations. The end goal should be to release them again in the wild (as has been done with many orangutans around Bukit Lawang). And when the animals are too traumatised or injured to ever return to the wild again they should live in the camp in as much freedom as possible with little human contact.
As there should never be any physical contact between visitors and elephants, ethical elephant camps work on an observation-only model. This still provides jobs and a valuable income to local people while it genuinely helps elephants in need.
Do proper research before visiting a wildlife sanctuary
Unfortunately there are a lot of shady sanctuaries like the Tangkahan Elephant Camp. But that doesn’t mean there you can’t find an ethical sanctuary to visit.
Do your own research and make sure your once-in-a-life-time elephant experience is not based on a lifetime elephant torture. Ignore the self-labelling and beware that even tour agencies do not always know. There are many genuine orangutan tour companies in Bukit Lawang that offer tours also to Tangkahan simply because it is the thing to do and they just never thought of the unethical side of elephant riding and washing.
The first and easiest step is to check if the elephant sanctuary you’re thinking of visiting is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. If it isn’t it does not yet mean that it is shady. Read reviews and contact the sanctuary with a lot of questions. One yes to these questions could already be a red flag:
- Do the elephants perform for visitors (such as painting or standing)?
- Can visitors feed, wash, ride or touch elephants?
- Are the baby elephants separated at times from their mother?
- Are the elephants chained (usually at nights)?
- Are the elephants bought (instead of rescued)?
- Do they use bullhooks against elephants in any circumstances?
But despite a thorough research you may still end up in an unethical sanctuary. In that case, help fellow travellers by leaving a review and posting photos or videos. In some cases it will even motivate the camps to improve their practices.
A British family enjoys a photo shoot with juvenile elephants at Lucky Beach on Phuket, Thailand. Many travelers, unaware of the training the elephants endure, view such picturesque experiences as the highlight of their trip. Source: National Geographic Channel.
UPDATE: There is Hope…
Since we had published this post a several years ago, the Tangkahan Elephant Sanctuary decided to no longer offer elephant riding tours to travellers to address repeated complaints.
This is a fantastic first step and it shows how powerful travelers are! When travellers no longer actively support an organization that mistreats elephants, it is in the sanctuary’s financial interest to treat them better.
However, not offering elephant rides is not enough. Elephants are still ridden by their carers, the mothers are still separated from their children, and they are still beaten and chained into submission.
The most powerful thing that we can do is to bombard Tangkahan Elephant Camp with emails about why we will not visit them, and what they should change in their behaviour for us to reconsider. For the sake of impact, remain polite when explaining your issues with their treatments. You can contact their office via WhatsApp on the number +62 813-9624-2503.
No inspiration what to write? Here’s an example.
Dear Tangkahan Elephant Camp,
As an animal lover, I was looking forward to visit an elephant sanctuary during my visit to Sumatra. Since there aren’t many elephant sanctuaries in Sumatra I came across of your organization.
It is with enthusiasm that I have read about your recent decision to no longer offer elephant ride tours. I applaud this development. However, it is with sadness that I read that your carers still ride elephants, that elephants are sometimes chained and that the mothers are separated from their children. It is for this reason that I have decided to not visit your sanctuary.
I kindly advice you to reconsider the treatment of the elephants. Besides this being the morally just thing to do, it would also be in your financial interest since travellers increasingly look for eco-friendly activities. Please let me know whenever you have adopted a more elephant-friendly treatment, so that we can support your organization with a joyful visit the next time we are around.
Best,
xxx
Local Guides cares about the integrity of Ecotourism
At Local Guides, ecotourism isn’t just a concept — it’s the foundation of everything we do. We were created to support local communities and protect the fragile ecosystems we call home, and have written article about Why Ecotourism Is So Important.
In places like Sumatra, Borneo, and Sulawesi, our programs offer meaningful alternatives to destructive industries. We combat palm oil deforestation by retraining palmoil workers as guides, and fight illegal poaching in Sumatra by turning poachers into deep jungle guides – where ordinary guides don’t go – and offer travelers the unique opportunity to trek up to 20 days into the deep untamed rainforest.
It’s because we care so deeply about environmental integrity that it pains us to see the “eco” label misused in tourism. When places like the Tangkahan Elephant Camp market themselves as ecotourism destinations, it does not only misleads well-meaning travellers, but also damages the credibility of true community-based, conservation-driven tourism.
We have written this article because we belief in the power of ecotourism and it hurts to see greenwashing attempts undermine the true ecotourism concept.
It is not uncommon that animal camps that chain and abuse animals label themselves as sanctuaries to lure more visitors. Unfortunately, it is a very simple and successful strategy that unaware travellers easily fall for.
Could you help us spread the word, protect travellers from a big disappointment and help them choose true ecotourism destinations to support environmentally friendly initiatives? You help a lot by sharing this article with your network.
Thanks you!
Local Guides
