The elephant with raised trunk: a charm between India and the West
From Ganesha to the white elephants of the kings of Siam: the Asian roots of the lucky elephant and the Western spread of the upward-pointing trunk.
Figurines of elephants with their trunks pointing upwards can be found on the shelves of many European and American homes, often in pairs or in rows of seven, from the largest to the smallest. In the West it is a relatively recent charm, but it draws on very ancient Asian symbols in which the elephant stands for wisdom, strength, royalty and abundance. To understand its success one must start from India and Southeast Asia.
Ganesha and India
In India the elephant is linked above all to Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity whom Hindu mythology regards as the son of Shiva and Parvati. Ganesha is worshipped as lord of beginnings and remover of obstacles, and he is invoked at the start of undertakings, journeys, studies and marriages. The stories of the Puranas explain in different ways how the god came to have his elephant head, a sign of the great variety of the tradition.
Real elephants also played an important role in Indian culture: they were mounts for rulers, animals of war and protagonists of temple processions. Buddhist tradition also tells that Queen Maya dreamed of a white elephant entering her side before the birth of the Buddha, and that dream was interpreted as an omen of a son destined for an extraordinary task.
White elephants and kingship
In Southeast Asia the white elephant, in fact an albino or pale-skinned animal, was considered sacred and belonged to the king. In Thailand, Burma and Laos owning one was a sign of a prosperous kingdom favoured by heaven. Laos was anciently called Lan Xang, “kingdom of a million elephants”, and a white elephant appeared on the flag of Siam until 1917, when the striped tricolour was adopted.
Why the trunk points up
The idea that a raised trunk brings luck has no precisely documented origin. A common explanation links it to the gesture with which an elephant, at festivals and parades, lifts its trunk as if in greeting or in a trumpet call. Another interpretation, widespread in folk traditions and in contemporary feng shui, sees the upturned trunk as a vessel that gathers good fortune and keeps it for the household.
In Europe and the United States lucky elephants spread between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, on the wave of a taste for the exotic, colonial travel and touring circuses, which made the animal familiar to the general public. Pendants, paperweights and figurines in brass, wood or porcelain became common gifts, often accompanied by the custom of keeping them facing the entrance of the house, as if to welcome whoever arrives.
The elephant with a raised trunk is an example of how a symbol can travel and change. From the Indian god of beginnings to the white elephants of the kings of Siam, and on to the figurines on Western shelves, the animal has kept an aura of benevolent strength and calm wisdom. The modern charm is a simplified synthesis, but it carries the echo of very rich religious and political traditions.