In jungle-ridden, mountainous Southeast Asia, war elephants have become an important soldier of war, why?

In Southeast Asia, where jungles are dense and mountains are intertwined, war elephants have become an important weapon of war, why? Pakistan and Bangladesh in Africa and South Asia, and Thailand and Myanmar in Southeast Asia are rich in elephants and are known as the home of elephants. Tropical jungle areas such as Yunnan, China are also popular locations for elephant breeding and habitat. Elephants have a huge body and are the world's largest surviving land animal. But the elephant is not clumsy. It is both intelligent and humane. Though elephants walk slowly, they traverse mountains and rivers as if they were flat, and a steep mountain path looks like a level road. For this reason, Asia and Africa, where elephants are abundant, have had a tradition of using elephants as transportation and mail carriers since ancient times. Their majestic stance and great strength were favored by strategists as a fighting force.

War elephants are often seen in wars in Southeast Asia and even South Asia. In the past it was recognized that war elephants were widely used in Indian wars. This is because the Indian civilization began to train elephants as early as 4,000 years ago, which provided the basis and prerequisite for their later development of elephant soldiers. Thus, in the minds of the people, war elephants were combined with the vast plains.

When talking about elephant soldiers, people always think of images of people driving elephants across the plains. However, in Southeast Asia, where forests and mountains are dense, war elephants are also an important part of their military power, but their importance does not stem from the power of the elephants themselves, but is closely linked to the particular social context and culture of Southeast Asia. To understand why war elephants are so important in Southeast Asia, we need to start with the elephants themselves. Both 3,000 years ago and now, the hot and rainy climate of Southeast Asia favors elephant breeding. It is not difficult to understand, therefore, that even China, where elephants were uncommon, recorded the use of elephant soldiers, which Southeast Asia would have developed at a relatively early period.

About 4,000 years ago, Indian civilization began training elephants. However, elephants were not fully domesticated. People had to capture elephants in the wild for use. The one time elephants were driven into battle was in ancient India around 1100 BC. At that time, several hymns from Vedic India record this. Around the same time, the Shang people of China were the first to incorporate elephants into their army. The Shang dynasty domesticated the elephants that inhabited the Yellow River Valley.