Shela is a 27-year-old female elephant who lives at the World Heritage Borobudur Temple compound in Magelang, Central Java.

Together with four other elephants - Molly (32), Bona (25), Lizzy (24) and Echa (18) - they have become one of the main attractions at the tourist site.

Tourists are welcome not only to ride them, but also to watch Shela painting on paper, cloth, or even canvas which they can then take home with them as a memento. So far, Shela is the only elephant who can paint, the others cannot.

"It is because Shela is the only one who doesn't feel ticklish when her trunk is touched," her handler Khudori, 50, told The Jakarta Post during a visit to the compound recently.

Shela's drawing trainer Robertus Sutopo, 46, said it took about two years to train the elephant to hold the paintbrush with her trunk. "Previously, she just used to roll the upper part of her trunk around the brush when drawing," he said.

Shela started to learn to paint in 2003, when an American couple Alex and Gatja Melamid of the New York-based Asian Elephant Conservation Project (AECP) involved Sutopo in a two-day painting course for the elephants living at the temple.

"Upon their leaving, I was inspired to go on with the project and here I am, training an elephant to paint once every two weeks," said Sutopo, who is also an Indonesian language teacher at the state-run SMPN 3 Mertoyudan junior high school.

Initially, he said, he gave Shela a painting session twice a week. Afraid of being accused of overexploiting the animal, three years ago he changed the schedule to once every two weeks.

Sutopo said he would like to train all the elephants at the Borobudur compound to paint, but it was up to the handler of each of the animals. He said the role of the handler was vital for his drawing course.

"It would be very, very difficult to train the elephants without the presence of their handlers. I, certainly, can do nothing without them," he said.

The project is currently being conducted with the cooperation of the trainer, the nearby luxurious Amanjiwo Resort and the temple management company PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko.

"We have formed the Borobudur Elephant Art Foundation, which is a kind of branch organization of the Asian Elephant Conservation Project," Sutopo said.

- Text and photos by Sri Wahyuni

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