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The land of ladyboy cabarets, massive mountaintop Buddha statues, ping pong shows, and roadside fried insect vendors, the Kingdom of Thailand can feel like both an idyllic island paradise and a bad acid trip at times to the Western traveler. Most visitors tend to follow a generally similar route through the country: fly into Bangkok and take a boat down the Chao Phraya, hop over to Pattaya (if your motivations for visiting the country are on the carnal side), party at the Tiger Nightclub in Phuket, swim in the beautiful bays of the Phi Phi Islands, and drink a coconut under the swaying palm trees of Koh Samui.
Where most travelers tend to skip, however, is the northeast region of the country, known as Isan. This region is ethnically Lao for the most part and is the poorest region in Thailand. While Isan consists of about one-third of the population of Thailand, the region’s economy contributes only about 10% of the national GDP. The Isan landscape is covered with small villages surrounded by endless expanses of agricultural fields, which are set aflame at certain times of the year, causing black ash to fall from the sky (which the locals call “black snow”). The Isan region doesn’t make it onto most people’s Thailand travel itineraries.
While Isan has very little in the way of tourist attractions, there is one location that I stumbled upon in my personal travels that was truly terrifying, awe-inspiring, anxiety-inducing, and simply unbelievable: Ban Khok Sa-Nga. Known as the “King Cobra Village”, Ban Khok Sa-Nga is a nightmare for people with ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) as well as for members of PETA, with humans in snakes living in both contention and harmony at the same time.
Here was my general experience:
The Isan Experience
At the time that I first heard about Ban Khok Sa-Nga, I was living in the small village of Kranuan, which sits about an hour outside of the city of Khon Kaen. No, there were no beaches in Kranuan. There were no wild nightclubs, no cascading mountains, no impressive temples. If you’ve ever driven on a highway in the USA and stopped in a town you’ve never heard of to pee and thought that this town probably looks like a million other towns in the country, Kranuan was like that, but Thai.
That being said, I absolutely loved my time there. I was teaching English at the local school, and my students were an absolute pleasure to be around. I spent my evenings either playing basketball at the local park with many of my students and members of the community or drinking beer on ice and eating fried crickets at my friend’s bar. Mostly everyone in Kranuan was kind, welcoming, and very intrigued by the blonde hairs on my arms.
The Journey to Ban Khok Sa-Nga
One day after school was over, another teacher at the school invited me to go to Ban Khok Sa-Nga. I had heard about the King Cobra Village before, but couldn’t really form an image in my mind of what it might look like. They box king cobras? I wondered. How does one box that which has no arms?
So, we drove out to Ban Khok Sa-Nga on Teacher Bam’s motorbike. It was a hot day, as most days are in Thailand, and I was sweaty and disoriented upon arriving. The disorientation only continued with what I saw next. We were greeted by a shirtless man with a massive python around his neck. Teacher Bam asked him when the next show would be (in a fast-paced Isan dialect that I hopelessly strained myself to understand), and he said that it would be in 15 minutes.
The Snake Boxing Show
The show was held in Wat Si Thamma, the local temple, and it began with a line of women doing a traditional Thai dance in the middle of a ring. Oh yeah, and all of the women had massive snakes around their necks. Next, the first boxer entered the ring. He performed a prayer, and another man reached into a wooden box and brought out a king cobra about 6 feet long. My whole body clenched up at that point and my already-drenched forehead got a little bit sweatier.
To my surprise, the snake didn’t seem all that interested in fighting. It began to slither away from its human nemesis and seek the comfort of the dark, wooden box from which it came. But that wouldn’t make for much of a show, would it? Nope, the boxer grabbed the snake by its tail and pulled it toward himself, forcing it to engage in combat. The snake’s head popped up and it took an aggressive stance, preparing to lunge at the man. Cue more sweat on my forehead.
Rather than running for dear life in the opposite direction of the king cobra (as I would’ve done), the man open-palm slapped the snake on the head. Clearly not pleased with the aggressive gesture, the snake lunged at the man, and the man jumped backward and avoided its bite. At this point, the snake seemed like it again became disinterested in engaging the man, and started to slither back to its box. Once again, the man grabbed it by the tail and slapped it on the head. This process repeated over and over again until finally, it was time for the next boxer to enter the ring.
While the other boxers were fighting their respective snakes, Teacher Bam leaned over to me and informed me that this same snake-boxing ritual was performed by children as young as 8 years old; however, today was a holiday, and so the kids got the day off. Thailand has a lot of holidays, but at that point, I was wishing there were even more. Bam also could clearly not tell how shaken I was by the entire experience (or maybe she did), because she found it necessary to tell me that someone had died during a snake boxing match a few weeks ago.
“They don’t take the venom out of these snakes?” I asked incredulously. Nope. This is the real deal.
After the boxing portion of the show was over, the boxers all performed a ceremonial dance, all wearing gigantic pythons around their necks. At a certain point in the dance, each of them put their respective snake’s head in their mouth. Then, in keeping with the Thai tradition of hyper-sexualizing everything, they all put the snakes’ heads down their pants. Teacher Bam started laughing hysterically and I laughed along, but on the inside, I was full-on crying.
After the show was over, I was able to take a picture with one of the snakes around my neck (one of the snakes that had just been down someone’s pants). I thanked the performers and breathed a deep sigh of relief that the horrifying display was over.
Snake Culture
After the show, Bam and I walked around the village and talked to some of the residents of the village. Apparently, the snake theme was far more pervasive than just the show. Every household in the entire village has at least one pet snake, which ranges from small snakes that fit in your hand to massive snakes that look like they could wrap you up and crush you. There are many different shops selling a variety of products from essential oils to plush snake toys to snake oil-based fragrances. At every shop that I went up to, the vendor would ask me if I wanted to hold their pet snake.
Apparently, this snake obsession started back in 1951, when a doctor by the name of Ken Yongla had the idea to start the snake show as a way to bring tourism revenue into his hometown. Today, the King Cobra Village still performs the snake show every day, and every member of the village is taught how to hand a snake almost as soon as they come out of the womb. The attraction has brought a good deal of added revenue into the village, and has helped many people in the area achieve greater financial freedom. In that way, the snake show is great for the people of Ban Khok Sa-Nga. However, I have some concerns about how the animals feel.
Humanity Concerns
While I’m certainly glad that I visited Ban Khok Sa-Nga and experienced the surreal and nerve-racking snake show, I felt rather uncomfortable with the way that these animals were being treated. As I said, it didn’t seem like the snakes wanted to partake in the boxing matches whatsoever. Being provoked to the point that they need to respond with defensive attacks cannot possibly be a pleasant experience for these snakes, and it made me sad to see them being aggravated in that way.
I also feel these snakes should not be kept in wooden boxes for long periods of time. These are wild animals, and to confine them in such a small space is an insult to the magnificence of these incredible beasts. Along with snakes, there were also a number of mammalian animals being kept in cages that looked less than humane. Seeing exotic animals with your own eyes is a mystifying experience, but it should be done the right way. Keeping animals in such insufferable confinements is inhumane, and I don’t believe it should ever be done for the sake of humans’ enjoyment.
It is a difficult issue; however, because these animals have provided such a lucrative source of income for the people of Ban Khok Sa-Nga. Simply put, the region of Isan is poor. Many people live in poverty and struggle to provide for themselves and their families. The snake shows of Ban Khok Sa-Nga have certainly given some people an escape from this impoverished condition, and there is undeniably virtue in wanting to better your life.
Should the snake shows be stopped and the animals of Ban Khok Sa-Nga released back into the wild at the expense of the livelihoods of the people of the village? It’s a difficult question.