Turtle Village
The Turtle Village (Mu Ban Tao) is located at is at Ban Kok, Mancha Khiri District of Khon Kaen Province, approximately 50 kilometers away from Muang District. It is a village where people and “Tao Pek” or Tao Lueang (elongated tortoise) living together in harmony. Tao Pek is a northeastern Thai word for the elongated tortoise. Its name comes from its food which is Pek grass, commonly grown in its natural habitat. Tao Lueng can be found all over Thailand, in Assam state of India, Burma, Malaysia and all over the Indochina region. Often found in forest and mountain, Tao Lueang is the most found land turtle in Thailand. They like to live in damp and cold places in the north and northeastern regions of Thailand. We can know their ages by counting the rings on the scales. This way is only applicable to the turtles, aged under 20 years. If they are over 20, they will have too many rings to count. Tao Luang has high shell like the soldier’s helmet. When fully grown, it can be over 30 centimeters long and weigh over 7 kilograms. It has large scales on its skin and has strong, short and round hind legs, resembling elephant’ legs. It has strong nails and has no fascia between fingers. Male’s shells are curved while females are flat. Its shell is yellow with dark patch. The mating season is in late rainy season and lasts for 1-2 months. They lay eggs on earth. The females use their hind legs and shell to dig the hole, sized half the depth of the egg, and lay about 4 -6 eggs in it. It takes about 3-4 months for the eggs to hatch. Newborn elongated tortoises have soft shell and are only about 3-5 centimeters long. Its shell becomes hard when it is about 1 year old. Old people in the village believe that there is a spirit of a big old man wearing all white and has Tao Pek as his servants living in the village. Legend says that these turtles have been living in Ban Kok since the time the community had established in 1767. Numbers of them live near Chao Phu (Don Tao) shrine which is an area of about 4 Rai. It is the location of two shrines for worshipping Chap Pho Mahesak which are Chao Phu Fah Ra Nguem shrine and the Phra Phut tower. Don Tao is the area where many bamboo trees have grown. The fallen bamboo leaves makes it the perfect habitat for Tao Pek. The villagers believe that the turtles lived in the area belong to Chao Phu Fah Ra Nguem which makes they call them Mahesak turtles. As they belong to the village’s holy spirit, no one dares to harm them. If they do them harm unintentionally, they have to apologize to Chao Phu. Inside the village, the people don’t build high wall or fence because they want the turtles to be able to walk in their houses to feed, rest or lay their eggs. Moreover, other animals living in the village are very familiar to the turtles. They do no harm to each other. Tao Pek also have a very good instinct about feeding. They often gather around in front of the grocery store where people bring pieces of their leftover food such as jackfruit, pineapple, cucumber, water spinach, lettuce, cabbage, bamboo shoot and meat, for them in the evening. From the observation, the number of the elongated tortoises in the village has increased every year. Nowadays, there are over 2,000 of them making the food in Don Tao area insufficient to feed them all. Therefore, they started to seek for food at nearby villages but no one dares to do them harm because there is a story saying that one man has eaten the turtle and he died the next day. Thus, no one will harm the holy spirit’s turtles in this village.
