The philosophical charm of a donkey

Donkeys were once considered as exalted as the pharaohs of Egypt, but a fall in status and consequent image problem has blinded men to their affectionate nature

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Tired after a hard day’s work, Jondu Ram tries to sleep in his home at Sasan village in Himachal Pradesh. Having lost his wife to cancer and his sons “to big cities”, he now fusses over Golu, his donkey with ‘gentle, melancholy eyes’. “Many describe my longing for Golu’s company as irrational,” says the farmer. But not Manilal Valliyate, director of veterinary affairs at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India. “Donkeys love to nuzzle up and be rubbed between their ears. Young ones can be mischievous,” he says.

The trouble is not many realise donkeys can be companions because these animals have suffered an image problem through the centuries, worsened by the conflation of a vulgar term with the word ‘ass’. Fiona Marshall, professor of archaeology at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, tells Business Standard, “During the period of the earliest Egyptian kings, 5,000 years ago, donkeys were buried next to the king at Abydos. Some time over the following 1,000 years, they lost that exalted status. Some suggest that was when horses were introduced, others suggest their braying or the fact that they were difficult to control led to the diminished status.” She and her colleagues have reported the findings in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Marshall says, “Donkeys transformed human mobility. Herding families could move as a group. They also allowed the development of long-distance trade routes between Egypt and Sumeria, or maybe across Asia.”

The donkeys at Abydos were larger than today’s and looked more like Equus africanus, the wild ancestor of the donkey. Over generations of domestication, the slow and non-linear process created the modern donkey which is smaller but stronger.

Golu, for all his gentleness, keeps his distance from his master. “He combines great personal charm with an air of detachment,” agrees Ram. And often, Golu has an air of misery about him. Theresa Herzog, a writer, blogger and photographer in Delhi, believes donkeys wear that look because they are philosophers. “Growing in Mexico, I was surrounded by donkeys. Their unique ability to shut out the world and chew on the metaphysical breakthroughs in their mind has fascinated me,” she says. The donkey has attained a state of visionary exaltation, the kind reserved for mystics. “It waits in silence and will not bully,” says Herzog.

Herzog is not the only ‘donkey spiritualist’. Stany Wangchuk, co-founder of Donkey Sanctuary in Leh, which rescues old, injured and abandoned donkeys, says, “While compassion is a basic tenet of Buddhism, many Buddhist Ladakhis don’t show it to donkeys.” Joanne Lefson, a South African journalist and co-founder of the sanctuary, says if it weren’t for donkeys, the Leh-Ladakh economy would not be as developed.

Strangely, men in Colombia may understand Ram’s affection for a donkey. “Men in that country really do fall in love with donkeys and donkeys fall in love with men,” says Vancouver-based Daryl Stoneage, whose award-winning film, Donkey Love, tells the story of a man who cheats on his wife with his donkey. His wife threatens divorce, but he just can’t give up the donkey. “Since they start this tradition at a very young age, the donkey has always been sexualised in their mind and they have a hard time giving up the donkey when they get into marriage or a relationship,” says Stoneage.

Naturally, donkeys are revered in Colombia. There even is a Donkey Festival at San Antero. Stoneage says the practice has deep cultural roots in the South American country. “It is a rite of passage. If the sons don’t take part in it, they believe they will become homosexuals.”

Back home, donkeys are beasts of burden, put to hard labour at places like brick kilns. According to Valliyate, donkeys are often overworked and suffer abscesses, wounds and hoof injuries. “Donkeys can also suffer from rabies, trypanosomiasis, extensive dermatitis, ophthalmic infections and a variety of polythene impactive colics,” he says. They have a working life of just around three years, after which they are often abandoned.

For Ram, the times when Golu comes and softly nuzzles him compensate for all the mocking and the teasings he suffers for his pet’s sake. The unique bond he shares with the creature makes him sum up, “Forget dog, buy donkey.”