Elephant racing Affairs in India, Nina Hagen, the German rock singer, and Brigitte Bardot, the French film actress. In India only two states hold the event. In Nepal, the race started as an International Elephant Race in December 2005. The Tharu people of Nepal, who are professional tamers of wild elephants, ride the race elephants. A particular feature of this race is that riders of racing elephants are chosen by lottery and not by choice and this makes the riding difficult for the jockeys who train on their favourite particular elephants. The winning elephant is awarded a trophy. The racing track is
War elephant left a deep cultural legacy in many countries. Many traditional war games incorporate war elephants. Chaturanga, the ancient Indian board game from which modern chess has gradually developed, calls its bishop "Gaja", meaning elephant in Sanskrit; it is still called an elephant in Chinese chess. Also in Arabic – and derived from it, in Spanish – the bishop piece is called "al-fil", Arabic for "elephant"; in Russian, too, the bishop piece is an elephant (Слон). In Bengali, the bishop is called "hati", Bengali for "elephant". In the Japanese game shogi, there used to be a piece known as the "Drunken