Tourists flock to Thailand to experience being trampled by elephants that normally weight between 2.25 to 5.5 tonnes. The unusual treatment is being offered in Chang Mai in mountainous northern Thailand.
The elephants use their trunks and feet to administer the massage.
The Daily Mail reports that "the giant Asian elephant is then led up to the tourists by a mahout, before 'gently' patting them to replicate the techniques used by masseurs."
But the unusual relaxation technique isn't for the faint hearted - with one wrong move proving potentially deadly.
Ian Maclean, from Hawaii, USA, captured two foreign tourists - one male and another female - lying on the ground with a towel over their midriff.
Ian said: "During my travels around Asia I have seen many unusual animal massages, including one with four Burmese pythons.
"In places like Thailand entrepreneurial safari park owners see it as a way of making some extra money.
"But this elephant one is a little more challenging purely thanks to the animals sheer size and power.
"It looked quite dangerous and I saw many years ago the perils when an elephant stepped on a tourist's leg. You can imagine what happened and the pain that person was in.
"But if you are brave enough, it is one for the bucket list."
The Huffington Post reports that the elephant has a kind of sacred status and almost functioning as a deity, though not quite. The Hindu god Ganesha which some Thais have adopted was depicted with the head of an elephant and Thailand itself is shaped like one, with the trunk representing its southern most portions. There are as many statues of elephants as there are statues of the Buddha. But as you leave Chiang Mai and head into the mountains, you feel you are entering sacred territory, a land of temples and ancient tribal civilizations like that of the Lanna kingdom and the Hill Tribe peoples.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
