Photo of the Day 503

Festival, Thailand

Photograph by Ryan Libre

This Month in Photo of the Day: Your Photos

Locals do everything they can to bring in good luck and get rid of bad luck. For ten days straight fireworks are thrown at the processions, and many men and women pierce their cheeks with huge objects like meter-long poles, guns, and lamps.

—Caption by Ryan Libre

Photo of the Day 293

Opium Smoke, Doi Sam Mun, Thailand, 1985

Photograph by Steve Raymer

A woman smoking opium on Chinese New Year fills her small, sunlit home in Thailand's Doi Sam Mun village with a bluish haze. Thailand was once a significant producer of opium and heroin, but government eradications efforts begun in the 1980s have significantly curtailed poppy cultivation.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Poppy," February 1985, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the Day 241

Elephant Musicians, Lampang, Thailand, 2005

Photograph by William Albert Allard

Elephants explore their creative side with super-sized musical instruments, including this custom-made xylophone, at the Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, Thailand. Elephant handlers called mahouts encourage the animals to play by moving their arms, but the symphonic pachyderms select the notes and rhythms on their own.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Thailand's Urban Giants," October 2005, National Geographic magazine)