Ahh yes, you’re in an exotic land, you feel like Indiana Jones, you want to see a snake that can kill you in 5 minutes be charmed by a flute… Here’s a sad fact. Snake Charming is a scam!
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Where to Find Snake Charmers
Snake Charming exists in many areas of the world with roots cemented in religion and culture. Snake Charming can be found all over the world. From Southeast Asia countries of India, Thailand and Indonesia. To Middle Eastern countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan and Northern Africa’s Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
What is Snake Charming?
How Snake Charming works is quite simple in theory. A charmer plays a musical instrument called a Pungi. The sound of the instrument draws the snake out of its resting place and hypnotises the snake. Offering the tourist an amazing experience to watch an ancient tradition take place and take a photo.
The Scam Behind Snake Charming
The grim reality is a lot more dire about how it all works. The snake charmer will go off into the wild to find a snake or buy one from another misguided soul. The charmer will then remove the snake’s teeth and sow its gums up, to ensure no biting takes place during training. The movement and sound of the Pungi aggravate the snake into a defensive stance. This is why Cobra’s are mostly used as their defensive neck fan looks more deadly.
The snake will initially try and bite the charmer with no damage inflicted. Over time the snake learns this doesn’t work so will only stay in its defensive stance. This means the snake is now ready for show business as its defensive stance looks like it’s hypnotised.
Now, the real sad part… With the snake’s gums sown up, it can no longer feed properly and slowly starves to death over the next few weeks or months. This is also why some of the snakes in the marketplaces don’t move fast or look in the best shape. When it dies the charmer goes out and finds another one to start the process again.
History of Snake Charming
Snake Charming’s earliest origins came from Egypt as the charmers acted as healers and magicians, utilising the snakes for their therapy. However, snake charm as we know it today developed from Hinduism in India with the religion believing serpents to be sacred and god’s being under the protection of the Cobra.
The Ethics of tourism
Many touristic adventures which once were seen as a cultural highlight, are now looked at in disappointment. Patting Tigers and riding elephants in Thailand. Leaving rubbish for Sherpa’s to clean up in Nepal. Hunting big game in Africa. These are just a few that unknowing tourists are naive to at the time.
Tourism to developing countries can at times rely on these sorts of endeavours to bring cash in, however, it’s up to us as adventure seekers to know what is right and wrong when on the road.
Is Snake Charming Legal?
Snake Charming has been deemed Illegal in India since 1972. However other countries (such as Morocco and Marrakech) use it as a centre point for their country’s cultural identity. I was one of these tourists in Marrakech who didn’t do my research. Please, be better than me 🙁
