Variations: Ye Thin (Myanmar); Water Elephant
The Chang Nam, or “water elephant”, is native to the jungle streams of Thailand. Its equivalent in Myanmar is called the Ye Thin.
A chang nam looks like a miniature replica of an elephant. It is no bigger than a rat but has a trunk and sharp little tusks and all the hallmarks of elephants.
These water elephants are extremely dangerous. Merely seeing a chang nam’s shadow causes instant death. A chang nam will also stab footprints and reflections in the water with its tusks, bringing about the death to the owner of the footprint or reflection.
It seems uncertain whether the chang nam has a purely supernatural origin or if it has some real animal as its basis. Nonetheless, stuffed chang nam skins are available for sale to gullible tourists; these are manipulated frog or rodent skins with tusks attached.
References
Wood, W. A. R. (1965) Consul in Paradise: Sixty-nine Years in Siam. Souvenir Press, London.
A Book of Creatures 
Why is it so adorable, yet so dangerous?
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I was waiting for this! Now 25 letters more haha
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You counted them? 😳
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There’s 26 letters in the alphabet, no?
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OH! I get it, sorry. Misunderstood, absolutely correct.
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Oh hey, you drew this little fella once. Nice remake.
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Do they live in water or is it just reference to the humid biome of Thailand?
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They live in ponds and rivers and stuff.
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I remember learning about these on the Discovery Channel show Mostly True Stories
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Yay! Now I can finally see that Nhang as an official creature!
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I think there’a an old documentary mentioning this creature somewhere.I don’t remember what the topic of said documentary was
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I just love that people make fake artifacts to sell to tourists. I think that appeals to every part of my personality from the fairy tale lover to the cynic.
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Who would win in a death-match; the Basilisk or the Chang Nam?
I would bet on the Chang Nam. It’s very tiny and thus sneaky and would probably stab the basilisks footprints/reflection before it could see the lilliputtian pachyderm of doom.
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Agreed, besides the basilisk dies to barnyard fowl, it’s overhyped
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Which makes me wonder… while the basilisk has a number of weaknesses and specific life cycle requirements to regulate it’s effects on the surrounding ecology, what would stop this little fella from completely depopulating the jungles, unless the Chang Nam reproduces at an extremely slow rate.
Is it only I or has anyone else here speculated about how the ecology would work (or fail) if magical creatures were actually real?
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Maybe it’s so small that most large animals don’t see it, and it’s herbivorous so it only shadow-kills potential threats? Everything is a potential threat at this size.
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Seems reasonable.
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