Definition
A “white elephant project” is a phrase which is used in reference to a financial endeavor which fails to live up to its expectations. A “white elephant project” can be used in reference to a completed project or one whose undertaking is still ongoing. The phrase has its origins in Southeast Asia which is home to Asian elephants known as white elephants due to their unusual pigmentation, which instead of being grey, have a pink pigmentation.
Origin Of The Term
The term “white elephant” has its origins traced to East Asia where populations of Asian elephants have lived closely with a human settlement for many centuries. Ancient kingdoms in East Asia particularly in present-day Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos regarded white elephants as sacred animals and had (and still have in the case of kingdoms in Thailand and Myanmar) laws protecting the animals. Only the extremely wealthy individuals in a kingdom were able to own a white elephant and in most cases, only the monarch owned these animals. While ownership of a white elephant commanded great respect in the kingdom, the owners of these animals had to incur great expenses to maintain the elephants which required huge amounts of forage.
A Bane!
Therefore, in these, a gift of a white elephant was usually seen as both a blessing as well as a curse; a blessing because a white elephant was a sacred animal and curse because maintenance cost was extremely expensive for an animal which had little (if any) practical use.
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Hankx : " The above can also be said For White Elephant Community Development Projects Tagged "White-Elephant" Community Development Projects-Projects in Sierra
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