The Old Elephant Route & Hollywood Religions

In some Hindu temples if you hold out a coin on your palm, the temple elephant will, after passing the money to it's master, bring it's trunk down on your head with a gentle thud. On my last trip to India I became slightly addicted to such blessings and sought out several a day - until one big old elephant, as if to point out I was being greedy, whacked me quite hard on the side of my head. Elephants and religion have a long relationship - and are the bookends of tomorrow nights viewing on the ABC.

The Old Elephant Route (ABC, tomorrow, 6.00pm) follows Prajna Chowta, a young Indian ethnologist, as she travels by elephant and on foot over 340 kilometres from Assam (India) to Northern Burma (now Myanmar) to find out what is left of the wild elephant herds. One of Prajna's particular interests is the elephant-human relationship, and certainly their kinship can be seen in the WWII footage in which tribal people and elephants alike are being driven out of Burma. Thousands of wild elephants were put to work to destroy their own habitat and died labouring on the teak fields. Now, the few tribes and wild elephants that exist are in direct competition and inevitably this has led to poaching.

This is a very beautiful, if sometimes depressing, documentary. It is both the story of a determined young woman - one with the dedication necessary to try and save a magnificent species - and of the elephants themselves, who also display extraordinary strength and courage. Except that is, in the face of bridges, leading to one of the documentary's most moving scenes.

The destruction of the earth and her species is enough to turn us to religion, though in Hollywood it seems that the essential emptiness of the pursuit of fame is what drives people to God. There is much to laugh about in Compass: Hollywood Religions (Tomorrow, 9:40PM, ABC) but also much to be touched by. If the filmmakers were just in it for the laughs the resulting documentary would be meaningless. Instead, with respect, and access to some terrific film clips they explore religion in all its manifestations: from the serious (Tibetan Buddhism and the Baptist and Gospel churches), to the slightly silly (Angel cults), to the ridiculous (the Partridge Family Temple, a cable TV church).

In last week's episode Hollywood Religions whipped through Buddhism, Angel Therapy, Wicca, Goddess Worship and Sweating Your Prayers. This week we take a tour of Kabbalah, a favourite of Madonna's; Agape, which mixes everything from Christianity and Islam to ancient Egyptian gods; the self-appointed New Age Self Help Gurus such as Deepak Chopra, and Gospel.

Those interviewed include Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy, church leaders, psychotherapists, Julia Ormond, Moon Unit Zappa and Dyan Cannon. Cannon has become is the preacher in her own church - Gods Party with Dyan Cannon. Me, I'm working on permission to set up a temple in inner city Melbourne: Elephants Party On.

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