Tak province has returned a pair of 400-year-old sacred elephant tusks to the Karen "long-haired hermit" community of Lay Tong Ku in Umphang district.

The handover ends a years-long dispute over the culturally significant artefacts.

The tusks were formally returned during a ceremony yesterday presided over by Umphang district chief Manoch Phoniaem. Villagers dressed in traditional Karen attire joined a procession to receive the revered objects.

Carved with Buddhist imagery in the Ayutthaya style, the tusks measure more than 1.7 metres in length and weigh more than 40 kilogrammes. For generations, they were enshrined at the village's hermit pavilion and regarded as spiritual guardians of the community.

However, the artefacts were stolen in 2017, when a former village leader smuggled them across the border into Myanmar.

Thai authorities later coordinated with the Karen Buddhist Democratic Army to recover the tusks. For security reasons, they were kept at the Umphang district office pending resolution of ownership.

Their return followed a petition submitted by village head Chor-Ku Rojsirichai, who argued that the tusks were the rightful cultural property of Lay Tong Ku and an important part of the community’s religious rites.