If you've been around long enough, you might have heard something being described as a white elephant.

A white elephant is something that is a burden, usually costly, that you can't get rid of.

Why did that particular color of that particular animal get picked to represent something so odious?

Learn more about white elephants and why they came to represent what they do on this episode of

Everything Everywhere Daily. Given the English phrase, a white elephant, you might be surprised to learn that the origin of white elephants is actually rather positive.

The earliest reference to a white elephant comes from the ancient Hindu piran attacks.

In it they tell the God Indra was a white elephant. In fact to the stay Indra is usually depicted riding on his white elephant which is named

Aravada. This depiction of a white elephant is a powerful and holy symbol goes back thousands of years to the very origins of Hinduism.

Today we tend to think of Hinduism as just being a religion that centered in India.

However, centuries ago, it was the predominant religion over a of what we call Southeast Asia.

Many famous temples and ruins in Southeast Asia actually had Hindu origins. Angor Watt in Cambodia was

originally Hindu as was promenade in Indonesia and the My son temples in Vietnam.

It also so happens that Southeast Asia, as well as India and parts of Eastern China,

were the original habitat of the Asian elephant.

Hinduism was replaced by Theravatic Buddhism in most of Southeast Asia

about a thousand to five hundred years ago.

Theravadic Buddhism actually borrows several customs and traditions from Hinduism,

one of which, at least in Southeast Asia, was a reference for the White Elephant.

Buddhism also had its own references to White Elephants as well.

According to legend, Maya, the mother of the Buddha, was impregnated by a White Elephant.

What exactly makes White elephants so special? White elephants

are elephants that exhibit albinism. Albinism is a condition that can exist in

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