PHANG NGA, Thailand — He gave blood for those injured in last week's tsunami, but Ladtongtae Meepan wanted to do more.

"It wasn't enough for me," he said. "Every day I stayed at home and watched TV."

Viewing the massive rescue work and cleanup under way in six southern Thai provinces, Ladtongtae decided to donate some of his own heavy equipment — his elephants.

"The guys from the local rescue team told me they could work like backhoes," said Ladtongtae, who runs an elephant camp in Ayutthaya, the ancient Thai capital north of Bangkok.

The elephants, once used to fight wars, are trained for special tasks, from moving logs to acting in movies. Ladtongtae trucked six of them to the hardest-hit coastal region in Thailand, more than 500 miles away. The first two arrived Sunday; they recovered a body and pulled a van from a river.

"They go where the trucks can't go — in forests and in places with many trees," said Ladtongtae's daughter, Laitonglian.

Thousands of other volunteers have arrived from across Thailand to help in the aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami. They include students, factory workers, professionals and others who are using vacation time or unpaid leave. The volunteers sort through rubble, retrieve bodies, offer counseling, serve meals and distribute donated clothes and food.

Doing something positive and constructive, they say, is their way of coping with the incomprehensible.

"I feel better," Ladtongtae said. He brought his elephants to Ban Neang village, near Khao Lak beach, a largely upscale resort area in the province of Phang Nga. About 80 percent of the deaths in Thailand, which top 5,000, have been reported in Phang Nga.

The province is known for a scenic bay on its southeastern side, with limestone caves and islands that served as a backdrop for the James Bond film "The Man With the Golden Gun." On the west are miles of beaches lined with coconut palms and casuarina trees; the beaches curve along the Andaman Sea and have been a popular destination for foreign tourists.

But much of it now is wasteland.

Cars are crushed and upturned against trees, boats have been tossed into the jungle, and fields are littered with debris. While many of the large hotels remained standing, their first two floors were gutted by the giant waves. Guests and employees were trapped in rooms or couldn't outrun the waves.

Everywhere is the whiff of death.

Thousands of bodies are still unaccounted for, and collecting them has been gruesome and challenging work under the blazing sun.

"The first day was easy," said Somnuck Kijsamut, chief of a volunteer unit. "Now the bodies are buried under mud and debris. We need a machine and tools to get them out."

Somnuck volunteered because the garment factory where he is employed near Bangkok was closed for the holidays. "I'm happy to work for society," he said.

The members of his unit collect corpses, wrap them in cloth and do basic forensic work, such as noting the clothes and personal accessories on the bodies.

"The work is tiring and emotional, especially when the parents are looking for a son or daughter," said Chanipat Chareonsukploypon, 20, who works in his family's sewing factory in Bangkok. "It's very sad."

Another member of the team, Prapapun Jongchitgang, 28, was one of only three women recovering bodies at Khao Lak amid hundreds of men. "I had spare time and want to use it to make merit," she said.

Most Thais are Buddhists, and making merit is an important part of their lives. Most do it by giving money to worthy causes, such as supporting monks at the local temple. But people with little money instead volunteer their time and labor. Buddhists believe that the more merit one accrues, the more likely he or she will be reincarnated as a higher being.

Much merit is being made at the moment.

Most of the volunteers are working shifts of 12 hours or more. The task of collecting bodies is expected to wind down this week, even if some are never found. Some bodies may be hidden in the watery mangrove forests; others may be trapped in the coral reefs.

"The number of casualties is unbelievable," said Vichet Chindavanig, a dentist from Bangkok who is volunteering at a temple-turned-morgue in Takua Pa district.

He acknowledged it was difficult, grisly work. But he tried to be philosophical. "This is nature," Vichet said. "And if we understand nature, we know that everything changes every second. The earth is always moving."

A colleague of Vichet's wandered through a hotel lobby at 2 a.m. one day this week, unable to sleep because of his work. "I see corpses when I close my eyes," the man said, visibly shaking.

Said Sriyon Chaichana, a professional rescue worker who has been searching for bodies for a week now, "It's a special work. Not everybody can do this."

He said he only wishes he had arrived sooner so he could have saved more people. He helped rescue five people stuck in trees or trapped in buildings.

"The rest," he said, "we couldn't help."