The Asian elephants at the San Diego zoo. The Asian elephant can weigh up to 5400 kg (11,900 lb). The Asian elephant once ranged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in ancient Mesopotamia in the west, east through Asia south of the Himalaya to Indochina and the Malay Peninsula, including Sri Lanka and Sumatra and possibly Java, and north into China at least as far as the Yangtze River. The Asian elephant has been domesticated for centuries; it is intelligent and docile when well treated.