Tiger Temple - Kanchanaburi
Now
over ten years old, this beautiful Buddhist temple
keeps and cares for numerous animals, most notably
the tigers, who can be stroked by visitors.
The first tiger cub didn't arrive until 1999 and
sadly it died after being taken to the temple
by local villagers. As adult tigers fell victim to poachers, several cubs were given
to the temple and so far a further several cubs have been
born. There are currently more than a dozen tigers who call
the temple home!
Once
a day, the tigers are led on leashes to their own quarry where
they can roam around, with visitors able to watch from around
10m away.
More
often than not, one of the monks will bring one of the tamest
tiger to be stroked by visitors.
Donations
can be made at the temple and the Monks continue to collect
funds in order to build a larger sanctuary which would allow
the tigers to live in a more natural habitat.
Although
the tigers appear tame, let's not forget these are still naturally
wild animals. Sudden movements and too many camera flashes
at one time can spook them. However in ten years there has
only been one serious attack on a visitor, who survived!
Young children are not allowed near the animals and will not be allowed into the quarry where the tigers roam free!
Young children are not allowed near the animals and will not be allowed into the quarry where the tigers roam free!
Wat
Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger TempleKanchanaburi-Sai Yok Road
Open daily: 9.00am - 4.30pm
Entry Fee: 400 Th.Baht
ATTENTION Although I have been to the Tiger Temple on more than one occasion, the recent press and animal abuse pictures have made me concerned that all is not as it seems. From a tourist point of view all seems well, but details and pictures leaked seem to indicate something different. Please read HERE before you decide whether to go and visit yourself.
Posting from www.tigertempletruth.com
The following report was written by a British tourist, visiting
the Tiger Temple on a tourist day trip from Bangkok, at the end of
December 2009. This is the full report, and has not been edited or
changed.
"Despite hearing mixed reviews on
the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi , Thailand - some tourists saying it
was a good experience, other tourists and ex-volunteers saying it was
horrible - my husband and I decided that we would go to the temple
anyway, and make our own minds up. I sincerely wish that we hadn't.
We both paid 4500 Thai Baht (approx £84 GBP, 95 Euros, 135 US Dollars)
to be allowed into the Tiger Temple for the morning feeding session.
After being led up to the temple pavillion where the monks were praying,
we were both given a baby's bottle of milk, which was put into a
tiger's mouth for us. I thought my cub looked a bit too big to be having
a bottle, and when I asked how old he was, I was told by Tiger Temple
staff he was 1 year old.
"I checked on the
internet afterwards, and found out that a tiger cub in captivity, when
treated properly, can be weaned off milk and onto solid food in 16
weeks. I can only assume that this 1 year old tiger at the temple was still being bottle fed like a baby to please the tourists. I was pretty uncomfortable with this, but didn't say anything at the time.
"We were then introduced to 2 tiny 1 week old baby tiger cubs, and the temple staff asked the tourists not to pick them up as their
spines were still forming and soft, and could be easily damaged.
Several tourists ignored this and manhandled the cubs, but were not told
off by the staff. One staff member told us that she was
handrearing the cubs. I was concerned as everyone knows babies need
their mum, and asked if the mother tiger was ok. The staff member told
me that the mother tiger was fine, but that they
had taken the cubs off her after birth in order to make them more
attached to humans and to be friendlier with the tourists. I was
starting to realise that this was not about the happiness of the tigers,
but all about the tourists, pleasing us and taking our money."After the bottle
feeding, all of the tourists including myself and my husband, were
ushered out by Tiger Temple staff. My husband and I both walked a tiger,
who had chains and leads on, down to an exercise area. Here we were
both given 'cat toys' to tease the tigers with. Some had balloons on,
which would pop and scare the tigers, others had noisy plastic buckets
on sticks. Some of the younger, more playful tigers - the ones who had
been taken from their mothers very early and handreared - seemed to like
this, but the older tigers were wary of the sticks and shyed away from the Tiger Temple staff members and tourists."During both the
feeding session and the exercise activity, we had our cameras taken off
us by the staff, who took photographs for us. I would have liked to take
my own photographs too, but I was not allowed to. The staff knew what it was ok to take photos of and what we were not allowed to document.
"Once the 'exercise
session' was over, again we were ushered outside like we were on a
conveyor belt. We were pushed by the staff towards one of the tigers in
order to give him a bath. He was doused in
water by the staff and smeared in shampoo, so we could rub him and pose
for the camera with him all soapy. The shampoo didn't look like any type
of special pet shampoo, just the normal human kind. After we had
10 or so photographs taken, we were ushered away and another couple of
tourists took our place and washed him. Our tiger has his ears back for
the whole shampooing session, and looked very unhappy, which as an animal lover was not pleasant to see. He was also chained to the wall on a very short lead.
"After the 20 or so
tourists had all had a turn at shampooing a tiger, and had all posed for
photographs, we were led down to a place called the Tiger Canyon, where
10 larger tigers were firstly chained up, and later made to perform
tricks jumping into a small pool of water. We were all warned about the
dangers of tigers, before being placed behind a flimsy metal barrier.
The Tiger Temple Thai staff were on hand to keep the tigers away from
us. They did this by banging the ground and shoving the tigers away with
tools such as spades, pickaxes and long metal poles. One
Thai temple staff member went to hit the ground in front of one of the
tigers with his pickaxe, in order to keep him from coming too close to
us, but the pickaxe hit the tiger in the paw instead, and the tiger made
a small noise of pain and leapt away to lick his paw.
"After watching the way the tigers were treated - roughly, with no respect, and like they were pieces of meat there to make money
- both my husband and I were quite upset by this point. Because we had
paid our 4500 Baht each, we were entitled to come back to the Tiger
Temple in the afternoon to have a 'special photograph' taken with one of
the big tigers in the Canyon. I didn't want to come back, but by this
point I had already decided I would write a report, or letter of
complaint to someone, and so needed to experience the whole day.
In the afternoon, the experience was much more upsetting.
The morning sessions had about 20 other tourists there, many on trips
organised by tour operators like our tour was, but in the afternoon,
there were hundreds and hundreds of noisy tourists all wanting
photographs. The crowd was told to line up, and then we took it in turns
to be dragged around each of the temple tigers who were chained in the
canyon, to have our photos taken with them.
"The tigers nearly all
looked unconscious. We were told by Richard, an Australian man in
charge of the non-Thai tourists, that the Tiger Temple tigers were very
heavy sleepers, and that at this time of the afternoon they were always
out cold.
"The
tigers heads were picked up and dropped heavily into our laps for us to
pose with, but the tiger I was with didn't make a sound or move a
muscle, it's like he had no idea where he was, or what was happening to
him. I've seen that before in my domestic pet cats, but only when they have been sedated by the vet and are unconcious.
It made me wonder how, if the tigers sleep as heavily in the wild as
they do in the Tiger Temple, the tiger species is not extinct yet!
Everytime a tiger fell asleep in the wild, it would be able to be
captured or killed without it moving a muscle. I don't believe a tiger can sleep so deeply without being sedated in some way.
"The way the tigers were treated at the temple throughout the day showed a huge lack of respect.
The whole day was designed to please tourists, providing them with
souvenir photographs, and little thought seemed to be put into the
tigers e.g. how they were feeling, what would be good for them (like
staying with their mothers until weaned for example, and not being hit
with pickaxes!). Some of the tigers were very
thin, others were grossly overweight, and at least one male tiger I saw,
called Yak Yak, had very bad green diarrhea and did not look healthy at
all.
"That we actually paid
to see tigers being mistreated and used only as a means of making money
makes me very sad. I feel guilty that I have contributed to helping to
fund the Tiger Temple by paying to be let inside. The only thing that
has helped me to feel better is the hope that some other tourists will
read this and it will put them off going to the Tiger Temple.
"From both my point of
view as a tourist, and as an animal lover, I have never felt more
cheated than on my day at the Tiger Temple. "
