Do
you want to meet a tiger? How about meeting 25? The Tiger Temple in
Kanchanaburi, a three-hour drive west of Bangkok near the border with Burma, is
home to a monastery of Buddhist monks who take care of a community of tigers and other abandoned animals and is definitely the place to go.
I made my way through the gate and followed a path surrounded by wild boar, goats and little pigs. I came to an area marked 'Tiger Canyon' and spotted a group of people with not just a few tigers but loads.
After being stripped of my personal things that were deemed to be of interest to tigers (handbag, sunglasses, scarves etc) one of the temple staff took my camera and another took my hand and led me towards a large tiger.
After being stripped of my personal things that were deemed to be of interest to tigers (handbag, sunglasses, scarves etc) one of the temple staff took my camera and another took my hand and led me towards a large tiger.
I
crouched down next to the tiger and at the same time that I instinctively
wanted to stroke the tiger I also didn’t because he was enormous and alarmingly
twitchy. A photo was snapped and I supposed that was my photo with a tiger done.
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| Twitchy Tiger in Kanchanaburi, Thailand |
But
no! That was not it. My new Thai friends led me to a pair of younger tigers
basking on a rock. My hand-holder positioned me and the other snapped away. I
stroked the flank of the nearest tiger and his fur was coarse but smooth. I
thought I had been introduced to a large tiger and some cute smaller tigers and
that was it.
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| Dozing Tigers in Thailand |
But
no! I was gradually introduced to all of the tigers in the canyon, even one who
had unfortunately rolled into a puddle of tiger wee. Despite it feeling bizarre
to be led around holding hands with a stranger and introduced to so many
different tigers, I loved it.
Other
than the one twitchy individual the tigers were all very chilled out, but the
temple maintains that they are not drugged. Some seemed half asleep in the
afternoon heat while others were wide-awake and curious. They all seemed very much
at ease with our presence and, for the most part, rather uninterested.
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| Wide-awake and curious Tiger, Thailand |
The
monks at Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno (the full Thai name of the monastery
that cares for the tigers) take in abandoned animals and are constantly
provided with them because of the Buddhist belief that it is wrong to end a
life, but also because locally it is considered lucky to donate an animal to
the monastery. This started with jungle fowl but ended up including peacocks,
wild boar, deer, buffalo, cows, horses and goats. Some young tiger cubs, who
were the victims of poaching killing their mothers, were introduced to the
monastery in 1999 and have since thrived and reproduced. They have lived their
whole lives with the monks and had close proximity with humans every day and
this is the reason given for their serenity, even when surrounded by tourists
and cameras.
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| Calm Tiger ignoring the tourists in Thailand |
A
member of staff told me there are currently 140 tigers living at the Tiger
Temple and they get through a metric tonne of cooked chicken a week. The entry
fee (600 Baht) seemed a little steep by Thai standards, but I was happy to take
home an amazing experience 9and a surprising number of photos of me with tigers, the ones shown here are only a few of the ones taken) whilst at the same time supporting the ongoing care
of these wonderful big cats.
The
Tiger Temple is a Buddhist monastery and visitors are requested to respect the
temple dress code and cover their chests, shoulders and legs. They are also
asked not to wear red, pink or orange.
