Kanchanaburi -- Tiger Temple

On Saturday morning, Charnice and I left early in the morning for Kanchanaburi. Our express purpose for the visit was to go to the Tiger Temple there we had heard about. What is the Tiger Temple, you might ask? It is a Buddhist temple that had a history of serving as a wildlife refuge, and a few years ago was brought an orphaned, poisoned tiger cub who had been captured and hurt by poachers. The monks cared for her, and though she died from complications, they continued to take in tigers orphaned as a result of poaching. They now have upwards of a dozen tigers living in the temple, and are building a larger habitat for them.

Now, I had heard mixed reports about this place. On the one hand, it sounds like a good place. On the other, I heard online that the tigers were mistreated, that it had turned from a good idea into a purely moneymaking endeavor, and that I should boycott it. But we went anyway, and...I really can't tell if the tigers were mistreated or not. They certainly wouldn't win any friends amongst those who think keeping animals in captivity is a crime, but the tigers didn't seem particularly ill-used.

In deference to the tourists and the extremely awesome photo-op, the way the temple operates is this: for about three hours, the tigers are chained in this canyon and volunteers take the visitors around one by one and photograph them with the big cats. Unlike the elephant farm my mom and I went to, the tigers have enough slack on their chains to get up and pace - as we saw at the end of the day, when they were getting ready to go back to their pens - but since this is during the hottest part of the day the tigers seemed perfectly content to just lie there sleeping, unfazed by the dozens of people petting them. I have to say, although the pictures were a nice bonus, I went in there just so I could pet a tiger:


In point of fact, I got to pet six tigers there, plus two other six month old tigers in a subsequent area. The cubs I felt worse for. While the adults were content to sleep, the young ones clearly wanted to move and play, but were instead chained up.

So should the Tiger Temple be boycotted? I really can't say...as I said, the tigers had better conditions, from what I could tell, than the ones at the elephant farm where they were heavily chained for longer and then released into small cages. Here they had larger pens, and an even bigger habitant was under construction (though rumor has it that its been much-delayed...but all construction here seems to take an eternity). I felt bad for the tiger cubs, but what is the alternative? Release them into the wild where they can't fend for themselves and are likely to get picked off by poachers? I don't know what's the best thing for them.


But moral musings aside, it was an exciting trip. After making the tiger circuit and wandering around the grounds observing the other animals (horses, oxen, cows, peacocks...lot of creatures), we ended up back in the tiger canyon just as the volunteers made an interesting announcement. If we hung out there for ten more minutes, the tigers would be returning to their pens, and we could walk alongside one of the (more tame) tigers (only long enough to get a picture, naturally - it is Thailand, after all). So, Charnice and I did.


Incidentally, in half of the photos taken of me with the tigers I'm looking down, more focused on petting the tiger than anything else. They're so cute. So dangerous - you have to sign a waiver going in - but so, so beautiful.



On the second day, we went on a tour around Kanchanaburi (which is incidentally the location of the famous Bridge Over the River Kwai, which we saw), and went up to Erawan falls - that's right, more waterfalls. But in the interest of not making too many long image heavy posts (because they're annoying to edit), that'll go up tomorrow or Wednesday. In the meantime, here's a tiger drinking from a water bottle:



Everyone with me - "awwwwwwwwww!"