About the Tiger Temple of Thailand

Situated within day-trip distance of Bangkok, Thailand's Tiger Temple offers its visitors what will be for most the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a close encounter, and perhaps even personal interaction with a fully grown tiger. Throngs of tourists make their way out to the Tiger Temple, either to see only the temple or as part of a larger tour of the surrounding area. Despite its serene setting, however, it is alleged that the Tiger Temple is not as benevolent as is sometimes claimed.

Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, or the "Tiger Temple" as it is popularly known, is located in Kanchanaburi Province. The province is situated in west-central Thailand, along the border with Myanmar and about 80 miles from Bangkok. The Tiger Temple is a Theravada Buddhist temple, and in that respect it is like nearly all the temples in Thailand. The temple itself was founded in 1994 and got into the wildlife refuge business when local villagers brought the temple a tiger cub in the late 1990s. That cub led to the transportation of tigers and other animals from a variety of sources to the temple refuge.

The tigers at the temple are relatively passive because they were raised by the monks. For this reason, approaching the tigers in their ravine-based refuge and even touching them are routine features of Tiger Temple tours. Most of the tigers are of the Indochinese variety, although there is one Bengal tiger in the refuge.

Tours

The Tiger Temple's home of Kachanaburi as a whole is most famous for the "Death Railway" and the World War Two railway bridges that served as the inspiration for the book and subsequent film "Bridge Over the River Kwai." The concrete and steel bridge, one of two built at the site in 1943, continues to stand today. The bridge and its associated museum and war cemetery serve as the main point of interest for tours in the province, many of which visit the Tiger Temple as well. Half-day and full-day tours of the Tiger Temple and other Kanchanburi Province sights are available in virtually every guest house, hotel and tourist agency in Bangkok. If you are already in Kanchanaburi Province, you can travel to the Tiger Temple on your own and see the tigers that way as well.

Controversy

The Tiger Temple has been mired in controversy ever since Care for the Wild International released a 2008 report damning the Tiger Temple for improper care of its tigers and engaging in the illegal tiger trade. The general theme of the criticism leveled at the Tiger Temple is that the presence of the tigers has little to do with creating a tiger refuge and is mostly or entirely a tourist gimmick. The ongoing stir resulted in the temple suing the Thai environmental group Wildlife Friends of Thailand in February 2010.

Even if the allegations were untrue, the Tiger Temple is not a rehabilitation center, as there are no plans to reintroduce the existing generation of tigers into the wild. According to the temple's website, there are plans to acquire a larger property to serve as a tiger reserve and begin a rehabilitation program with any new tiger cubs brought to the temple after that.

Sources: tigertemplethailand.com; careforthewild.com/files/TigerTemplereport08_final_v11.pdf; news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080620-tiger-temple.html; womenlearnthai.com/index.php/thailands-tiger-temple-sues-conservationists/]