Tigers Pit Buddhists Against Officials
SAI YOK, Thailand — Saira Tahir, a London lawyer, waved a bamboo pole with a plastic bag affixed to the end high in the air. A 90-kilo tiger leapt and swatted it like a house cat batting a toy. For her $140 premium admission, she also bathed a tiger, bottle-fed a cub and posed for a photo with a tiger’s head in her lap.
“It’s a surreal experience being so close to them,” she said. “Even with the tiger’s head in your lap, you can feel the energy.”
Part Buddhist monastery and part petting zoo, the Tiger Temple in western Thailand has long been the bane of conservationists and animal rights activists who accuse it of abuse. Now, after complaints of trafficking in endangered species, the government is trying to shut down the attraction. But the temple has gone to court to block the closing. The government began removing the tigers this year but was ordered to stop. The case is mired in a legal standoff.
The Tiger Temple, in rural Kanchanaburi Province near the Myanmar border, started collecting animals 15 years ago with an act of charity. Villagers took an injured tiger cub to the local abbot, who agreed to care for it. Word spread, and soon there were six tigers.
“We built this temple to spread Buddhism,” said Supitpong Pakdjarung, who runs the temple’s business arm. “The tigers came by themselves.”
The tourists came next. Today, the temple takes in $ 5.7 million a year from ticket sales, wildlife officials say, and receives millions more in donations. A standard ticket, about $17, entitles a visitor to walk a leashed tiger and pose with a chained tiger.
The 15 or so monks who live on the grounds have little to do with the tigers. The temple promotes itself as a place where tigers betray their wild nature to coexist with humans in Buddhist harmony. “We can live together peacefully because of kindness,” Mr. Supitpong said.
The Buddhist imprimatur also makes the temple a powerful ad- versary. In Thailand, the moral authority of monks rivals the secular authority of the law.
The government has ordered the temple to stop breeding tigers, charging fees to tourists and letting visitors feed tigers, officials say, but the temple has refused. “The monks have the attitude, ‘I am over the law,’ ” said Teunchai Noochdumrong, the director of Thailand’s Wildlife Conservation Office.
For years, the temple has faced allegations of misconduct. Recently, a handler was caught on video punching a tiger in the head. Mr. Supitpong acknowledges that staff members sometimes have to strike the tigers to distract them from focusing on tourists as prey. “We have to hit them so we can change the tiger’s mood at the moment,” he said.
Last year, the temple’s veterinarian resigned and reported that three tigers had vanished from the temple.
While the temple tigers are not domesticated — their behavior can be unpredictable, and there have been several attacks — they are not wild, either, having been raised in captivity and unafraid of people. The 10 tigers removed by the government were taken to a government center, the Khao Prathap Chang Wildlife Breeding Center, in neighboring Ratchaburi Province.
Banpot Maleehuan, the government center’s director, said ending the tigers’ close contact with people had already been good for them. “They are becoming real tigers,” he said. “A tiger is a tiger, not a pet. They have to live their nature.”