Exalted place in native folklore ... Acharn Phusit with some of his charges. When they misbehave he appeals to their better nature. (Photo: Tibor Krausz)February 3, 2007
The Age (Australia)
Tibor Krausz feels ever so humble cuddling the tiger kings of the jungle in Thailand.
Cane in one hand, leash in the other, the abbot seems like an elderly country gentleman on his afternoon stroll. At a gnarled monkey-bread tree, Skywards, his pet, lifts his tail and with a quick, well-aimed squirt lays claims to the premises. Some of the musky fluid ends up on my shoe.
Acharn Phusit chuckles: "Ha ha, souvenir for you!" Let's hope Skywards (Hernfa in Thai) will forfeit his territorial rights on me. He's a four-year-old Indo-Chinese tiger, whose casual swipe of a paw could seriously compromise my general wellbeing, to say the least.
The abbot of Wat Luangta Bua Yannasampanno is walking him down to Tiger Valley, an unused quarry on this forest monastery's 122 hectares in Kanchanaburi province, 150 kilometres west of Bangkok.
There, his 16 other tigers are already on their daily recreational outing. Some of the big cats loll in the shade of outcrops, others laze drowsily atop rocks. The four eight-month-old cubs are splashing merrily around in the pond at the back.
On their way here through the forested temple grounds, the boisterous cubs sometimes take off after one of the scores of water buffalo, wild boars, barking deer, ponies and peacocks that share the poacher-free shelter of the monastery, scaring the living daylights out of the grazing animals with a playful dash. Pampered older tigers, too lazy to walk in the scorching afternoon heat, may in turn hitch piggyback rides on one of the five resident monks.
The abbot, a sinewy man in his late 50s with spectacles, warns visitors to stay safely behind tigers and avoid stepping on their tails by accident. The fearsome predators may seem harmlessly relaxed like pet cats on their siesta, yet an instinctive lunge could eviscerate a human. If a tiger turned violent, there would be little the monks and their dozens of volunteer helpers could do. They are armed only with water bottles.
"If you splash the tigers in the face, they stop whatever they're doing and slink away," says Arvind, a 20-year-old Indian-American veterinary student on a two-week stint as a volunteer. He has an ugly scar on a bicep and another on a shoulder. "Ah, it's nothing. Some of the cubs like to play rough, that's all," he says.
In true Buddhist style, the abbot himself disciplines unruly felines only by appealing to the animals' better nature. "If they get naughty, I scold them," he says. "I tell them, 'Be good and don't bring shame on yourself.' I need to educate them, you see."
In his native land, Acharn Phusit (Chan) Khantitharo has become something of a celebrity. Thais from all around the country make pilgrimages to his "Tiger Temple", bringing their most prized amulets to have their magical potency recharged in the atavistic ambience of fearsome predators tamed by a holy man. The temple also has meditation courses for laypeople intent on "taming the tiger within" by ridding themselves of arrogance and anger through techniques centred on concepts of the majestic beast. Tigers occupy an exalted place in native folklore and retain a pivotal essence in Buddhist spirituality from Cambodia to Tibet.
Acharn Phusit tells me to lower myself into the folded-knee lotus position; I'm not to start meditating, though. "Hold his head like that, good for the pictures," he says, and I find myself cradling the head of Storm (Phayu) in my lap.
Storm, a seven-year-old male, is a bit of a show-off. He loves posing for photographs but hates the sweet smell of perfume worn by some tourists. Recently he has gained national fame by starring in a local soap opera appropriately called The Tiger and filmed at the monastery. Storm yawns, baring his fangs; I have a brush with cardiac arrest.
Storm is a reigning patriarch in the Tiger Temple, having arrived in 1999. He was a helpless, mewling week-old cub. Acharn Phusit had by then acquired a reputation with locals as a Dr Doolittle of sorts treating and feeding a variety of injured wild animals and abandoned pets brought to his care.
A few weeks later Storm jnr and Lightning, his twin brother, were brought to the monastery by locals. The cubs' mother had been killed by poachers. "I didn't know what to do with them but I couldn't just let them die," Acharn Phusit recalls. With the abbot's reputation firmly established as a guardian of tigers, soon another cub was brought, and another. "Poachers think the bad karma of killing a tigress is cancelled out by saving her cubs," he says. Sadly, he can look forward to many more cubs.
The more scarce they become the more prized they are dead. A slain tiger can earn poachers as much as $7600 on the black market - a fortune in rural Thailand and far more so in impoverished Burma. The carcasses are then smuggled to apothecaries in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, where they become indispensable ingredients for holistic remedies to treat conditions such as arthritis, malaria and acne. Most valued, though, are the genitals of male cats, dubiously credited with restorative properties for flagging manhood.
Probably no more than 150 Indo-Chinese tigers remain at large in the fast-shrinking jungles of South-East Asia. Already many more tigers live in captivity than in the wild. Several of the Tiger Temple's 17 cats were born here. The abbot is busy laying in funds for Tiger Island, a special five-hectare reserve protected by a deep moat, which will afford a more natural environment for his charges. Plans are also afoot for future generations of the temple tigers to be released back into the wild.
None of the current residents would stand much of a chance in the jungle. Lightning, a regal-looking but temperamental fellow, loves getting massages and mischievous Sky Place enjoys cuddling with her keepers and often pillows her head on the monks' feet during naps.
Destination Kanchanaburi
* IF YOU GO
Kanchanaburi province is popular with tourists thanks to its wide range of attractions, including the famous Bridge over the River Kwai and an adjacent war cemetery of WWII Allied prisoners. It also has scenic waterfalls, nature reserves rich in wildlife, exquisite Buddhist shrines, fine restaurants, jungle treks and elephant rides.
* GETTING THERE
Kanchanaburi is a three-hour drive north-west of Bangkok. Most travel agencies in Bangkok have guided tours of the province and metered taxis in the capital can be hired for day trips. Wat Luangta Bua Yannasampanno (popularly known as The Tiger Temple) is about 30km outside Kanchanaburi. Taxi drivers will take visiting foreigners to the monastery; make sure, though, to settle on the fare first and don't feel inhibited about bargaining. The monastery (open for visitors, 1-5pm daily) has started conducting its own one-, two- and three-day tours from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, including a photogenic visit with the temple's resident felines. Trips start from 3800 baht ($137) a person.
For reservations: email tours@tigertemplethailand.com or phone (66) 01 308 2300
* WORDS OF CAUTION
Some tourist traps have photo opportunities with sedated uncaged tigers but the animals in the monastery are not sedated, so exercise caution. The tigers' handlers warn against wearing red clothes, making loud noises, moving suddenly or behaving boisterously near the animals.
For further information, see www.tigertemplethailand.com.
Cane in one hand, leash in the other, the abbot seems like an elderly country gentleman on his afternoon stroll. At a gnarled monkey-bread tree, Skywards, his pet, lifts his tail and with a quick, well-aimed squirt lays claims to the premises. Some of the musky fluid ends up on my shoe.
Acharn Phusit chuckles: "Ha ha, souvenir for you!" Let's hope Skywards (Hernfa in Thai) will forfeit his territorial rights on me. He's a four-year-old Indo-Chinese tiger, whose casual swipe of a paw could seriously compromise my general wellbeing, to say the least.
The abbot of Wat Luangta Bua Yannasampanno is walking him down to Tiger Valley, an unused quarry on this forest monastery's 122 hectares in Kanchanaburi province, 150 kilometres west of Bangkok.
There, his 16 other tigers are already on their daily recreational outing. Some of the big cats loll in the shade of outcrops, others laze drowsily atop rocks. The four eight-month-old cubs are splashing merrily around in the pond at the back.
On their way here through the forested temple grounds, the boisterous cubs sometimes take off after one of the scores of water buffalo, wild boars, barking deer, ponies and peacocks that share the poacher-free shelter of the monastery, scaring the living daylights out of the grazing animals with a playful dash. Pampered older tigers, too lazy to walk in the scorching afternoon heat, may in turn hitch piggyback rides on one of the five resident monks.
The abbot, a sinewy man in his late 50s with spectacles, warns visitors to stay safely behind tigers and avoid stepping on their tails by accident. The fearsome predators may seem harmlessly relaxed like pet cats on their siesta, yet an instinctive lunge could eviscerate a human. If a tiger turned violent, there would be little the monks and their dozens of volunteer helpers could do. They are armed only with water bottles.
"If you splash the tigers in the face, they stop whatever they're doing and slink away," says Arvind, a 20-year-old Indian-American veterinary student on a two-week stint as a volunteer. He has an ugly scar on a bicep and another on a shoulder. "Ah, it's nothing. Some of the cubs like to play rough, that's all," he says.
In true Buddhist style, the abbot himself disciplines unruly felines only by appealing to the animals' better nature. "If they get naughty, I scold them," he says. "I tell them, 'Be good and don't bring shame on yourself.' I need to educate them, you see."
In his native land, Acharn Phusit (Chan) Khantitharo has become something of a celebrity. Thais from all around the country make pilgrimages to his "Tiger Temple", bringing their most prized amulets to have their magical potency recharged in the atavistic ambience of fearsome predators tamed by a holy man. The temple also has meditation courses for laypeople intent on "taming the tiger within" by ridding themselves of arrogance and anger through techniques centred on concepts of the majestic beast. Tigers occupy an exalted place in native folklore and retain a pivotal essence in Buddhist spirituality from Cambodia to Tibet.
Acharn Phusit tells me to lower myself into the folded-knee lotus position; I'm not to start meditating, though. "Hold his head like that, good for the pictures," he says, and I find myself cradling the head of Storm (Phayu) in my lap.
Storm, a seven-year-old male, is a bit of a show-off. He loves posing for photographs but hates the sweet smell of perfume worn by some tourists. Recently he has gained national fame by starring in a local soap opera appropriately called The Tiger and filmed at the monastery. Storm yawns, baring his fangs; I have a brush with cardiac arrest.
Storm is a reigning patriarch in the Tiger Temple, having arrived in 1999. He was a helpless, mewling week-old cub. Acharn Phusit had by then acquired a reputation with locals as a Dr Doolittle of sorts treating and feeding a variety of injured wild animals and abandoned pets brought to his care.
A few weeks later Storm jnr and Lightning, his twin brother, were brought to the monastery by locals. The cubs' mother had been killed by poachers. "I didn't know what to do with them but I couldn't just let them die," Acharn Phusit recalls. With the abbot's reputation firmly established as a guardian of tigers, soon another cub was brought, and another. "Poachers think the bad karma of killing a tigress is cancelled out by saving her cubs," he says. Sadly, he can look forward to many more cubs.
The more scarce they become the more prized they are dead. A slain tiger can earn poachers as much as $7600 on the black market - a fortune in rural Thailand and far more so in impoverished Burma. The carcasses are then smuggled to apothecaries in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, where they become indispensable ingredients for holistic remedies to treat conditions such as arthritis, malaria and acne. Most valued, though, are the genitals of male cats, dubiously credited with restorative properties for flagging manhood.
Probably no more than 150 Indo-Chinese tigers remain at large in the fast-shrinking jungles of South-East Asia. Already many more tigers live in captivity than in the wild. Several of the Tiger Temple's 17 cats were born here. The abbot is busy laying in funds for Tiger Island, a special five-hectare reserve protected by a deep moat, which will afford a more natural environment for his charges. Plans are also afoot for future generations of the temple tigers to be released back into the wild.
None of the current residents would stand much of a chance in the jungle. Lightning, a regal-looking but temperamental fellow, loves getting massages and mischievous Sky Place enjoys cuddling with her keepers and often pillows her head on the monks' feet during naps.
Destination Kanchanaburi
* IF YOU GO
Kanchanaburi province is popular with tourists thanks to its wide range of attractions, including the famous Bridge over the River Kwai and an adjacent war cemetery of WWII Allied prisoners. It also has scenic waterfalls, nature reserves rich in wildlife, exquisite Buddhist shrines, fine restaurants, jungle treks and elephant rides.
* GETTING THERE
Kanchanaburi is a three-hour drive north-west of Bangkok. Most travel agencies in Bangkok have guided tours of the province and metered taxis in the capital can be hired for day trips. Wat Luangta Bua Yannasampanno (popularly known as The Tiger Temple) is about 30km outside Kanchanaburi. Taxi drivers will take visiting foreigners to the monastery; make sure, though, to settle on the fare first and don't feel inhibited about bargaining. The monastery (open for visitors, 1-5pm daily) has started conducting its own one-, two- and three-day tours from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, including a photogenic visit with the temple's resident felines. Trips start from 3800 baht ($137) a person.
For reservations: email tours@tigertemplethailand.com or phone (66) 01 308 2300
* WORDS OF CAUTION
Some tourist traps have photo opportunities with sedated uncaged tigers but the animals in the monastery are not sedated, so exercise caution. The tigers' handlers warn against wearing red clothes, making loud noises, moving suddenly or behaving boisterously near the animals.
For further information, see www.tigertemplethailand.com.
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