News Interactive, Bangkok - Taking their tigers for a walk is all in a day's work for a group of Thai monks who have given 10 of the wild animals sanctuary, saying they have nothing to fear because the big cats are Buddhists.
Phusit Khantidharo, the head monk of the Pha Luang Ba Tua temple, insists the tigers living at the temple in western Kanchanaburi province have adopted peaceful Buddhist ways.
"We're a big family here and we live together, not just with the tigers but many animals," says Phusit, sitting cross-legged on a rock surrounded by five large tigers who take turns to nuzzle up to their saffron-robed master.
The tigers, with names such as Storm, Lightning and Great Sky, live among monkeys, horses, deer, peacocks, geese and wild pigs in a scenic gully where they are free to roam and feed during the day.
Visitors to the remote temple, about 200km west of Bangkok, are invariably stunned by the sight of the monks frolicking with tigers as if they were pet cats.
One monk, who weighs less than half his furry companion, mock-fights with the big tiger, which lunges back gently with retracted claws.
The tigers, say the monks, are at their most frisky around dinner time when tourists are allowed to enter the gully to watch them eat.
"We're Buddhist monks so we can't kill to provide them with food, so we give them dog food paid for by donations to the temple - they enjoy the dog food," Phusit says.
The first tiger was brought to the temple in 1998 after being injured by a hunter, but died within days. Soon after, two sick cubs arrived with large knife wounds in their stomachs.
Inexperienced hunters had tried to cut them open and inject them with the preserving agent formalin in a bungled attempt to stuff them. Miraculously, they survived, and the temple quickly earned a reputation as a tiger haven.
When the villagers saw how we tended to the first tigers they brought others.
Despite the head monk's assurances the tigers have chosen the path of non-violence, some devotees living at the temple bear scars that look suspiciously like the work of the big cats, and locals living near the temple say there have been a handful of maulings.
Phusit concedes the temple grounds are a less than ideal home for his striped guests.
"We've started building an area in which they can roam (about 5ha), and eventually we want to send them back to the forest once they are ready to return," he says.
"When we've built the enclosure we can keep about 30 tigers, but we can only build it as fast as we raise funds, we have another pregnant tiger here and yes, I worry."
