Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, is a Buddhist temple in Western Thailand which keeps numerous animals, among them several tigers that walk around freely once a day and can be petted by visitors.
The Theravada Buddhist temple is located in the Saiyok district of Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, not far from the border with Myanmar, some 38 km north-west of Kanchanaburi along the 323 highway.
It was founded in 1994 as a forest temple and sanctuary for numerous wild animals. In 1995 it received the Golden Jubilee Buddha Image, made of 80 kilograms of gold.
Conservation organizations charge that the tigers at the temple are not rescued wild tigers, but are obtained by illegally trading with black market tiger farms. They say the real purpose is making money, not helping tigers. The groups also criticize the Tiger Temple for interbreeding different subspecies of tigers, which they say violates conservation principles. Abuse of tigers at the temple has been reported by some visitors. Some locals assert that the temple's stated goal of building a new sanctuary has been repeatedly put back as moving the tigers to a more natural environment would disrupt their ability to charge for photo opportunities with them.
An investigation by Care for the Wild International (CWI) revealed evidence of illegal tiger trade, animal cruelty, false conservation claims and visitor safety risks based on information collected between 2005 and 2008. The CWI investigative report was released on 20th June 2008.
