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| Volunteering at The Tiger Temple, Thailand If you would like to volunteer at the temple, you need to contact the temple directly. email:- webmaster@tigertemple.org or fax:- 00 66 34 531 558 |
| We sent them details about ourselves and asked when we could go, as we were willing and able to fit in with them. We were told that we could volunteer and that we should let them know when we would be arriving. Give them dates before you book flights in case you happen to have picked an unsuitable time. We were only able to volunteer for one week, but it seems that you can stay for as long as you want. We had no real idea what we would be doing or what to expect. Fortunately we are pretty much ready for anything, but for those who need a little further information, read on: |
| Accommodation: If there is room, you can stay on the temple grounds. If there is room, you can stay at a local house off temple grounds. There is a guest house near the temple, but transport to and from could be difficult. |
 Alan's Bed |
 Karen's Room |
 Alan's Shower Block |
 Karen's Shower |
We chose to stay on temple grounds. Even though we are married, we were not allowed to share a room or even touch each other while on temple grounds. Alan stayed with the monks in the sala (temple) and his bed was the bench as shown with no mattress. The room is open, which is good for stargazing but not so good for insect bites. Karen’s room was exactly that - a room - in a women's accommodation block. There is no furniture, not even a bed. A mat is provided to sleep on but you may want a blow-up lilo or something of that sort. Alan had an eastern toilet and a dustbin shower in an outside block with an earth floor and a frog for company. Karen had a nice tiled floor with a western toilet and choice of a dustbin shower or an electric one (the dustbin was the better choice!) | |||
| Food: Breakfast is the only meal served on temple grounds. Breakfast consists of whatever has been donated to the monks that morning. Curries, rice, fried eggs, fruit and vegetables are almost always present. Some mornings there is cake and sweets - you never know what you might get. |  Breakfast |
| If you want more than one meal a day, there are various options: You can save food from breakfast to eat later, but do not eat it on temple grounds or in front of the monks. Just outside the temple gates in the reception area, there is a charity food house which has been set up by the abbot to provide a meal free of charge to anyone who needs it. You can get a meal here until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. You will not be charged, but you can pay for it by making a small donation. Some of the tiger staff live on site and they often go out for food about 6 o’clock in the evening. Ensure that you arrange for food to be collected for you if you want it. If you don’t ask, you may not get! The abbot will pay for your meal as he wants his volunteers to be happy and realises that most people are not used to one meal a day like the monks. You must allow your meal to be paid for. It is a very small sum and you can always make a donation at the end of your stay to cover what has been paid out. | |
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You may be able to borrow a motorbike, in which case you can go to the local market or takeaway yourself. It is too far to walk. | |
| Work: While we were at the temple, the cubs were nearly six months old. Almost every morning, we helped clean out the cubs cages and gave them a bath. While cleaning out cub cages, we were in the cages with them. Big tiger cubs are like big kittens. They want to play, they play using teeth and claws, and they will grab you. Bearing in mind that they are almost Labrador sized, you must keep up your guard. One morning we cleaned out the big tiger cages. Only experienced tiger staff can enter a cage with a tiger still in it. The cages are designed so that a tiger can be locked into any one of four quarters of the cage, so there is no need to be in the cage with them at all.
We helped take the tigers down to the canyon for the afternoon. It is an amazing experience to walk along beside a 300-400 pound tiger while resting your hand on his back so he knows where you are. Some of the tigers are on leads to go to the canyon but most of them just amble along beside you, slowly and patiently. Once in the canyon, the real work begins for us. There is no real need to help with the tigers as there are staff employed to look after them. The staff also work in the canyon, taking visitors up to the tigers and taking photographs. Most of the staff only speak Thai and most of the visitors speak no Thai. We spent 4 to 5 hours each day organising visitors, advising them of what they could and could not do and answering questions. If you are going to volunteer, this is where you will be most useful. Do a bit of research about the temple and it’s history, the individual tigers and tigers in general and the plans for the future. Most common questions were about the individual tigers, how old they are, how many tigers here, what their names are. Questions about tigers in general included, how many species of tigers there were, how much they weigh and do they get the same diseases as domestic cats. Other common questions were, are the tigers drugged (no) and are they vegetarian (no). Fortunately we knew a lot of the answers to start with and what we didn't know on the first day, we had learned by the second! We also got involved in taking photographs and one day Alan was tiger guard at the bottom of the canyon while the cubs were swimming. His job was to stop the cubs running too far from the pool so that they couldn't run up to the other tigers and visitors and cause general chaos. We were willing to help with anything, and having animal handling experience (although not with tigers), we were confident with the tigers while still being respectful and on our guard. Because of this, we were allowed to help with everything and were also allowed to be on our own with the cubs. The temple will always accept help on a more professional level than casual volunteer work. If you have experience of large wild animals, or running a zoo or wild animal sanctuary, then consider working here for a while. As well as the tigers, there are many other animals on site, which could provide great experience for trainee vets, for example. |
