Landmark Bangkok, Thailand
Cats in Temple cats
Bangkok’s temples take in the cats nobody else will, and the monks feed them on almost nothing. Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and the quieter ones where the cats outnumber the visitors.
Where to find cats in Temple cats: The temples of old Bangkok: Wat Pho and Wat Arun by the river, and the neighbourhood temples of Banglamphu and beyond. When: Early morning, when the monks have done the feeding and before the heat. November to February for the weather. Why here: The temples are where Bangkok’s unwanted animals end up, and the monks look after them on compassion and very little else.
The short version
- Where
- The temples of old Bangkok: Wat Pho and Wat Arun by the river, and the neighbourhood temples of Banglamphu and beyond
- When
- Early morning, when the monks have done the feeding and before the heat. November to February for the weather
- How long
- A morning for Wat Pho and Wat Arun. A day if you add the quiet temples
- What it costs
- Wat Pho and Wat Arun have tickets for foreigners. The neighbourhood temples are free, and so are their cats
- Why here
- The temples are where Bangkok’s unwanted animals end up, and the monks look after them on compassion and very little else
What to bring
- Shoes that slip offOff at the door of every shrine hall. Shoulders and knees covered, everywhere; the Grand Palace checks, the rest expect.
- Small baht for the temple boxesThe monks feed the animals from donations. A note in the box is food for a week.
- Seven in the morningWat Pho opens early. The cats are out after the morning alms and asleep in the shade by ten.
- Nothing for the catsThe temples feed them. Leave the sausage-on-a-stick to the people it was sold to.
Why there are cats everywhere
When a Bangkok family cannot keep an animal, they leave it at a temple, and the monks take it in.
Thailand has few shelters and a lot of compassion, and the two things meet at the temples. A cat or a dog nobody wants is left at the gate of the local wat, and the monks, who cannot turn an animal away and have almost no money, feed it from what is given to them. Every temple in Bangkok has animals. The big ones have a lot.
Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining Buddha, the oldest and biggest in the city, is the one most visitors see, and its cats are on the steps of the chedis and in the shade of the cloisters, well fed, unhurried and photographed by everyone. Wat Arun across the river, the tall temple of the dawn, has its own. Wat Hua Lamphong, by the railway station, is a working city temple with a colony of them. And every neighbourhood temple in Banglamphu, the old district behind the Grand Palace, has a cat asleep on the job.
It is one of the oldest arrangements on this list, and one of the most honest. Nobody planned it. The temples are the last place an animal can go and the first place a monk cannot say no. Give to the box.
The walk
Wat Pho early, the ferry across to Wat Arun, and then back through Banglamphu’s neighbourhood temples in the afternoon. A day, with the river in the middle.
- From Anywhere on the riverChao Phraya express boat to Tha Tien20 minThe pier for Wat Pho and the cross-river ferry to Wat Arun. The boat is the best transport in Bangkok.
- From Sukhumvit or SilomBTS to Saphan Taksin, then the river boat40 minChange at the pier under the station. Avoid the road.
- From Hua Lamphong stationWalk to Wat Hua Lamphong5 minThe temple is named for the district and is across the road.
Wat Pho
The reclining Buddha, the massage school, and ninety-one chedis with cats on the steps of most of them. Ticket at the gate. Go in at opening and walk the outer courtyards first, where the cats are, before the crowds reach them.
Wat Pho. The cats are on the steps of these.Iudexvivorum, CC0 Wat Arun
The cross-river ferry from Tha Tien pier, and the tall porcelain-covered prang on the far bank. Cats in the grounds around it, fed by the temple. Climb the prang if the steps are open; the cats do not.
In repose. The temples are the only quiet place in the city and the cats found them first.Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0 Wat Hua Lamphong
Back across and along to the working temple by the old railway station. No tourists to speak of, a colony of cats, a merit-making hall where people buy coffins for the unclaimed dead, and monks who will nod at you.
Wat Hua Lamphong. A working temple with a working colony.CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 4.0 Banglamphu
The old neighbourhood behind the palace, with a temple every few streets and a cat asleep in the shade of each. Wander; every wat is open and every one has an animal in it.
Banglamphu. Asleep on the job, which here is the job.David McKelvey from Brisbane, Australia This photo was taken with Nikon Coolpix P300, CC BY 2.0
Same numbers as the list. Worth keeping open on your phone.
The cats you will meet
Temple cats: abandoned pets and their descendants, every colour, many with the Siamese points and kinked tails of the region, fed by monks and lay visitors and left entirely alone. Calm, because nothing in a temple has ever chased them, and thin in the lean months, because the monks have little.
Chedi cats
On the steps of the stupas at Wat Pho.
The tourists’ cats. Well fed and used to it.
Colony cats
At Wat Hua Lamphong and the working temples.
Larger groups, less photographed, more in need of the box.
Siamese-ish
Cream with dark points, blue eyes, a kink in the tail.
The local look. Not pedigree; the gene pool.
Everybody says The temples keep cats as a tradition.
Actually The temples keep cats because people leave them there and the monks cannot refuse. It is compassion, not decoration, and it runs on donations that are mostly meant for the monks. Give to the box, and understand that a temple cat is a cat that had nowhere else.
How not to be the annoying one
- Temple rules first: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off in the halls, quiet, and never point your feet at a Buddha or step over a cat that is lying in front of one.
- Do not feed. The monks do, and the wrong food in a temple courtyard is a mess someone in robes has to clean.
- Give to the donation box. That is how the cats eat.
- Do not lift a temple cat for a photo. Sit down near it; it will come or it will not.
- The working temples are not attractions. At Wat Hua Lamphong, be a visitor, not a tourist.
