Tigers are native to Asia. Deforestation and farming have diminished their hunting grounds. Indonesia boasts some 400 tigers on Sumatra and Russia’s Siberian tigers are estimated to number over 300. The feline predator hasn’t so lucky in other lands. Cambodia is down to thirty with poachers.
Thailand’s tiger population has been bolstered by the Tiger Zoo in Sri Racha, although this small reserve has allegedly sold animal parts to the Chinese, who are mad for the medicinal properties of the great cat’s bones and organs. Most notably as bone wine or tiger penis parts to improve sexual performance. Their lives in captivity are a pale shadow of their existence in the jungles. Experts have estimated that 250-300 tigers live in the wild forests of Thailand.
My wife and daughter Angie and their family lived in Thailand on the edge of the Western Forest. Very Ban Nok, which is Thai for 'the sticks'.At night the old men drink lao whiskey around a fire. The women watch Thai soap operas. We tell stories. I asked, if any of them had seen a tiger. They pointed to the distant mountains on the Burma border.
“Tigers gone here. Mountain have tiger.” My fiftyish brother-in-law had hunted for mushrooms in the jungles in the last century. His father and his neighbors had cleared the forests to create the rice paddies surrounding their farms
“You see one?”
“No one see tiger. Tiger see man. Eat man.” Noy shivered with fear. The only paths in the jungle are those made by wild elephants and no trails lead to the top of mountains.
“I hear tiger once. In Indonesia.” I had been staying in a small village on the West Coast south of Banda Aceh. “I heard a roar.”
I mimicked the low echoing growl.
The pi dogs in the yard started barking with alarm.
My daughter ran into the house.
“Good tiger.” My brother-in-law loved my act.
“The tiger scared me too and it was loud. I heard it in my bones.”
“Tiger big spirit.”
“The people in the village were frightened white. They wore masks on the back of their heads.”
“Tiger like to attack from behind.”
“Same as people.”
“Not same Thai.”
“That’s because you smile before a fight.”
“Land of Smiles. Chai yo”
We downed the rice whiskey from a plastic bag. Never a bottle. The fiery brew burned our throats. The dogs stopped barking and the insects resumed their buzzing. The only growl was my stomach grumbling from the bootleg liquor. It was much more dangerous than a tiger. The Big Cats only ate your body. Lao Khao, the bootleg liquor, ate your soul.
The foto is from Noong Nooch Gardens in Pattaya. The tiger is drugged with morphine. He only gets angry when he’s waiting for his man ala the Velvet Underground.
Same as any junkie.
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Much more to come.
