A monk saunters up to a chained tiger and sits cross-legged beside it. He hauls the tiger’s enormous head into his lap and scratches its ears, ruffles its whiskers, and tugs at its maw to reveal yellowed eight-inch canines. There is no ostensible reaction from the tiger but the spectators gasp in awe. A few feet away, a handler berates a half-grown tiger cub for its mischief. The monk stands up, walks toward the cub and chatters to it, smiling lovingly. He pulls at the cub’s tail and leads it, still grasping its tail up above its back, to the larger tiger. The cub, playful again, begins to harry the older cat, climbing on its back and nibbling the nape of its neck. The larger tiger growls, presses back its ears, and bares its fangs in warning at the cub. It was the most expressive display of aggression from a tiger I would see that day. Travel editor Bijoy Venugopal is shocked at the way tigers are treated at the famed Tiger Temple in Thailand. Whats your view - is this really conservation, or just a circus?
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:55:00 +0000
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