Soul of the Tiger

More about the book

Soul of the Tiger takes us to an exotic world where human life is intimately linked with rhinos and cobras, crocodiles, elephants and man-eating tigers.During two decades, the authors, American conservationists and adventurers, lived and learned in Southeast Asia - from Thailand and Burma, to Cambodia and Vietnam, to Malaysia and Indonesia. Their fascinating, bizarre, and often hilarious accounts reveal the vital connection between these people and their animal neighbors. To the villagers, animals are omens, deities, meat, leather, jungle tractors, competitors, and even ancestors.They authors tell of a Borneo farmer who, though an Evangelical Christian, waits to plant his rice until the yellow wagtail arrives. Of animal fights that fill the needs once met by headhunting. Of Indonesians who hunt whales by leaping onto their backs from small sailboats. Of Malaysians and Indonesians who believe that man-eating tigers carry the souls of their victims. From such encounters, the authors learned ways to preserve the delicate balance between human and animal lives in all economically developing parts of the worldSoul of the Tiger is an invitation to join the search for nature's answers in exotic places and states of mind.