Hi Kat

>How can they have the tigers walking around freely like that? Has no one ever been hurt by them?<

I was very surprised by the whole business and despite the obvious tameness of the tigers it must be dangerous.

We were there early and were not given any advance warning or advice. However when a tour group arrived later they were given a 'pep talk' complete with safety advice by their courier and when more people were around some of the tigers were kept on a chain. The monks who looked after the tigers were obviously more worried the more people there were around.

They later walked the tigers to a man-made lake and warned us not to stand high up on the horizon as they said it unsettled them. At this time most of the larger tigers were on leads but the handlers would not have been able to do much if the tigers wanted to get away. The tigers were meant to take a swim with the monks but the drowt had emptied the lake.

The monks also take in any injured animal and it was striking to see deer, hogs, ducks etc etc all walking around together with the tigers. One would have thought that natural enemies would have been wary of each other but they all seemed to get on fine.

A really extraordinary place.

Jon