The tiger as strong as nineteen men...

In early monsoon Nepal this year I spent a few days in Ghorepani.  I was researching big cat (mainly leopard) kills of livestock in the area.  Each evening I would wander up Poon Hill, a famous look out point where the mighty Annapurna mountain range can give a visual feast.

In monsoon often all one sees is clouds.  That's OK, I like clouds.

Late one afternoon, after my wander and some cloud viewing, I came across another visitor to the village.  In monsoon I am often the only foreigner in these places, tourists tend to prefer mountain views to that of clouds.  However this man was not a foreigner, he was a pilgrim from the west of Nepal, the Darchula district.  He was walking through the Annapurnas, our meeting took place just a few days after he had been to the temple in Muktinath, a life long ambition for him.

We started to talk about our travels through this land and realized very quickly we were bonded by our lifelong pilgrimages to nature.  We began to talk about tigers.

The man said, "A tiger is as strong as nineteen men."

The man explained that many years ago, when there many more tigers in Darchula, he had witnessed a display of power.  A buffalo had become bogged in a mud pool.  Ropes were attached to the buffalo and nineteen men tried to pull the animal out of the bog.  They couldn't.

A great male tiger appeared.  It looked at the scene and obviously sensed an opportunity.  A snarl and a growl were enough to persuade any villagers still too close to the mud hole that they should vacate.

I listened as the man told me how the tiger leapt on to the back of the buffalo (it is my recommendation to readers at this point that you don't delve too deeply as to the likely thinking by the buffalo) and straddled it before taking a death grip on its neck.  The tiger then flipped its own body into the mud while still attached by the jaw to the buffalo.

The tiger then pulled the buffalo out of the mud hole.

The man told me that although the buffalo was dead its eyes were very wide open while it lay next to the panting tiger on the edge of the bog.  The tiger gave one more growl, gave a look of disdain at the villagers, then casually carried its kill into the trees.

"Are you sure it was nineteen men?" I asked.

"Yes," the man replied, "I counted them."

In the main I look for facts, figures, data.  I have to keep my feet on the ground and the top of my head positioned about 1.9 metres above my feet.  It's important when doing this work to stay grounded.  The pilgrim was in his early seventies, super fit, he had sharp intelligent eyes.  He spoke four different languages.

While facts are important, sometimes when you hear a story it is the message which really counts.

As the man finished his story, over his shoulder there was a small break in the clouds and the massive bulk of Mount Dhaulagiri appeared. Dhaulagiri is one of the true Himalayan giants, a wondrous site.

I pointed to the mountain.

We smiled.