My husband Marc and I resonate with all things “tiger.” He has a tiger tattoo, was born in the year of the tiger and has many of the characteristics associated with the animal totem. And my commitment to aiding in the care, safety and preservation of all the natural world makes it such that endangered species are prominent in my undertakings. So, when a friend of mine forwarded me an article and video about the “Tiger Temple” in Thailand, I knew it was time to write a post about tigers and where they live…where they really live.

Pertaining to the Tiger Temple, the story goes that nine or so years ago, a poacher had an attack of conscience and dropped off the orphaned cubs of a slaughtered female at the temple. The monks saved the cubs and, over time, more cubs were dropped off for the monks to care for. During that time, the monastery has grown to be a popular tourist destination. With the help of an Animal Planet show on the temple, over one thousand people per day show up to see the cats, interact with them and take pictures of them and with them. The temple has volunteers from all over the world, each wanting to be part of, what appears to be, a phenomenon. The phenomena? There has never been a single tiger attack – either on a human or any other animal, including the tigers, themselves. This means thousands of people, and now, thirty or more tigers, are co-existing on a daily basis…and not one attack from the “wild animals.”

Now, as always, I do my research and am very aware that there are those who claim the tigers are being drugged so as to make them docile for the temple’s financial gain (there is a charge for admission, photos, etc.). There is a larger amount of information out there negating that claim. However, I am not passing an opinion on the validity of either statement. Neither am I stating I believe “just anyone” should try to domesticate or house an exotic or wild animal. What I’m doing is using this story as an example of the power of consummately peaceful and loving energy.

Sounds like a contradiction in terms doesn’t it? Power and peace? But, just like the big cats at the Tiger Temple and all the humans, two powerful forces can live in peace.

No big news, right? We’re all interconnected, right? Consider this…

All Asian cultures have deep, deep ties to the tiger and the big cats are, in fact, one of the more popular totems the world over. That they are loved and revered is undisputable.

Countless stories, images, beliefs, symbolic meanings, lessons, “medicines” etc. all center around them. To that end, I wish there were some way to know just how many millions and millions of tiger tattoos have been inked over the centuries!

Now, we know energy is real…tangible…that it never “dies.” It never dissipates.

So, my question is: where has all the positive energy—as it pertains to the tiger—gone?   Where is it being “stored”? Accumulated over centuries, surely there is enough energy in the forms of love and reverence for the big cats to keep a small number like thirty tigers in a state of constant peace. As crazy as that may sound, consider one more thing…

Monks are among the most skilled practitioners of meditation and energy manipulation on the planet. Furthermore, they’ve been practicing all this spiritual “stuff” for eons.

Why is it escaping people that perhaps these monks purposefully tapped into the Etheric, are culling the vast energy source of love and reverence there and are using it to help these particular tigers? Think about it. A temple full of monks, all expert meditators, all focused on the same subject and all working toward the same goal. That is an extraordinarily powerful manifestation of love and peaceful energy going on over there in Thailand. The results of which, speak for themselves.

It’s as plausible an answer as any other and the one I choose to believe until I examine contrary data. Oh. And one more little thing—tigers, just like every living being, are just as capable of giving love as they are of receiving it. This means they’re an active part of this equation. They’re an energy source just like we are…or the tree outside your window is.

So…where do tigers live? Well, thirty or so of them live in a peaceful, loving rescue temple right outside of Bangkok. But, the energy of all tigers lives in our very souls. In that, perhaps it is they who are doing the rescuing. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the tigers who are making the choice to live in peace at that temple…not us.