The Chinese and Asians are superstitious about their calendar / zodiac signs. The tiger is so much under threat that it will become extinct in the wild in the next 20 years it something is not done.

Tiger bone, tiger penis, tiger fat etc. are sold as potions in China and the far east. Tiger skin is also sold for huge prices. About 15 years ago a major tiger poaching racket was unearthed in India and they found that all the tiger products were being smuggled into Tibet by the Tibetan refugees in India who traveled around the country and into Nepal on their annual trading journey. The Tibetan monks were dressed in tiger skin ceremonial garments. Finally the Indian government agencies approached the Dalai Lama for help to influence the monks to stop using tiger skin and to stop buying them. It was reported that the monks then arranged a bonfire to burn all the skins and promised to stop buying tiger skins.

Now that demand for tiger products is increasing in the far east and supplies are becoming harder to get, spurious imitations are also on the increase. In the year of the Tiger, it is time for the great tiger to get its revenge....the spurious tiger products are sure to cause some scandal and endanger people's lives. Hopefully this will significantly reduce the demand for tiger products and result in saving the tiger from extinction.

I truly hope that the Tiger remains with us. We would all be poorer for their passing.......it would be a tragedy of the utmost magnitude for true wildlife lovers.

happy new year , i think the tigers years is a good for people in th world.