El embrujo del tigre

by Sy Montgomery

Oculta en la selva de los Sundarbans, en Bengala, vive una población única de tigres. A diferencia de sus congéneres del resto del mundo, que evitan a los humanos, estos animales se alimentan de personas. Pero en ese lugar donde se vive con la posibilidad de morir entre sus fauces, el tigre es una figura de adoración, un dios, y no se cuestionan los actos sobrenaturales que se le atribuyen. Sy Montgomery, que estuvo a punto de no volver tras el ataque de un tigre, nos descubre un lugar en el que siempre se está a merced de algo invisible y los chamanes son la única protección aparente. De repente recorriendo junglas donde cada cosa es a la vez otra, recuperamos un entendimiento más antiguo y sabio: nuestro cuerpo también está hecho de carne.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, India, Science, Natural History, Wildlife

358 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Part Indiana Jones, part Emily Dickinson, as the Boston Globe describes her, Sy Montgomery is an author, naturalist, documentary scriptwriter, and radio commentator who has traveled to some of the worlds most remote wildernesses for her work. She has worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba, been hunted by a tiger in India, swum with pink dolphins in the Amazon, and been undressed by an orangutan in Borneo. She is the author of 13 award-winning books, including her national best-selling memoir, The Good Good Pig. Montgomery lives in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Richard Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sundarbans is a region of mangrove forests spread across many islands. It straddles the border between India and Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal. In earlier times, it was a civilized place, a flourishing port region. Archaeologists recently discovered a walled city, built in the fourth century, that covered two and a half square miles (6.47 sq. km). Ruins are scattered throughout the jungle, including temples and monasteries. In 1586, a European visitor reported seeing fertile land and sturdy, storm-resistant houses.

Over the last 600 years, the land has experienced big changes. Beneath the Bengal Basin, the geologic structures have tipped, and the course of the Ganges has shifted to the east. The flow of the Ganges no longer enters the Sundarbans. Explosive population growth upstream has loaded streams with eroded silt. Today, little fresh water enters the Sundarbans, and the forest has become too salty for farming in many places.

There are large quantities of valuable timber in the Sundarbans, but there is little logging, because entering the forest is fairly suicidal. Even poachers stay away. The sharks and crocodiles take great delight in having humans for lunch. Venomous vipers plunge from trees onto your head, or crawl into bed with you at night (don’t roll over!). Sea snakes are ten to forty times more poisonous than cobras.

The primary man-eaters are the tigers. In the dense, swampy, tangled forest, you never feel safe for a minute — and guns and numbers provide no protection. Hundreds are killed every year. One hundred years ago, during a six-year period, 4,218 people were eaten by tigers in the Sundarbans. Tigers think twice before attacking a boar, because they are strong and have sharp tusks. But humans are slow, weak, sitting ducks (and they taste a lot like monkeys).

Tigers can weigh up to 500 pounds (226 kg), and grow up to nine feet long (2.7 m). They almost always attack from behind, and instantly kill their victims by crushing their necks. They can leap onto a boat, without rocking it, snatch a person, and disappear into the forest before anyone realizes what happened. They often do this at 11 PM, when everyone is asleep, and they are said to prefer the fattest. There are many stories of flying tigers. They can leap 20 feet with a dead human in their jaws.

Tigers may sit patiently in the brush for hours, waiting for the ideal moment to pounce and snatch. They can move across the land without making a sound, materialize anywhere, and hide behind a blade of grass. Tigers are rarely seen, and they always see you first. Scientists know almost nothing about them, because there is no way to observe them without becoming cat food.

Sy Montgomery discussed the healthy relationship between humans, tigers, and forests in her book Spell of the Tiger. Modern folks suffer from immense spiritual pain because we don’t remember who we are. Somewhere down the line, we got confused, and began to hallucinate that we were the lords and masters of the universe. The folks of the Sundarbans have never forgotten that humans, like everything else that breathes, are meat. They are kept humble by the powerful spell of the tiger. We are all simply members of the family of life, where everyone is meat, and nobody is special.

Montgomery once met an unlucky shaman. “His father, his brother, and his favorite son were all killed by tigers. His wife was eaten by a crocodile. His daughter drowned in the river. His house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.” He did not hate tigers. “No matter how many men are killed, no matter how deeply the man-eaters are feared, the tiger is not hated. Almost everyone agrees on this point.” They are sacred creatures that are worshipped, but not loved. Likewise, the snakes are honored and loved, despite the fact that they kill thousands of Indians every year.

Hindus and Sufi Muslims live together in the Sundarbans, and they are tolerant and respectful of each other (unlike in urban areas). Hindus worship local Muslim deities, and vice versa. Every year, villages hold sacred celebrations to honor Bonobibi, the forest goddess, and Daksin Ray, the tiger god. Unlike Western people, they have a spiritual connection to place.

In the Sundarbans, the Forest Service allows people to enter the forest to fish, collect dry firewood, or gather honey. No groups are given a permit unless their party includes a reputable shaman to speak the sacred mantras, appease the forest deities, and provide the illusion of spiritual protection.

In the Indus Valley, archaeologists have discovered a series of five clay panels at the site of Mohenjo-Daro, dating to 3000 BC: (1) tiger and forest, (2) person chasing tiger, (3) a god begging the tiger, (4) loggers clear-cutting, (5) god gone, tiger gone, forest gone. Moral: agriculture destroys everything sacred. It echoes the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The tigers do a great job of slowing the destruction of the Sundarbans. If the forest were destroyed, the land would be swept into the sea. In 1984, a portion of the Sundarbans was turned into a national park. India is a world leader in protecting tigers, but the tigers will never be safe until the human herd returns to sustainable levels — the sooner the better.

We are now living in the Kali Yuga, the last of four world ages, according to the Hindus. In their scriptures, this is an era when human integrity hits bottom: “Property becomes rank, wealth the only source of virtue, passion the sole bond of union, falsehood the source of success.” Some believe that the end of the world is not far off.

In any case, climate change and rising sea levels seem certain to devastate the low-lying Sundarbans, along with its mangroves and tigers. Over the last 125 years, the rate of severe storms has been increasing. Some associate this with deforestation. In the Bay of Bengal, storm-driven tidal waves can grow to 250 feet high.

I will never forget this book, because it presents humans in normal, traditional way. It’s a powerful message that reaches ancient places. It provides a healthy contrast to Western society, where every predator is a problem that needs to be killed.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to catch a glimpse of people who live with an animal who kills them, and people who respect the lives of those tigers. A way of living with the unknown, the unknowable, and danger, and willing to live within a world they (we) cannot control. With respect, honor and love. And fear. An amazing view into how we once lived with animals.

[Suzanne Auckerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about a little known area and even though a National Park, not accessible to tourists. It seems to be the only area where tigers routinely kill and eat humans, many of which are not reported because the men are in the forest illegally poaching. It is the second book I have read that talks about the relationship between humans and tigers. The books were written about very different areas and by authors with different backgrounds and objectives. The common theme is areas where tigers have existed with a native people for centuries and now there are newcomers in the area, taking resources and the newcomers not understanding the code of ethics that has existed for centuries between the tigers and the natives.

Both of these areas are just not easily accesible, but would be fascinating to visit.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat about the tigers of Sundarbans, but more about the culture, life and religion of the Indian people who live in the area. Well written and informative. Interesting read. Brings to the reader the mystery and magic of these threatened and awe inspiring animals.

[Daniel Fuertes · Rating 3 out of 5]

"El embrujo del tigre", entre novela de viajes y obra de divulgación, nos acerca las experiencias personales de la autora mientras estudiaba a los tigres de un lugar muy concreto de Asia, los Sundabarns.
El libro no es un estudio científico y sesudo sobre el tigre, sino que explora el respeto y misticismo que se ha generado a su alrededor en este lugar.
De fácil lectura, cuenta grandes anécdotas sobre la población local, cómo es su vida en tierra de tigres, cómo conviven con estos, qué pintorescas iniciativas se llevaron a cabo para reducir los frecuentes ataques y cómo encaja la comunidad la perdida de vidas humanas sin odiar al tigre.

[k · Rating 4 out of 5]

When this book came across my radar, i was thrilled to find it in my library's database. What arrived, surprisingly, was The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans which is a children's book. A second search found this edition, the full story of Sy's journey for understanding the Tigers of this wild and mythical place.

The Sundarbans Tiger Reserve is holding so much. This "Beautiful Jungle" is the world's largest single area of halophytic mangrove forest, with the greatest remaining population of Bengal Tigers. An un-tamable place of water, weather and wild animals, where people are prey, Sy seeks to understand how people live with, account for, come to terms with this...

There was so much i enjoyed in the book, i struggle to write reviews, but here are some bits i will return to again and again:

"Listen for the voice of the absolute: "This am I" sighs the moon-driven surge of the sea; "This am I" promises the white egret in flight; "This am I" says the sun's gold mirrored on the water."

"Who is God?" asked Moses of the Burning Bush.
"I am who I am"
"I am what I do"

"What does the tiger do?
Give life to legend and prayer..."

"The tiger is silently doing the work of the Eco-discipline." Rathin Banerjee

"If, in the height of our hubris, we exterminate the tiger, we risk losing sight of the deepest truth our kind has ever known: that we are not God."

"The Kali Yuga is the final age before this world dissolves. It is the era in which we repudiate our gods. It is the era in which we extinguish rather than revere life. It is the age in which our sins drown our virtues.

Only in an age of blind greed could we accomplish the cataclysmic evil of obliterating from the earth as many as a dozen species a day... we crowd them out in a ravenous grab for more space, more jobs, more money."

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book. Anyone who loves tigers or the Indian subcontinent needs to read it, anyone interested in religion needs to read it as well.

Sy Mongomery is in my opinion one of the premier nature writers out there. This book is a great example of why. Taking a trip to the Sundarbans, a giant mangrove swamp where the local tiger population views the local human population as lunch, she explores the complex lives of the forest's residents. The prose delves into the intertwining of man, nature and religion, seeking to understand how and why the people not only stay in such a dangerous place but why they revere the tigers which routinely eat them.

Unlike many other nature writers who focus on our impacts on the environment, Sy Montgomery focuses here on the enviroments impacts on us. She does it in a wonderful invigorating way that will inspire you to view the world anew and I highly recommend this book.

[Tim Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

_Spell of the Tiger: The Man-eaters of Sundarbans_ is an enjoyable and informative travelogue and work of popular nature writing by author Sy Montgomery. I found the book to be a fast read and it was good as some of her other nature writings, such as _Journey of the Pink Dolphins_.

The book was at times as much a portrait of the Sundarbans as of the tigers themselves and of the people who lived with them. The world's largest mangrove forest and one of the largest wilderness areas in India or Bangladesh, fed by the rivers Brahmaputra and Ganges, its name derives from three Bengali words, sundar (the word for beautiful), sundari (name for a type of mangrove, once the dominant tree), and samudraban ("forests of ocean"). This wilderness of monkeys, chital, sharks, snakes, wild boar, crocodiles, crabs, mudskippers, tigers, and at one time rhinos was once much larger, once stretching to the outskirts of the cities of Dacca and Calcutta and as recently as 1895 covered 7,722 square miles, twice its current size. Over the last six hundred years the land has dried, the forest has shrunk, and the area become saltier as since at least the seventeenth century the Ganges has shifted progressively eastward and other bodies of water flowing into the Sundarbans have become clogged with silt and claimed by an increasingly burgeoning human populace (interestingly, one can find ruins of temples and other buildings abandoned in the Sundarbans due to increasing salinity).

The Sundarbans is not one of the safest places for people to live and work in. In addition to the local tigers, there are several deadly species of shark (including appropriately enough the enormous tiger shark) and several highly venomous snake species (notably the kalash, fond of crawling into beds). Also the Sundarbans are plagued by deadly cyclones between August and November, a good-sized percentage of those living and working there go blind due to a type of fly that likes to lay eggs in people's eyes, the waters seethe with disease (not potable even to the locals), and owing to the fact that the Sundarbans is located in one of India's poorest states, antivenins, antibiotics, and other aid is often hard to come by. On top of all that, pirates - known as dacoits - have taken refuge in the region's innumerable channels since at least the seventeenth century. Though not the great slave traders that were as late as the 18th century, they still prey on fishermen, tourists, and even forestry officials, forcing tour operators and government officials to carry Russian-made rifles with them for protection.

Though Montgomery had to contend with a cyclone and disease, her biggest and most heart-breaking obstacle was the language barrier. Frustrated in her efforts to learn Bengali stateside before her trips, through a series of misunderstandings, miscommunications, and changed plans she was often without a translator, working among earnest, friendly, and accommodating forestry officials, fishermen, woodcutters, and honey collectors who spoke very little or no English, leaving her many days "dazed with mute frustration." Though she went to sometimes extraordinary efforts to try to get translators or translations of what was said to her, often she was frustrated and sorrowful that she wasn't able to adequately communicate with people eager to share with her obviously interesting stories.

So what did Montgomery learn about the tigers? Though she only saw a tiger in the flesh once, she still learned a great deal. Not surprisingly perhaps, Sundarbans tigers are different from tigers found elsewhere. Tigers here are not nocturnal as they are elsewhere, but instead are as apt to hunt by day as by night and their hunting seems to be dictated more by the tides and the activities of people. Excellent swimmers, some believe that they may hunt from and in the water; the local villagers certainly believe this, as the author recounted many tales of tigers snatching unsuspecting victims off of boats. Sundarbans tigers do not appear to be territorial in the same way other tigers are, perhaps due to the fact that half of their territory would be either underwater all of the time or twice daily, washing away their markings. Studies of the tigers are difficult, as elephants, commonly used to track tigers, cannot be brought in, there are no roads to use Land Rovers on to follow the tigers, radio telemetry becomes blocked by the dense forest, and the Tiger Tracer, a device used to identify the unique footprints of individual tigers for tiger censuses elsewhere, does not work in the soft, almost liquid mud of the Sundarbans.

Much as she did with her other books, Montgomery also chronicled the tiger as it exists in the minds of the locals, the mythic tiger. Visiting many local communities, including villages known as vidhaba pallis or tiger widow villages, she related a number of real and fantastic, legendary stories about the tiger.

The Sundarbans tiger is very much a man-eater, as according to Forestry Department officials 30 to 40 people a year on the Indian side of the forest are killed by tigers, official deaths among individuals with permits to fish, collect honey, or cut wood, their relatives compensated by the government. Many more though die unofficially, there illegally, their deaths unreported due to fear of prosecution by survivors and victim's families.

Religion and religious views on the tiger form a surprisingly large part of the book, with Montgomery documenting worship practices to various gods by those seeking protecting from tigers, of myths about tigers in both Hinduism and Islam, and of the efforts of shamans and other folk magicians and healers to work to save locals from tiger attacks.

An interesting book, I do think the emphasis tended sometimes to be skewed a bit towards the tiger in myth and religion and she may have spent too much time describing some of the rural religious ceremonies she witnessed, it was still good travel and natural history writing and a book I enjoyed reading.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sundarbans, a sphinxlike mangrove forest with equally mysterious unaccounted Tiger population is a fascinating world to delve in. The author weaves the eerie shroud over man-eating tigers, their magnificence, and tangible power on human mind and soul. The charming beauty of the landscapes and tiger stories woven with elements of science and mysticism are truly interesting.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 3 out of 5]

La portada mucho mejor que la historia, un documental sobre el tigre escrito.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lyrical and sensitive account of the author's travels in the Sunderban wetlands of Bengal, that explores the tiger's central role in the real and mythical lives of the local dwellers. Rates along with the best of nature writing about India that I have read, including Corbett, Anderson and M. Krishnan.

[David P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among the few remaining strongholds of nature, in this age of vanishing wildlife, is a place where tigers still stalk and kill humans, not the other way around. That is a maze of saltwater swamps, mangrove forests and low islands, the "Sundarbans Tiger Preserve" in the delta of the Ganges, a true wilderness in spite of its proximity to metropolitan Calcutta. Its tigers subsist on deer and wild boar, but they do not fear man. Expert swimmers, they may leap onto a boat that has entered their domain--often illegally, its occupants seeking timber or wild honey--snatch a victim and disappear.

This book is a travelogue, the fruit of several visits to the Sundarbans. Though unseen tiger eyes have no doubt watched and followed the writer, the tiger himself is rarely seen: only once, for a few seconds, does Sy Montgomery catch a glimpse. Yet its presence is everywhere--in tiger stories told by villagers, pawprints in the mud, or in the carcass of a deer floating by, killed by a powerful bite through its neck.

India is a crowded country, and villages surround the preserve. Each year, by official count, tigers there kill 30 to 40 people--the real number is probably larger, because attacks on those entering illegally are rarely reported. The dreaded Bengali cyclones, vicious storms which make the sea overflow the land, claim many more lives, and crocodiles and snakes also find victims; but it is the threat of the tiger which colors daily life. The way people co-exist with tigers and adjust their lives to its threat, that is what the book is really about.

More and more of us, even in India, dwell in cities, where religion is either institutional or neglected, and where divine intervention is no longer taken for granted. Villages in the Sundarbans live by older rules: both nature and the gods are tangible and alive, and the tiger is their natural link. Daksin Ray, ruler of all tigers, and Bonobibi, goddess of the forest, are feared and revered by Hindus and Muslims alike, and whenever villagers enter an endangered area, a holy man with spells and amulets, a gunin, comes along to keep the tigers away. If such a party is nevertheless attacked--even the gunin may be a victim--a reason is invariable found, an act of impiety, some offense which the gods would not let pass.

Superstition? Easy for us to say so, surrounded by paved roads, our daily life revolving around electric and electronic gadgets. But for those that dwell in the Sundarbans, listening to the wind, watching the darkness (what was that bump against the boat? are we being followed?), life remains steeped in mystery. Stories of miraculous escapes and divine retributions are not viewed as strange but fit the pattern. It is to the credit of Sy Montgomery that her book captures that other-worldly atmosphere without in any way belittling the people who live in it. I doubt many of us would actually want to visit that part of India and cruise the muddy waters of the Sundarbans, the way she did. But reading about it, in the comfort and safety of one's armchair, is an enjoyable and memorable experience.

[lp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew going into Spell of the Tiger that the author was trying to trick me into picking it up with the awesome subtitle "The MAN-EATERS of Sundarbans" AND IT WORKED. If the following except does not entice you, then you are stronger willed than I:

"In Sundarbans, a crocodile might lurch from the water and grab you; a tiger could leap at you from land or water; as you wade ashore from a dinghy, sharks may attack. There are deadly snakes... such as the shutanuli, which is said to drop from the trees and sting your head with its tongue, and the kalash, which crawls into your bed at night. In the water there are sea snakes with paddle-shaped tails, whose venom is forty times as toxic as the cobras... Cyclones may rake the shores... an unusually large number of people go blind due to a fly that lays its eggs in the human eye... the waters seethe with disease... a French lady with whom we traveled dipped her finger into the river water to taste how salty it was; within six hours she was seized with such violent diarrhea that it burst through her dress and covered the back seat."

This book was more than just lots of effing strange incidents of "completely amphibious" wild cats who lurk in the streams and rivers to hunt human beings, attack them from behind, and drag them to the forest to eat the flesh of their stomachs. (It was that, too.) It was about all of the other wild dangers of Sundarbans -- how this place seems almost like the Bermuda triangle in its out-of-this-worldness. The tigers don't seem like tigers at all, but intelligent freaks of nature. It also explored the bizarre world of the people who have to journey in this wonderland, and the things they do to survive, from wearing masks on the backs of their heads when they fish (Sundarban tigers NEVER attack from the front) to performing elaborate religious rituals. This is some weird-ass X-Files shit that you almost cannot believe is real.

I thought this was pretty well written, too. Scientists often write books that, while rich with info, leave much to be desired. But Montgomery really describes Sundarbans in ways that I think were imperative to understanding the incredibleness of the terrain and the people. Because what is it really like to see a tiger silently slink out of the water, jump on a boat, and drag a human being back into the forest with him? I mean, I really didn't know, I had never considered it before.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is great writing, but while the natural history and the cultural descriptions interested me, I found myself drifting off as she described a lot of the religious ceremonies. Part of the problem, I think, is that the author had no idea what was going on at the time she experienced many of these things in the Indian Sundabarans (she didn't speak Bengali and her hosts didn't speak much English) so she only learned what had happened after the fact. Still, I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the region, in these amazing tigers or in learning about an interesting superstitious culture.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Spell of the Tiger' is about the tigers of Sundarbans, a delta region off the Bay of Bengal that spans the border of India and Bangladesh. This is where the largest population of tigers in the world resides, and they are some of the few tigers in the world that are "man-eaters", and present an enormous threat to those who venture into the mangrove forests of Sundarbans. It's an interesting book not only about the tigers themselves, but also a rich cultural and spiritual history of those who live in Sundarbans: their way of life, their spiritual relationship with Hindu gods, and how they believe that the tiger is an emissary of Hindu deity that protects the forests of Sundarbans.

[Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es que vaya maravilla 😍😍😍😍


Hay una cosa que me alegra enormemente cuando vienen a decir que Montgomery es una mezcla entre Indiana Jones y Emily Dickinson, y es que a Indiana Jones se lo tuvieron que inventar y a Montgomery No. Me parece un libro tan respetuoso, tan bien escrito, tan bien traducido, que cuando lo he terminado tenía ganas de llorar un poquito. La literatura de viajes sin caer en el paternalismo capullil. He gozado mucho viendo cómo narra y describe esa red que forman la naturaleza, la población y los tigres en el Sundarbarns.

[Angie Ungaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sy Montgomery is my hero. She's smart and concientious and a good writer and fearless and has adventures and tells the best stories. Wow. I kind of want to be her one day. I just don't know if I'm cut out the same stuff as she is. She's kind of way cooler than I am. Read her books. Especially "The Good, Good Pig." Do it now.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Man-Eating Tigers of the Sundarbans by Sy Montgomery (HMH Books for Young Readers 2004) (599.756). The Sundarbans Tiger Preserve is found on the Bay of Bengal between India and Bangladesh. Most of the world's tigers live there – and they have a taste for humans. Does anybody else remember Sher Khan from The Jungle Book? My rating: 7/10, finished 2006.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Tigers that really attack and eat men! but these are men that ill advisedly go into the tiger preserve in this area of India. This preserve happens to be a huge mangrove swamp, and the local people are not supposed to go into the preserve. So if they get taken by a tiger, it really is on their own head!
Fascinating information; terrific photographs

[Paul Davies C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Through out the book,the author tries to make people really scary of Sunderbans,especially its tigers. I am of the opinion that the author must have discussed a lot more positive aspects of Sunderbans in the book.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written, inspiring, and uplifting book about man-eating tigers in India. And if you don't understand how that can possibly be, then you need to read this book!

[Tracy Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivating book. I felt a bit disconnected though. There was a TV documentary made from this book which really made up for my lack of readership skills.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was a little hokey but the stories about the tiger attacks were awesome.

[stellajames · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this difficult to read because of all the myths in it. That's just not my kind of reading. But I love this author and wanted to finish this one, so I plowed through it.

[Paul Grossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

A fascinating look into the world of the form, and the world of myth and belief. This is a very unique look into the world of the tiger. A enlightening read.

[Michael Kott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done, but a bit repetitive and a little too much of other stuff besides the tigers. I didn't read it to find out about their religion.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. Sy does amazing work. I learned so much and enjoyed every minute.

[Andrea Bearman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, reading a Sy Montgomery book. I feel more cultured after reading her books. The Spell of the Tiger is very different than the rest of her books, at least to me (and of those I have read so far). Because the tiger sightings in the Sundarbans are so infrequent (she only sees one in her four trips), she focuses extensively on the culture, namely the deities that the people of the Sundarbans worship to protect them from the tigers, give them good harvests, and other reasons. I find it all fascinating, though I wish that there had been more information about tigers throughout the book.
Montgomery talks about tracks (pugmarks) and some details about tigers early in the book. There are lots of statistics and related information, but eventually, that information trickles off. The book becomes a cultural journey, a relationship between tigers, tiger gods, and the people. As always, Montgomery is dedicated to her topic and that is extremely inspiring. I appreciate the description of her on the back of the book that says she is part Indiana Jones and part Emily Dickinson. This so perfectly encapsulates her. She is a fearless adventurer; even when she is suffering from a heat stroke on her last trip she tries to push through and hear the stories of the people. She is also a master of words; her book is so vividly written, it’s like it is taking place in real time. I felt many times that I would never finish the book, that I could not finish the book because it was writing more pages as I read. In fact, I thought for many days it was 300 pages, and I looked at it and it was just a few pages over 200. I was entranced. Not to mention, you cannot read lightly this book, you truly become invested and hang on every word. Or at least I did.
I did like this book, but I do wish there was more research about big cats that she could have used at the time. Cats are not studied often, they are rather allusive in many cases; science just doesn’t know much about them.
I recommend it, though I wouldn’t say it is a tiger book in the assumed sense of that phrase. It is more of a tiger cultural history, sharing the relationship between tigers and the people of the Sundarbans, who fear the tiger but also revere the tiger. They would not kill the tiger out of fear, much like Western civilizations do with predators.

[Brooks Goddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is ostensibly about tigers in India in the Calcutta area of the Sundarbans, a region of legendary mystery. People who love out-of-the-way places or who are tiger aficiondos often seek out the Sundarbans which contain tigers who hunt humans. Montgomery visited this area 4 times over 3 years and saw a tiger once, fleetingly. She traveled there extensively, brought friends along occasionally, interviewed many people.
The Sundarbans is a maze of rivers, inlets, islands, and people striving to make a living: “Like a Rousseau painting, the journey into Sundarbans, the great mangrove swamp that stretches between India and Bangladesh along the Bay of Bengal, slides you sensually, dreamily, into a time and a place that you almost remember.” Montgomery travels by boat throughout Sundarbans trying to spot tigers and always talking with people. She did learn some Bangla, the local language, but generally used an interpreter. She formed a strong bond with her guide, Girindra and his family. She observed from the boat and from watch towers at the tourist lodge and at a specially designated location. As I have learned personally from a total of 16 days over 2 visits, tigers are just not easily seen. All those wonderful photographs you see come from days of observation and a very good telephoto lens.
And as you proceed into this book, you start to realize that the allure of the tigers rubs parallel to the allure of the people and their beliefs. We learn about tigers, yes, and we also learn about Hindhu mythology, acceptance of human realities, and Indian commentaries on related subjects. The spell of the tiger becomes the spell of India: “the tiger must accomplish its dharma. It musty hunt, it must eat, it must raise its young. And if the tiger is the guardian of Sundarbans’ forests, it is because it kills and eats people.”
The Spell of the Tiger is masterfully written; one becomes informed as well as seduced. I finished the book and immediately sought its equal which I am still searching to find.

[Aubrey Dasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has created a reading experience which is somewhere between spiritual experience and hallucination. The Sundarban Tiger is feared yet revered. It is a chronic man-eater yet shooting one is unthinkable. The Sundarban Tiger behaves unlike tigers anywhere else. It can swim behind a small boat and leap from the dark water to rip its victim from the deck and all in nearly total silence. The Sundarbans are a vast archipelago of low, mangrove bordered islands. The Sundarban Tiger has no normal tiger-territory since water, whether in the form of rivers, streams, or rain, disrupts any contiguous land mass typical of other tiger territories. The Sundarban Tiger moves like the mist on land or in the water. Never heard and rarely seen until it finds you. It is the god and protector of the forest and legend has it that a Sundarban Tiger won't kill a 'friend' of its forest. How it knows the difference is part of the mystery of the Sundarbans. I recommend the book for a relaxing, educational, yet moving read.