no idea where it had gone. During the remainder of his stay in
that cave, it never came to visit him again.
Ãcariya Chob suspected that the tiger was no ordinary
forest creature but rather a creation of the devas,^6 which is why it
appeared so tame and unthreatening the entire time it was with
him. He felt a lot of affection for it and so missed its presence for
many days thereafter. He thought it might return from time to
time to see him, but it never did. Although he heard the sounds
of tigers roaring every night, he couldn’t tell whether his friend
was among them. In any case, the whole forest was teeming with
tigers. A faint-hearted person could never have lived there, but he
was not affected by such dangers. In fact, the tame-looking tiger,
who kept watch over him all night, made him feel more affection
than fear. Ãcariya Chob said that experience increased his belief
in Dhamma in quite a special way.ÃCARIYA CHOB SPENT five years living in Burma, where he learned
to speak Burmese as fluently as if it were his own language. The
reason he eventually returned to Thailand concerned the Second
World War. The English and the Japanese were fighting each
other all up and down the countryside – in the towns, the vil-
lages, and even in the mountains. During that period, the Eng-
lish accused the Thai people of collaborating with the Japanese.^7
Consequently, they searched for Thais in Burma, hunting them
down with a vengeance. They summarily executed any Thai they
found inside Burma, regardless of whether it was a man, a women,
or a monk – no exceptions were made.
The villagers that Ãcariya Chob depended on for his daily