It seems that wherever man has been, and a cat of some sort, you’ll find tales of people shapeshifting into felines. In fact the only places on earth where it’s safe from the werecat are Australia and Antartica; two continents which don't have a native cat - I hear they have their hands full with werekangeroo’s and werepenguine’s as it is!
In Africa they have the werelion, in South America they have the werejaguar, and in Europe there are tales of people transforming into domesticated moggies of all things - albeit in some cases the actual size of big cats; imagine your pet cat the size of a lion… just as troublesome, if not more! But the most prolific of werecats is the weretiger, whose tails are seen and tales are told in India, South East Asia, and throughout the vastness of China.
The weretiger is often portrayed as a victim who has been inflicted with a family curse or a demonic spirit - although there are some exceptions where power hungry sorcerers have purposely attained and unlocked the secrets of man-eater-metamorphosis. In China, a person who ‘met their maker’ shortly after meeting a tiger could turn into a malevolent spirit named “Chang”, who’s soul supernatural urge is to get more humans eaten by tigers - steady on! And in Thailand, a tiger who’s eaten way to many humans can turn into a weretiger; we ‘are what we eat’ after all.
Once in the guise of a weretiger, it seems that no beast nor man is safe from harm, but before I go I thought I’d leave you with a few tips on how to “potentially” survive a tiger encounter: 1. show confidence, look straight into the creatures eyes and stand tall, 2. (if you can), make a loud and unnatural sounding noise, and 3. never, ever, run!
PS., the tips above are intended for instances involving a genuine tiger, not a weretiger.
PPS., in the 20th Century man pushed 3 tiger species into extinction. There are currently more tigers in captivity than in the wild. Save the tiger 💚