Does anyone hear know the role of the tiger in asain culture and/or mythology? I had read somethign about the tiger's liver having medicinal properties, what's up with that?

That's from traditional Chinese medicine. Of course, I believe Chinese medicine practitioners have found a replacement for tiger parts in their treatments nowadays.

thank you very much DefencelessChild. With over 30 views and no replies, i was starting to get worried. Hope i'm not overreacting, but i thought no one would ever say anything.

ive heard that tigers are meant to be a symbol of strength and wisdom or is that a dragon i'm not really sure, sorry, i'll check it out

I think both represent something similar to that. I'm certain dragons are lucky though.

The tiger is a very important part of Korean and traditional Tae Kwon Do culture. The Koreans see the tiger as this graceful majestic animal that is capable of great power when desired. Traditional TKD people see their art the same way-very graceful but capable of enormous power when desired. In fact, my Instructor's nickname in Korean means "Flying Tiger", a reference to his free fighting style.

Tigers in Thai and Lao culture represent strength and power. Sing is Tiger in Lao and Thai and many people have the word Sing within their last names, and sometimes it is even a nickname given to a child.

Didnt Tiger Balm used to use tiger parts?

Wrong. .

Singha [pronounced Sing] means Lion thus Sing-To means great Lion. The word for Tiger is Sua [pronounced Su-ea].

The tiger is not a symbol of strength in Thailand, cuz they have the Elephant. Now, what animal, except humans, can stand up to a full grown elephant?

Lion [Sing] is the symbol of authority in Thailand thus many have it in their names to represent authority, not strength. As for Tiger, not a lot of Thai/Lao people have it in their names. Strangely, not alot of people have elephant in their as well. It sounds ok, "Kochasan", oh well...

As for you Singhay, where you from? Maybe you're from Laos?

-Taison out

Yes,'sing' 'singa' 'singh' 'shi' means lion in guite a lot of languages in the far east.

So you have 'Singapore' (lion-city) and every Sikh in India have 'Singh' as their last name and 'shi' means lion in mandarin chinese.

The tiger, though a symbol of strength and courage in many eastern cultures, it is always associated with warlike qualities and so does not have the extra quality of wisdom/benevalence of the dragon. Which is why you have lion / dragon dance and not tiger dance in the chinese culture. Many years ago it was suggested that the lion dance be changed to a tiger dance to make it less chinese and more south-east-asian. The chinese communities rejected the idea saying the tiger has an 'evil' side and so not suitable.

That's right. Same thing was suggested by the third generation "Thai-Chinese" to make it more "Thai" but the elder Chinese rejected the idea due to the fact that Lion/Dragon dance is, well, their heritage of the Chinese culture. No matter how much they try to change, they still are Chinese and shouldn't forget that.

-Taison out

Didn't Singapore mean something like "New Land" or something? In Chinese it's called "Xin Jia Pua"[sp?], which meaning I am clueless. But I like Singapore better though, it suggest power and authority more than, uh, "New Land".