THE TIGERING!

The Champawat Tiger was a legendary female Bengal tiger responsible for an estimated 436 deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India, mostly during the 19th century. After killing over 200 people in Nepal, the tigress was driven by the Nepalese Army across the border (river Sarda) into India, where she continued her massacring in the Kumaon District. A maneater so fearless, all her killings occurred during the daytime. The tigress was finally shot in 1907 by a British colonel born in India named Jim Corbett, a dramatic feat confirmed by about 300 villagers. Since then, Corbett has been elevated to the level of a sadhu(saint) in the region and a monument has been constructed at the tigress death site. When India broke free of colonial rule in 1947, they opened their first national park, Jim Corbett National Park. In January 2012, after reading this story in Man-Eaters of Kumaon (a journal kept by Jim Corbett), I began a project documenting all 436 tiger attacks. Why? Because its fucking badass. But along the way it turned into an installation about modernizing identities and an allegory for the messy and maddening road to progress in India. As the watercolor drawings began to pile up and wallpaper the walls of my studio, I really looked at them collectively and decided this tiger was no longer attacking rural villagers but a way of life and culture that is disappearing within today's globalized world. All drawings are watercolor and gouache on paper, 12in x 16in (30.4cm x 40.6cm) A thousand thank yous, Manik Raj Nakra Contact for hellos, high fives, CV, and all other inquires: Email: [email protected] Phone: 281.433.9465 Portfolio Site: WWW.MANIKNAKRA.COM Manik Raj Nakra is an artist living, working, and eating late night Chinese in Austin, Texas, USA. He is 30 years old.