The Story of Phra Acharn Chan is the abbot of the “Tiger Temple” began 27 years ago when a doctor diagnosed him with leukemia and told him he had a very short time to live. Phra Acharn Chan’s response then was "Okay, I'm good luck because you and everybody in the world doesn't know when you are going to die but I know by myself I am going to die soon, so I have to do the good thing very quickly,"and become a monk. Later, Phra Acharn Chan became abbot at the monastery.
As civilization invaded rural Thailand, the wildlife drifted into this sanctuary. First there were birds, then wild boars wounded by local hunters. Eventually, the abbot says, the boars trusted him to care for them. Then they wandered off, only to return months later in even greater numbers. After the boar, it was a wounded tiger, and then villagers brought him another. There are now more than 15 tigers. These five-month-old cubs were born at the monastery. Dr. Somchai Visamong-Kolchai, the monastery, says the abbot cares for the animals as he would for humans because of a basic principle of Buddhism reincarnation.
“We believe that the tiger here used to be the monk, used to be our friend, our family, brother, sister.. And we or the abbot or the monks inside the tiger temple used to be the tigers. So, we are the same mind and spirit even if different in body, in shape, in form. In other words, whether animal or human, is not important. It is the spirit within the body that counts. If you have a power of love, a power of happiness in your mind, you can do everything. If the monks at the monastery do not take care of the tigers that may have been humans in their previous lives, the monks could be reincarnated themselves as an animal.
http://www.tigertemple.org/Eng/index.php
There is also a good website with a short film at:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week833/feature.html#
