The Tiger's Nest (Taktsang Monastery)

Because it’s such a special place, I wanted to devote a whole post to it and the hike.

That was our goal as we saw it near the start of the hike. 

We set out about 0700, and there were very few cars in the parking lot.  Our starting elevation was 8520 ft.  We tackled this challenge on our third day in Bhutan.  The town of Paro that we flew into stands at 7218 ft., and we noticed a little puffing and panting as we climbed stairs in our hotel.

I found that I didn’t take any pictures on our ascent, as I was just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to pant too much (getting dry mouth, don’t ya know).  As we passed these prayer wheels…

… we knew the café was close, and we’d pause for breakfast.

We had hiked for about an hour and covered about a mile, while gaining close to 1,000 ft.  The view was nice…

… but it still looked pretty far away.  I was surprised at the small building in the upper left of the picture.  I had never seen any photos or mention of something higher than the Tiger’s Nest, but our guide said it was another monastery!

Somewhat refreshed after our break, we climbed on, past prayer flags…

… and little stupas as prayer offerings for departed loved ones –

We were finally rewarded with this much closer look…

… and it was so interesting to see how these buildings truly were built right into the cliff (note that lowest roofline ending up against an apparent angled boulder).

This monastery was built in 1692 to commemorate the arrival of Buddhism in Bhutan.  Legend has it that guru Padmasambhava arrived at this place of meditation on the back of a flying tigress (which was his consort who magically transformed).  Hence, the name.

This is the view back over the Paro valley…

… from the famous viewpoint stop –

The light wasn’t the greatest , arriving in midmorning, but I got better pictures when we came back down.  You may have noticed the staircase in the lower left corner of that picture above.  Yes, we had to descend several hundred stairs, before climbing yet again –

This little corner sure can’t be seen from the base of the trail, let alone from the viewpoint…

… and I found this perspective to be very interesting (as we had just been seeing it from eye level) -

I had always wondered how you actually got over to the monastery, from where all the pictures were taken that I had drooled over for years.  This next picture is looking back at the viewpoint…

… from the base of the stairs leading to the temple…

… where we were required to put all cameras and phones in lockers.  Steve noted the altitude there was 10,128 ft., but all references to the Tiger’s Nest say that it’s at 10,240 ft.  We definitely climbed more stairs, visiting the nine temples contained within the complex.  Because you are not allowed to photograph inside temples, the only pictures and stories online are of the exterior.  It took us an hour to see the temples and hear all the relevant stories.

(the person climbing the staircase/ladder gives a little perspective on the immensity of the complex)

I was actually surprised by how old everything looked, but I shouldn’t have been, given its age. There have been several restorations and renovations after fires, earthquakes and war necessitated this, with the most recent in the early 2000s.

Here is the view from the Café, as we headed back down. Our stats for the hike were: 4.4 miles roundtrip in 4 hours hiking time, with 2,000 ft of ascent (according to AllTrails).

I’ll close with my best picture, in the best light. :)