Nov 15, 20233 min read

Tiger's Nest

October 19 from the itinerary: - Paro Early this morning, take a short drive to Ramthankha, and start your hike to the Taktsang monastery (Tiger’s Nest). Built on a sheer cliff face at a height of 2950 m (9678 ft.), the four-hour trek offers spectacular views. The trail climbs through a beautiful pine forest, many of the trees festooned with Spanish moss and an occasional grove of fluttering prayer flags. Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche, founder of Buddhism in Bhutan flew from eastern Bhutan on a tigress, bringing Buddhist teachings and meditation here on this cliff. This is one of the most venerated and sacred of all Buddhist sights around the world. This hike takes about five hours with a 900 m (2952 ft) approximate gain in altitude. Take the rest of the afternoon to relax.

Today's target is the reason for my trip to Bhutan - Tiger's Nest/Taktsang monastery. Here are some photos from the car park at the start.

We took the easier route to the viewing area/stairs which was about 2000 foot increase over 2.5 miles. It was probably the toughest walk of this trip and I'm not sure why - whether it was just I was tired of hiking or my body was warn out and needed a break. It was very crowded coming up and I hated that. For those who couldn't walk, there were ponies, but it was expected you would walk down. Here are some shots going up.

Once you get up level to the Monastery you have to go down 464 stairs (I counted ),

cross a river with a waterfall - in slomo and regular speed.

and then go up about 350 stairs to the actual monastery. I've tried to get photos of the stairs, but you probably can't see them unless you know where to look...

There are also shots of prayers painted on the cliff walls, more muffins and the actual main entrance door to the complex.

There are several monasteries and houses nearby also perched on the hillsides. The last photo is of the old cafe which they moved down lower.

You are not able to bring anything into the monastery, including mobile phones/hiking poles/backpacks. This is the third iteration of Tiger's Nest after 2 fires. The more recent was in 1995, which they think was caused. by a butter lamp. It was finally opened again in 2005. There weren't always the nice stairs used today, these were only built about 15 years ago. Before that there were less even stairs from which people had been known to fall to their deaths.

Here are some iconic photos of the monastery.

On the way down we stopped at the cafe which also had a nice view. Here are a few shots going down.

This is where they let you off if you took the horse which was just about at the cafe level - 2/3 way up.

Further down we saw some Kalij pheasants and Sun birds.

As we drove down, I was able to look up to where we hiked today and I was rather glad to be done with hiking for awhile.

Lunch was at a traditional and still common farmhouse. The house itself is over 100 years old. On the bottom floor was the outhouse and also a loom used to weave local textiles.

We had Butter tea, pumpkin soup, red rice, buckwheat noodles, buckwheat vegetable momos, cheesy potatoes, radishes/pork fat, spicy beans and sake with a worm in it. 7 people live there: our hostess, her brother, mother, father, husband, and 2 children - 11 years and 13 months.

We had a small shopping expedition and I bought some Cordyceps tea. Dorje said this was made from worms, but it's made from a mushroom by the same name.