Tiger's Nest Monastery

Today Mona, Wangchuck, and I went to the famous Tiger's Nest Monastary in the town of Paro.  Paro is the location of the airport and a 1 1/2 hr drive from Thimphu.  The Paro valley is absolutely beautiful.    Layers of the Himalaya mountains all around you.  Many streets are lined with blooming apple trees.  Forests climb the sides of the mountains and green terraced fields sit along the valley.   The town itself is small and charming with colorful buildings on straight streets.  We had a wonderful day!

A view of the valley:

The hike to Tiger's Nest (Taktshang Goemba) involves a 3000 ft ascension.  It's a pretty steep and strenuous trek to reach the monastery, but Mona, Wangchuck and myself made it to the top on our own two feet.

None of this for us:

A pine forest located at the entrance of the hike.

A water prayer wheel:

A prayer wheel turned by flowing water.  This water is then said to be blessed and purifies all that it is fed into.  We see them a lot on hikes and when driving.

Halfway up is a cafeteria.  The waiter gave us free coffee!

Further up the mountain/different face, the trees and foliage change.  

Lots of stairs

Built in 1692, Tiger's Nest is the most famous monastery in Bhutan possibly because of how it is perched on the side of this sheer cliff!  It sits at 10, 240 ft where the only sounds are of winds, water flowing, and an occasional bird.  It is believed Guru Rinpoche flew to this site on the back of a tiger to subdue local demons.  Guru Rinpoche is credited for bringing Buddhism to Bhutan.  

You can't take pictures inside the temples which is too bad for you blog readers.  I'm not gifted enough to write about the beautiful paintings, sculptures, wood carvings, etc inside.  However I can share with you a quick story.  We were inside one of the temples where some Buddhists were bowing on the floor in respect to the alter.  As I was quietly observing, I noticed a small cat go up to a lady wanting attention.  I thought the cat would be shooed away.  Instead, people started picking up the cat as if it were a baby and petting it.  The cat loved every minute of it!