Taktsang Palphug Monastery

Taktsang Palphug Monastery, or Tiger’s Nest Monastery, is without doubt one of the main attractions of Bhutan (I say main because I saw only a small part of Bhutan and Taktsang Palphug Monastery was definitely the highlight of my introductory trip to Bhutan). Taktsang Palphug Monastery is an attraction, getting up to Taktsang Palphug Monastery and down from Taktsang Palphug Monastery are in my opinion also attractions in themselves.

In Himalayan Buddhism, Taktsang Palphug Monastery is considered to be a very holy site. According to the guide, Guru Rinpoche (the 2nd Buddha who travelled only within the Himalayan regions), mediated in a cave for three years, three months, three weeks, three days and three hours after being flown there from Tibet atop his Tibetan consort who changed herself into a tigress. The cave is only opened once a year, and many Bhutanese would travel to Paro and start their ascent to visit the cave as early as 3am.

Rising about 900m above the Paro valley, from which the ascent to Taktsang Palphug Monastery begins, Taktsang Palphug Monastery looks from the valley to be clinging to the rocky cliffs 3,120m above sea level.

A fire in 1998 reduced Taktsang Palphug Monastery to ashes, and I can imagine the effort the Bhutanese government took to rebuild it.

Ascending Taktsang Palphug Monastery is fairly easy, as I watch young and old Bhutanese whizzed ahead of me in wearing dress shoes or even flip-flops in the case of young monks. However, as a sea-level city-dweller more used to concrete stairs and footpaths, the ascent was no piece of cake. Firstly there was the altitude to contend with. Having had eight days to acclimatize myself at 2000++m, slowing down my walking speed on flat ground no longer became an issue. Having to walk on increasingly steep unpaved slopes was. Every so often, I found myself halting to take in deep breaths so that the oxygen boost propelled me on and upwards. And having to squeeze out smiles for the elderly but much nimbler Bhutanese who had this amused look as they caught up with me and left me wondering how they managed to ascend so quickly.

The scenery along the ascent must have been good, with pine forest going deep beyond what one’s eyes can take in. But my entire person was focused on putting one foot ahead of the other. The day of the ascent was special, because it was the day the cave in which Guru Rinpoche was opened. Not being aware of this until just before the ascend starting, seeing the cave became my sole motivation, much like how I pulled myself across part of the Kumano Kodo to see the Nachi Falls. And so I continued until the half-way point where a cafeteria doubled up as a toilet stop.

At the cafeteria, the guide declared the toughest part of the ascent behind us, and that the 2nd part of the ascent was easy with stone-steps at the last part leading to Taktsang Palphug Monastery. DO NOT believe your guide because:
* Bhutanese are made of stronger stuff compared to sea-level city-dweller me
* There are stone-steps at the last part, thousands of them, going up and down and the steps are high
* If it happens to rain during the ascent, it can be slippery ( for sea-level city-dweller me) and awe-inspiring seeing Bhutanese men carrying their babies and umbrella ascending faster than me in their dress shoes

While the scale of ascending Taktsang Palphug Monastery is nowhere near that for Mount Everest – a walking stick would suffice compared to full mountaineering gear and setting up base camps and more, I felt a little sorry for the middle-aged couple who gave up the ascent after reaching the cafeteria. It is possible to ascend all the way to Taktsang Palphug Monastery, and there was no time limit for it.

I visited the buildings in Taktsang Palphug Monastery, but two things stood out for me.

Obviously the visit to Guru Rinpoche’s cave is THE highlight. And so was it for the many Bhutanese who patiently stood in line as the monks allowed one small group at a time to have their quiet moment praying in the cave. Instead of shoving and angry voices that I experienced previously at attractions in China, the Bhutanese formed a tight line while bantering easily with one another. There was no display of impatience, anger or loud voices. As the line of people approached the shrine outside the cave, a monk distributed blessed milk which the Bhutanese collected with their palms, sipped a little and dapped the remaining milk on their heads. The monk very wisely skipped us, so I didn’t have to feel bad declining the offer.

Before entering the cave proper itself, there was a shrine heaped with offerings (of dry goods and money) where yet another monk distributed blessed oil this time. An even smaller group from that allowed into this shrine was waved into the cave.

The cave, opened only once a year, was much bigger than I had expected. There was no natural lighting in the dark cave, and so torches were used by the guide to pick out special features of the Buddhist statues. It was a good thing that only a small group was let into the cave at a time, so that devotees could pray unhurriedly and everyone had the decency to move out of the cave once their prayers were done so that others may enter. This would not have been possible in China, where tour guides with their loud hailers competed with their even louder local tourists in attractions, even in temples.

After we exited Guru Rinpoche’s cave, we visited the other Lhakhangs, where in one of the Lhakhang sat a lama with Buddhists around him mediating. The guide brought us to before the lama, where he made contact with our heads with something, which we learnt afterwards was a relic from Guru Rinpoche, and that we had been blessed by the relic. Wow. The ascent up to Taktsang Lhakhang was certainly worth it.

The descent from Taktsang Lhakhang was supposed to take less time than the ascent. But it was not to be for me. It had started while I was in one of the Lhakhangs, and the rain grew heavier as I descended the stone steps from Taktsang Palphug Monastery. But the descent had to continue as it was past one and lunch was beckoning at the cafeteria. As rain washed down the slopes making the path slippery and muddy, so did I started sliding despite my best efforts. After a brief respite at the cafeteria for lunch when the rain pattered out, it resumed with the remaining descent as Bhutanese descending around me were having a lark of their time running down the slopes in their dress shoes or slippers. I saw not a few Bhutanese men descending much steadier than me while carrying their babies or young toddlers.

It was almost four by the time I made it back to Metta Resort, to my warm room where I got to work cleaning the mud off my shoes and jeans and praying that both would be dry before the next day when there would most certainly be more mud again. Such was the fate of my shoes and jeans in the Bhutanese monsoon season.