It was quite a relief to wake up the next morning to good weather, no rain and was forecast and the slightly cloudy sky would mean that it wouldn't be too hot for the big walk up to Taktshang Goemba.
From the car park we had a good view of the scale of the walk ahead of us, we could just see on the left hill a ridge with buildings where at 3140m we would get the best view of the Monastery then the steepness of the route down into a gorge then up again to the actual Tiger's Nest Monastery, it seemed quite a long way
There was an easy option to get at least part of the way up; hire a mule, but we declined preferring to get there under our own steam. Several of the mares had young foals who later we would see following their mum's on the route, they must be know the route extremely well by the time they're old enough to carry a person
The path became very steep and we were glad it was dry as it must be quite slippery when wet
The trail climbed on through beautiful, scented blue pine trees
Every now and again we had to give way to ponies passing. Having completed their journey and depositing their riders the ponies are let go to make their own way back to the start
After about an hour we reached a large prayer wheel where we had a break
We started getting lovely views of the monastery,
I thought it very inventive to make these little prayer wheels out of old drinks bottles
About another hour later we reached the viewpoint at 3140m. The Tiger's Nest looked so close, it was only 150m away but we still had to go down into the gorge and up the other side.
Legend says that Guru Rinpoche flew to the site where the monastery is now, on the back of a tigress to subdue a local demon. He then meditated in a cave on the rock face for three months. In 1692 the primary lhakhang was built around this holy cave. Tradition says that the building is anchored to the cliff face by the hairs of dakini (female celestial beings) who carried the building materials up on their backs. I'm not sure I believe this legend but it is certainly an incredible feat of building.
Unfortunately Papa T was suffering with another bout of plantar fasciatis, he had done well to walk as high up as he had but he decided to rest his foot so stayed at the viewpoint with Jamtsho for company whilst Tenzing and I went on. The path down was very steep and narrow but had a good handrail
and then we were at the foot of the Tiger's Nest. Being the most revered site in Bhutan no bags, phones or cameras are allowed on the site so I only have my memories of what we saw. A maze of different small temples and narrow dark corridors, many steps up and down, monks blessing pilgrims, incense and hundreds of burning butter lamps, paintings and statues of Buddha and Guru Rinpoche and his eight manifestations
We were able to visit the cave where Guru Rinpoche meditated, a set of magic daggers are preserved here behind a beautifully gilded door
Having visited many of the temples, ( I don't know if we saw them all as it was such a confusing maze) and Tenzing had received another blessing we went back to the entrance and collected our bags, from here we had a lovely view of the Paro valley about 1000m below us
We headed back down the steep path, passed the lovely waterfall and the Singye Peiphu Lhakhang (Snow lion cave) which has a meditation retreat tucked into a rocky crevice, still in use there was a sign at the bottom of the path asking people not to enter or disturb those presently meditating there
We continued the path now going steeply up to rejoin Papa T and Jamtsho for lunch and one last photo at the viewpoint
Back down at the bottom of the trek Jamtsho offered us the opportunity to visit one last monastery, reputedly the oldest and one of the most beautiful in Bhutan, it seemed churlish to refuse. On the way we passed a man taking home a huge bundle of stalks, maybe fodder for his stock, a reminder of the resourcefulness of the people here and how hard they work
Kyichu Lhakhang is generally believed to have first been built in 659 to pin down the left foot of a giant ogress, additional buildings have been added over the years so from the outside it did not appear that old
but once entered into the inner courtyard we came to the oldest part
Outside was a lovely heavily decorated circular building, it looked newly built
Now I must admit we were both completely 'templed out'. We had only had an hour or so left before supper time and it was our last day in Bhutan. I mentioned to Jamtsho the one thing we still hadn't seen in was some archery, Jamtsho had talked a few times about how he was a keen archer along with many of his friends and that this sport not only is the national sport of Bhutan but is generally played by almost all men all over the country and games will be hotly contested.
We arrived at the Paro playing field where a local tournament was in progress. Targets are placed 140m apart at both ends of the marked area, with the 'clubhouse' and score board mid way between. Several onlookers were watching the proceedings and there was clearly a lot of banter between the opposing teams.
Jamtsho tried to explain the rules but I found it quite confusing, he mentioned that in Bhutan archery is considered a man's sport so is not played by women or children. He also said that a lot of drinking of alcohol goes on throughout the tournament as many believe this will improve their aim, however teammates will remove a player if his aim becomes too drunken to avoid anybody being shot by accident
Traditional bows made from bamboo have largely been replaced by highly technical compound bows, the archers aim was pretty good and when they hit anywhere near the centre of the target there was loud cheers from their team mates and jeers from the opposing team, it all seemed very good natured
That night we had a last Bhutanese meal and enjoyed a bottle of the locally produced wine, Vintria which was rather good. We went to bed early as had to be up at 5am to get our flight home the following morning.
At the airport I noticed a large picture of the Royal family; the wonderfully titled Dragon King of Bhutan, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who came to the throne in 2006 at the age of 27. At his side is his wife, Queen Consort Jetsun Perma, a commoner whom he married in 2011 and between them their son, His Royal Higness The Gyalsey Crown Prince of Bhutan Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck born in February 2016. During our time in Bhutan we had seen many photos and paintings of the Royal family and had been told that they are universally respected and adored but the people.
Soon after take off we had a lovely last view of this fascinating country and it's beautiful mountains and hope one day to come back and spend more time exploring the Land of the Thunder Dragon
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