Our visit to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery or Taktshang Goemba was the highlight of our trip to Bhutan. The Tiger’s Nest founding, if I understood correctly, was based on a 7th century fable or mythical story about a flight to a cave here on the side of the mountain. The Tiger’s Nest was originally built in 1692. There was a fire here in 1998 that destroyed it, but the government rebuilt it. The Tiger’s Nest is in the mountains above the Paro Valley. Paro is around 7,300 feet high. The trail starts around 8,500 feet and the Tiger’s Nest is somewhat over 10,000 feet, but the trail to get there goes as high as around 11,000 feet.

We found a monk who helped us enter the Tiger’s Nest. We already had our permit. We had to leave our camera’s, backpacks, hats, and everything else but our clothes at the entrance point. From there, it was a steep two-story flight of stairs to enter. We climbed directly up to the Tiger’s Nest itself. We entered the highest temple and paid our respects. I made a contribution to the temple for our safe journey. Then, Vicky and I found a veranda outside overlooking the Paro Valley and meditated.

Afterwards, we climbed up a tall ladder and into a hole in the rocks. This was the cave in the story about the origins of the Tiger’s Nest. The monastery has twelve temples and we visited five or six of them. We took our time and enjoyed every minute. The Tiger’s Nest had temple cats and temple dogs.

These photos were taken prior to entering the Tiger’s Nest monastery. In the first photo, you can see the end of the trail leading up to the Tiger’s Nest. You will also notice all the prayer flags including many that were draped clear across the canyon. I’m not sure how they accomplished that feat.

Below are just a few more photos of the Tiger’s Nest as we got closer to it. The last portion of the trail was steps and included about 800, not counting inside the Tiger’s Nest. We also had to go back down the 800 steps on the way out.

In the third photo, the Tiger’s Nest is the upper right hand portion of the monastery. A small sign on the steps leading up to the highest portion of the monastery had a sign that said Tiger’s Nest and an arrow pointing up.

After going into the uppermost temple, we came down the steps. At that point, we saw a ladder leading up to a cave entrance. We asked a monk what was in the cave. We had no idea what he said, so we went ahead and climbed up the rickety ladder and climbed into the cave.

It was just large rocks with space between them, no floor or flat ground. We then climbed back down and to the walkway in front of the Tiger’s Nest. We sat on a bench and meditated. Meditation was my suggestion which I made in order to get Vicky to join me in hiking all the way up to the Tiger’s Nest. You can see some people in this area in the last two photos. The people help with size perspective of the Tiger’s Nest. On the wall or ledge of that balcony, there was a ‘temple cat’ who was taking a nap on top of the wall, just inches from a better than thousand foot fall. He looked quite comfortable and content.

Below is a view of the Paro Valley. This photo is from the trail before we arrived at the monastery.