15 Interesting Facts On Tiger’s Nest Of Bhutan That You Had No Idea About

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Taktsang hermitage (Tiger’s Lair) is a popular tourist destination in the country. The authors of Lonely Planet recommended Taktsang in a week-long tour plan to Bhutan in travel 2020 where Bhutan was the top country to visit in 2020.

 

  1. Taktsang is an impressive sight on the face of a sheer 1,000-m cliff above the Paro

 

Valley. The motorable trail through the pine forest for 3-km from the highway ends at a

 

parking area of 2,600-m. Horses can be arranged on request, but pilgrims prefer to hike

 

uphill which would take about an hour.

 

  1. The trail ascends steeply from the ridge with railings and safety netting for protection.

 

The narrow trail to the hermitage gives magnificent panoramic views of the hermitage

 

and Paro Valley.

 

  1. Taktsang is among the 13 awesome tiger lairs visited by Guru Padmakara who introduced

 

Buddhism in Bhutan and said to have flown there from north-east Bhutan on the back of

 

a tigress, to subdue negative spiritual forces in the form of tiger-riding (Dorje Drolod)

 

emanation during the eighth century.

 

  1. In 853, Langchhen Pelgyi Senge, a Tibetan student of one of Padmasambhava, meditated

 

in the main cave at Taktsang, which later came to be known as Taktsang Pelphuk, after

 

his own name. A newly restored stupa at the entrance to this cave contains his mortal

 

remains.

 

  1. There are eight caves that surround and live in the monastery of “Tholu Phuk” and “Pel

 

Phuk” is worth visiting – the caves in which Guru Rimpoche visited and meditated.

 

  1. A waterfall plunges down the chasm alongside a retreat hermitage associated with Guru

 

Padmakara. A temple dedicated to the water spirits marks the place where he brought

 

forth a spring of water through his spiritual powers.

 

  1. Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel who formed the new Bhutanese state visited Taktsang in

 

the company of his mentor Rigdzin Nyingpo, and took possession of the site, offering it

 

to Jinpa Gyeltsen, a brother of the fourth regent Tendzin Rabgye.

 

  1. When Zhabdrung performed elaborate Vajrakila rituals, he experienced numerous visions

 

such as the local deity of Taktshang coming in the form of a black man and offering

 

Taktshang to him, saying that if he took it, he would ensure that no one could ever steal

 

  1. Since then the monastic community holds an annual prayer festival during the fifth

 

lunar month.



  1. Many great 11th and 12th-century spiritual masters of Tibet passed periods in profound

 

meditation and the sacred sites associated with them are around Taktsang.

 

  1. His Holiness the 69 th Je Khenpo (The Chief Abbot of the Central Monastic Body of

 

Bhutan) Gyeshey Gedun Rinchen was born in a cave near Paro Taksang in the Fire Tiger

 

year (1926) to his mother Tashi Chokey.

 

  1. The first complex, the Drubkhang has images of Guru Padmakara in his tiger-tiding aspect Dorje Drolod, Vajrakila, and Guru Padmakara and the cave of meditative attainment (druphuk) where Guru Padmakara stayed in retreat for three months.

 

  1. There is an empty chapel, followed by a small doorway that leads to a deep, 6-m crevice

 

overlooking the valley, according to the legend, which is said to have been the actual tiger’s lair back in the eighth century.

 

  1. The renovations were undertaken in the 1950s and 1980s and it completed the more recent restoration in 2004 with Nu 135-million equivalents over USD 2-million after a fire disaster ruined it in 1998.

 

  1. The trail through the pine forests towards the monastery has colorful prayer flags lined throughout to guard the temple from evil spirits.

 

  1. Visit the cave behind the chapel and select the image of the Tibetan saint Machig Labdron on the right (for a baby girl) or the penis print on the cave wall to the left (for a boy).
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