Paro
31/05/14 03:10
Chimmi picks us up after breakfast and we drive around half hour where the treck to the Tiger’s Nest starts. It takes us an hour up to the tea house and from there another 45 minutes to Taktshang Goemba, which translates Tiger’s Nest Monastery. It is Bhutan’s most famous monastery, miraculously perched on the side of a sheer cliff 900m above the floor of Paro valley. It is said that Guru Rimpoche flew to the site of the monastery on the back of a tigress (a manifestation of his consort Yeshe Tsogyal) to subdue the local demon, Singrey Samdrup. He then meditated in a cave here for three months. On 19th April 1998 a fire destroyed the main structure o Taktshang and all its contents. Reconstruction started in April 2000 at a cost of 130 million ngultrum and the re-built site was reconsecrated in the presence of the king.
While we are there, a group of monks perform a special celebration. They do it only once a month; so we are really lucky. On the way back we run into the group of Indian tourists that were riding up on horses. Now they have to walk too and there is this typical smell in the air. Lunch back at the tea house and back down to the car. We visit the Paro Dzon, one of Bhutan’s most impressive and well-known dzongs. It was built in 1644 and was used on numerous to defend the Paro valley from invasions by Tibet. In 1995 the film „Little Buddha“ was shot here. We stroll through downtown Paro, not really something to write home about and go back to the hotel for some relaxation.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small, land-locked mountainous nation in Asia, located in the eastern Himalaya Mountains north of India and south of China. It is slightly smaller than Switzerland. It is a country with a strong ancient Buddhist culture and almost completely cut off for centuries to avoid foreign influences.
Bhutan began to open up very slowly to outsiders in the 1970s. Tourism today is privatised by the Royal Government of Bhutan in 1991 but still restricted; travel is only possible as part of a pre-arranged package or guided tour.
While we are there, a group of monks perform a special celebration. They do it only once a month; so we are really lucky. On the way back we run into the group of Indian tourists that were riding up on horses. Now they have to walk too and there is this typical smell in the air. Lunch back at the tea house and back down to the car. We visit the Paro Dzon, one of Bhutan’s most impressive and well-known dzongs. It was built in 1644 and was used on numerous to defend the Paro valley from invasions by Tibet. In 1995 the film „Little Buddha“ was shot here. We stroll through downtown Paro, not really something to write home about and go back to the hotel for some relaxation.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small, land-locked mountainous nation in Asia, located in the eastern Himalaya Mountains north of India and south of China. It is slightly smaller than Switzerland. It is a country with a strong ancient Buddhist culture and almost completely cut off for centuries to avoid foreign influences.
Bhutan began to open up very slowly to outsiders in the 1970s. Tourism today is privatised by the Royal Government of Bhutan in 1991 but still restricted; travel is only possible as part of a pre-arranged package or guided tour.
TransAsia 2014