All day was a Tiger’s Nest day, you can see it at a distance from where we parked and then up closer.
We hiked 8 miles that felt much longer because of the steep pitches and stairs/trails going up and down. Great to get real exercise.
The weather was perfect and astonishingly, we had the entire temple to ourselves. We were able to take time exploring. Dorji, a Buddhism specialist, gave us different talks about the history.
Our first stop was a temple dedicated to Machig Labdrön, Yeshe Tsogyal’s first reincarnation. The temple was great, then we got to explore a cave below, tiny, where she meditated then the cave above where she manifested when she was 8 and 16. She left a footprint and thumb print of her 8 year old self and a very detailed footprint if her 16 year old self. Very cool.
Tiger’s Nest was built in the 1600’s on the site of the cave where Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel came to Bhutan to fight the demons and bring Buddhism to Bhutan.
Padmasambhava flew in on the back of a tiger in a wrathful form to fight the demons. Yeshe (considered the mother of Bhuddism), had transformed into a tiger.
They meditated in a cave here for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days and three hours.
We weren’t allowed to bring in phones, so no interiors, sorry. Huge statues and walls covered with paintings.
I got to walk alone a lot on the way up. Then stopped at the half way point for a bit if a break. I then said I’d start off since everyone else was ahead and they said no, I was prob 45 ahead of most if the others. Hmmm. Then I started chatting with a couple of woman and it was so interesting. All the rest of the way up!
Reb's Walks! 