Also known as the Taktsang Palphug Monastery and the Tiger’s Nest, it is located in the cliffside of a mountain, around a cave where Guru Padmasambhava is believed to have meditated and practiced Vajrayana Buddhism in the early 9th century. The monastery was built in 1692 by 4th Druk Desi Tenzin Rabgey.
Photographer: Nina R
The tiger in question was the guru’s consort, who transformed into a tiger and flew him there. His shrine is full of gold objects & venerated. Hers is round the corner from his, rather small and dim. It’s a beautiful place, looong walk to get there but worth the effort.
That walk is so brutal, even if you hire a pony for the first half. I have no clue how the old people manage to do it weekly.
You’ve visited? What was your impression overall? Bhutan is an idle fascination of mine. The willing abdication of the previous monarch, top-down initiated democracy, the Gross National Happiness concept, etc. it’s all incredibly interesting to me.
I loved the place. I was there in 2008, and the insane road up from India was being improved - it was so dangerous it was only open during daylight hours. You have to be part of an organised group, and have a Bhutanese guide - ours was great. The idea is to prevent the kind of over-tourism you see in a lot of places, not to control us. We were free to do our own thing if we wished.
Re the politics, one memorable quote was: “Most of us didn’t want democracy, but the king insisted, so we went along with it.”
Another great thing was the custom of polygamy - men and women can have multiple wives/husbands. I asked our guide how people organised their lives, and he said it was up to the individuals. Some people might live with one partner and visit the other. Some lived part-time with each partner. He himself found that one wife was plenty.
I lived there for 6 months. It’s interesting. If you get the chance definitely do it. A week or 2 as a tourist is fun, but even 8 years later I’m not sure if I’d live there again.
How did you find the food? Did you eat that chilies covered in cheese dish?
Bhutan has been on my bucket list for a long time, and I have traveled …a lot.
Ema Datsi. Yeah. It’s the national dish. It’s terrible. The texture is horrible. It’s frequently made with whole dried chilis in a cheese sauce.
A lot of the other food is great. When my wife came out for Xmas, she basically lived on momos. They have a ton of types of dal that are great.
Thanks for the reply. I’ll take your word for it of course, but whole dried chillies in a cheese sauce sounds like heaven to me. Unless of course they do not or the cheese do not rehydrate the chilis, in which case I could understand your comment about the texture.
They don’t rehydrate the chilis. It’s OK if they’re using fresh chilis, or any chilli other than the ancho shaped ones. It’s a kinda chunky cheese sauce with a limp dick in your mouth texture.
Any particular reason? I don’t mean to pester, and if you’re not comfortable sharing, I’ll press no further. However, like I said, it’s an idle fascination of mine, and this is the first time I’ve come across someone with firsthand experience ‘in the wild’, as it were.
I know that theres a legacy of oppression that is frequently hushed behind the monarchy’s foreign investment solicitations, and the majority of the population remains poor and isolated, both of which I can imagine being problematic.
The 2 tier system really bothered me. Lhotsampa not being allowed to have passports or bank accounts is fucked up. Also, living there was just rough. It’s really a developing country. Frequent power outages, and buying things was hard. For example, the vegetable market was only open Friday through Sunday.
