Taktsang Monastery (or commonly known as Tiger's Nest) is built around a cave in which Guru Rim Poche (known as Guru Padmasambhava) meditated.  The monastery clings seemingly impossible to a cliff at 914m above the valley floor.

For the local people it is a place of pilgrimage, but for a tourist, a hike up to the viewpoint opposite the monastery is exhausting, thrilling a mystical.  Legend has it that Guru Rimpoche is said to have flown to the site of the monastery on the back of a tigress and meditated in the cave.

The temple complex was first built in 1692, around the Taktsang Senge Samdup (stag tshang seng ge bsam grub) cave where Guru Padmasambhava is said to have meditated for three years, three months, three weeks, three days and three hours in the 8th century. Padmasambhava is credited with introducing Buddhism to Bhutan and is the tutelary deity of the country. Today, Taktsang Monastery is the best known of the thirteen taktsang or "tiger lair" caves in which he meditated.

The Guru mTshan-brgyad Lhakhang, the temple devoted to Padmasambhava (also known as Gu-ru mTshan-brgyad Lhakhang. "The Temple of the Guru with Eight Names") is an elegant structure built around the cave in 1692 by Gyalse Tenzin Rabgye; and has become the cultural icon of Bhutan. A popular festival, known as the Tsechu, held in honor of Padmasambhava, is celebrated in the Paro valley sometime during March or April.

How to get here:

Taktsang Monastery is located approximately 10 km north of Paro town at an altitude of 3.120 meters. No trip to Bhutan would be complete without a visit to this remarkable heritage site. 

Time to close: during 13.00-14.00 hrs, you should be there before noon.