Foto van Tiger Nest Monastery, Bhutan, Azië

Large prayer wheel on a rock with Tiger Nest Monastery in the background

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Koop Tiger Nest Monastery, Bhutan, Azië (Bhutan)

The prime attraction of the country, it is hard not to be awed by the Tiger Nest Monastery: a spectacular location, views, and history. The hike up makes for a good exercise.
In the mid-8th century, Guru Rinpoche came to Bhutan from Tibet, and he introduced the country to Buddhism. According to the legendary story, he rode a tigress, one of his consorts, to the very place we were now standing, to meditate here for three months. The tigress is supposed to have meditated as well, in a separate cave. From here, the Second Buddha as he is called in Bhutan visited many places in the country, subdued demons, and gave many prophecies. He would eventually lay solid foundations on which Bhutanese Buddhism is now based. Actually, the area around Tiger Nest monastery is full of holy places for Buddhists - Tiger Nest only holds a few of them. Tiger Nest is built around the Taktsang Senge Samdrup, the cave where Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava, is said to have meditated. We visited some of the most sacred places in Bhutanese Buddhism, saw the cave where the tigress is said to have meditated, saw the entrance to the cave where the Guru meditated, colourful statues of the eight appearances of the Guru, while a monk poured holy water into our open hand. Apart from the flow of pilgrims making it up here, Taktsang has seen prominent visitors like Milarepa and 17th century Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who unified Bhutan. My guide was convinced that this improbable place for building a monastery implied that only holy figures could have constructed it. Taktsang also had bad times: it has been destroyed by fire several times, last time in 1998, but has been restored. Furthermore, we marveled at the scenery from the monastery, the steep cliffs below us, the waterfall behind us, running down the face of the rock. Yes, again, I felt the peacefulness of this country. The walk down was a breeze, and from the cafetaria where we had some refreshing ginger tea, we were accompanied by two friendly souvenir sellers.
Lees meer over: Tiger Nest Monastery (Engels)

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Azië Afrika Bhutan Ethiopië blauw roze boeddhist kerk bruin paars goud geel grijs zwart groen oranje klippen baai rood zilver rots eiland Taktsang Everest tempel kathedraal Tiger Nest Monastery Zocalo wit zwart

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