The Temples and Monasteries of the Paro Valley

Taktshang Goempa

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Attraction | "Not for the Weak of Heart or Knees"

The view from the butter lamp building Photo, Bhutan, Asia

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To go to Bhutan and not see the Tiger's Nest would be like going to Agra and not bothering to see the Taj Mahal or missing the Eiffel Tower on your first visit to Paris. If one image symbolises the exotic, mysterious and timeless nature of Bhutan, it's surely the Tiger's Nest or, to give it its more formal name, the Thaktshang Goempa. Clinging precariously to the side of an almost sheer rock face, more than 900 meters above the valley floor, this is the must-see attraction of all must-see attractions. However, there's one big difference between the Tiger's Nest and most iconic attractions: it's a really tough one to reach.Considering that the average age of visitors to Bhutan is high and m...Read More

To go to Bhutan and not see the Tiger's Nest would be like going to Agra and not bothering to see the Taj Mahal or missing the Eiffel Tower on your first visit to Paris. If one image symbolises the exotic, mysterious and timeless nature of Bhutan, it's surely the Tiger's Nest or, to give it its more formal name, the Thaktshang Goempa. Clinging precariously to the side of an almost sheer rock face, more than 900 meters above the valley floor, this is the must-see attraction of all must-see attractions. However, there's one big difference between the Tiger's Nest and most iconic attractions: it's a really tough one to reach.

Considering that the average age of visitors to Bhutan is high and most are old aged pensioners, it's a bit cruel to put your top attraction in such an inaccessible place. We had 20-30 years more life in our legs than most tourists in Bhutan but we still struggled. Add to that the effects of high altitude and the Tiger's Nest is more of a challenge than you might be led to believe when a nice tour company sells you a trip from a website decorated with images of this monastery. Even for the young and relatively frisky this is not an easy visit and our guide told us that the climb is very similar in places to the rigours of the Jumolhari base camp trek. With my knees in bad shape from previous hiking accidents, I did start the walk with some trepidation and took my walking poles with me on my holiday just for dealing with this one attraction.

Our driver dropped us at the car park at the base of the climb and we set off through some gentle woodland, passing a water-driven prayer wheel that rang out several times each minute as the wheel rotated and knocked against a bell. We watched scornfully as parties of less brave and bold travellers hired horses to take them up the mountain but as the path got steeper and rougher under foot, we did wonder if they might have had the right idea. When I say 'path' of course I use the term very loosely for this is not a paved way. It's very rough, very friable under foot and most importantly extremely steep. After rain it would be almost deadly. I did wonder how the horses were coping in some places and I think being on one would have been very frightening.

Perhaps the most depressing thing about the start of the trek to the monastery is that you can't see anything of what is to come. You walk through woodland without even the slightest glimpse of the prize that awaits you until over half way. Mind you, that's probably a good thing because after about an hour of slogging along, we finally saw the first view of the monastery and it was still a very long way away.

The first landmark on the climb comes when you reach a small prayer wheel and get your first view of the monastery. The next landmark is a very welcome one; it's the so-called cafeteria view-point. There's a large metal hut that serves teas and coffees and very welcome biscuits, offers toilets and a good place to sit down and simply stare open-mouthed in wonder at the monastery. On the down-side, you'll also become aware that there's still a really long way to go. Most of the people who had come up by horse stopped at this point and spent a long time just looking. Some were brave enough to continue on foot.

Our guide explained that from the cafeteria we still had a long climb to get above the level of the monastery. Then we would head down several hundred stone steps, cross a waterfall and then climb up a few hundred more. But having come so far, you can't really back out at this stage and I was determined to get there. We were reassured by somewhat unbelievable claims that the next stage wasn't as bad as what we'd already done. And so, filled with biscuits and new energy, we set off.

Sure enough, this second phase didn't seem so bad and I suspect it was because you could see the temple and be driven on by its inspiration. We reached the highest point of the climb and looked down on all the steps that were still to come and just slogged on. A young monk was sitting on a rock at one view point, quite happy to watch all these crazy tourists and to have his photograph taken.

When we finally reached the monastery there was a tiny sense of anti-climax. This is an attraction where the goal itself can be less than the anticipation and the journey. The Tiger's Nest is best viewed from a distance rather than too close-by. The temple as it stands today is a modern rebuilding of the original one which has been damaged and rebuilt many times, most recently by a devastating fire which required so much work to rebuild the place that it only opened again to the public a few years ago. My guidebook which dates to the early 2000s was written when visitors could go no further than the cafeteria and I've read incorrect reports that tourists aren't allowed inside - this simply isn't true.

We removed our shoes, left our bags and cameras and headed into the monastery. In itself, it's not so remarkably different from many other Bhutanese monasteries. We gained access to three or four different temples, including one which is built around the cave where Guru Rimpoche, the founder or Bhutanese Buddhism, is said to have meditated and another leading lama was said to have been born. The temple takes its name from the belief that Guru Padmasambhava (the man who brought Buddhism to Bhutan) flew to the site of the temple on the back of a flying tigress in the 8th Century. We were lucky to arrive at just the right time before the caretaker monks all knocked off for lunch . It's not the sort of place you can just pop back to a bit later.

Suitably inspired, we started the walk back to the cafeteria and the steps were taking their toll on tired legs. The meal when we arrived was fantastic or possibly we were just so hungry that we ate like horses. The final descent back to the car park was painful in the extreme and my legs were so stiff I could hardly get up and down stairs for several days later. But it was still an attraction that I wouldn't have missed for all the world. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on January 18, 2009

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Paro Dzong/Rinpung Dzong

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Attraction | "Going for a Dzong"

National Museum and Paro Dzong Photo, Bhutan, Asia

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For most visitors to Bhutan, Paro Dzong will be either the first or the last dzong that they visit in the country. This is due to its proximity to Paro Airport, the country's only air-link with the outside world. For us it was the first dzong and one to remember. As our plane landed and taxied along the runway my eyes swivelled to hunt out the big white block on the hillside which I knew from my pre-trip research would be the dzong.The concept of a dzong is an unusual blend of the sacred and the secular and something that's found in Himalayan Buddhist communities but is most characteristically Bhutanese. Traditionally a dzong was a combination of a fortress crossed with a monastery whilst ...Read More

For most visitors to Bhutan, Paro Dzong will be either the first or the last dzong that they visit in the country. This is due to its proximity to Paro Airport, the country's only air-link with the outside world. For us it was the first dzong and one to remember. As our plane landed and taxied along the runway my eyes swivelled to hunt out the big white block on the hillside which I knew from my pre-trip research would be the dzong.

The concept of a dzong is an unusual blend of the sacred and the secular and something that's found in Himalayan Buddhist communities but is most characteristically Bhutanese. Traditionally a dzong was a combination of a fortress crossed with a monastery whilst today most serve as a combination of monastery and local government administration centres. I find something engaging about the idea that a place full of peaceful meditating Buddhist monks would also have loads of people firing arrows at Tibetan armies who were attempting to invade.

Construction of the current dzong started in 1644 and was part of a mass dzong-building movement across Bhutan brought about by a need to defend against aggression from its neighbours. It's a fair bet that if you guess 17th Century when you see a dzong, you'll probably be right and equally fair to say that it's hard to date them just by looking as they all share the same design elements of massive whitewashed walls with a thick brown band near the roofline and because everything whether new or old is made in the same way and to the same standard of traditional craftsmanship. There must be a good business for dzong painters and people who rent out very long ladders in Bhutan.

The Paro Dzong sits on a hillside overlooking the river just outside the town. It's a great location for a defensive building as you really can see all the way up or down the Paro Valley for many miles in each direction. The river is known locally as the 'No Fish River' because, not surprisingly, there are no fish in it. Our guide tried to explain why but the advanced theories of aquaculture combined with his accent meant I just resorted to smiling and nodding as if I knew just what he was saying. I have to say though that if I was a fish, a river of glacial melt-water probably wouldn't be my first choice either.

We parked near to the wooden covered bridge that crosses the fish-free river and it was hard not to be impressed by the bulk of the dzong sitting above us. The walls, as in all dzongs, are very thick and lean inwards. There are slots in the walls for shooting at the invaders and from the outside you really can't peep in. It's the sort of look that says 'Keep away unless you have an invitation'. On the way up the steep hill to the entrance we welcomed the opportunity to stop and take photos of the valley, the airport and local houses with their traditional architecture. And of course, the opportunity to suck some thin clean air into our lungs which hadn't yet acclimatised to the altitude.

There's a single entrance to the dzong and it's on the back of the building so you need to go all the way up the hill and round the back. The entrance is reached up a flight of stairs and across a wooden bridge over a steep drop. I guess this bridge could be withdrawn in the event of an attack a little like the drawbridges of old moated European castles.

Before entering, our guide adjusted his attire to make sure he met the standards required of all Bhutanese when entering a government building. This mostly seems to consist of draping a very large cream shawl about the body in a complex and utterly impractical way. This met the approval of the policeman on the door and we were inside.

Inside we really didn't know what to expect and were thrilled with all the bright and detailed frescoes and religious paintings. These followed classic themes which soon became familiar to us over the week of our visit - the four protective kings, the wheel of life, the Four Friends and in the case of Paro, some fascinating scenes of men leading tigers which had allegedly leapt our of their knees. I can certainly say I could have used some tigers in my knees on some of the climbs we made that week.

Once inside, the dzong is rectangular in footprint with an inner tower and a number of separate courtyards. There are more than a dozen different temples inside but not all are open to visitors. If you look around you may catch site of red and purple-clad monks watching you from the upper balconies but somehow they always seem to melt away into invisibility if you sneak your camera in their direction. The decoration inside the dzong is a visual feast - it's hard to know what's old and what's new because everything knits together so consistently. The plain white walls set off the brightly coloured painted and carved wood, covered with dragons, flowers and symbols. Windows tend to be small - well it must be very cold in the winter - with strange arched shapes and lots of painted decoration. At the end nearest the town - and so furthest from the entrance - there are floor to ceiling windows that offer spectacular views over the valley.

As it was our first dzong, we didn't really know what to expect but we certainly weren't disappointed. I feared that those that followed might all be much of a muchness but each and every dzong was very different. Despite combining the same elements, the atmosphere and layout of each was unique. I have been to many Buddhist countries where I'm ashamed to admit that I became a bit jaded with temples, but no dzong ever disappointed. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on January 24, 2009

Paro Dzong/Rinpung Dzong
Paro District
Bhutan, Asia

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Ancient Ruin of Drukgyel Dzong

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Attraction | "Absolute Peace and Quiet at the Ruins on the Hill"

Ancient Ruin of Drukgyel Dzong Photo, Bhutan, Asia

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Toward the end of our first full day in Bhutan I was feeling a little bit flat. I'd wanted to visit the country for 12 years, ever since someone I'd met in India had told me it was their favourite place in the world. It took a while to get there because it's such an expensive place to visit and quite difficult to get to. With such a massive mental build-up the reality seemed almost sure to fall short of the dream. There was nothing actually wrong with what we'd seen and done, indeed it was all very lovely, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that it wasn't quite what I'd expected. I have an aversion to places that are just a bit too clean, ordered and smooth-running and ...Read More

Toward the end of our first full day in Bhutan I was feeling a little bit flat. I'd wanted to visit the country for 12 years, ever since someone I'd met in India had told me it was their favourite place in the world. It took a while to get there because it's such an expensive place to visit and quite difficult to get to. With such a massive mental build-up the reality seemed almost sure to fall short of the dream. There was nothing actually wrong with what we'd seen and done, indeed it was all very lovely, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that it wasn't quite what I'd expected.

I have an aversion to places that are just a bit too clean, ordered and smooth-running and Bhutan was starting to feel a bit TOO perfect and a teensy bit 'Disney-fied'. I always bristle when people tell me "We had a lovely holiday in Switzerland/Singapore/Toronto – it was SO clean". If clean is the first adjective that springs to mind, then something's missing. I want to hear "It was so exciting/vibrant/inspiring/stimulating/shocking" and Bhutan was feeling just a touch like a pensioners' bus tour. I'm also not crazy about being 'led' around a country but with Bhutan there's no choice – you have to go with a guide and a driver and follow a regimented plan of what you see and where you go.

On day one we'd already been to Paro Dzong and a couple of temples, wandered around the pristine town, had a very acceptable lunch and yet something was missing. The final attraction of the day was to be Drukgyel Dzong, a ruined fortress-monastery a few miles from the town and it became the turning point for me in our tour of Bhutan.

We drove out of the town for about 15 or 20 minutes, passing through tiny villages and pristine fields growing the local red rice. We stopped to take pictures of Mount Jumolhari – also known as 'the Bride of Kachenjunga' and one of Bhutan's most popular trekking areas. Another brooding black mountain stood to one side and the beauty of the two was breath-taking. We finally arrived at Drukgyel and parked near the start of the path to the dzong. I had checked this place out on-line before our trip so I knew to expect a ruined fortress-monastery but I hadn't expected to be so moved by the place.

The walk up to the dzong was steep and the path uneven. It was a first chance for our guide to work out whether the two of us were going to be easy for him to push up various cliffs or were going to be a bit of a liability. Like eager mountain goats we bounded up the path, full of the joys of a late afternoon in the mountains. The air was clear and cool, the skies were the brightest shade of blue and there wasn't a man-made sound to be heard, just the odd chirp of the birds. As we climbed we could see groups of locals in the rice fields below us taking on the back-breaking work of harvesting the rice but mostly there was just a fabulous sense of isolation and peace.

Reaching the entrance to the dzong we found most of the outer walls standing though badly damaged and no longer painted white. Most of the paint had either worn off, discoloured or been burned off. As we entered the first courtyard we could see the remnants of where the balconies must have been. Any stone flooring was gone with just grass on the ground and a smattering of curled up dogs enjoying a bit of afternoon sunbathing. Weeds grew through the cracks in the walls and everything felt very abandoned.

The central tower was still standing but badly damaged and heavily attacked by ivy. Behind the tower we were able to climb up onto the top of the walls and it became apparent exactly why you'd want to build a defensive structure in this location – you could see for miles. The views were stunning and it would have been hard for any invading army to creep up on Drukgyel. As my husband chatted with our guide, I crept out along the top of the wall and for the first time since we'd arrived I felt alone and completely at peace.

We had the entire place to ourselves and due to the ruined state, there were no statues to look at, no complicated paintings to interpret, no need to try hard to learn the names of different manifestations of the Buddha. It was an easy and relaxed place to be. Quite simply there were no things to look at – just the bare ruined walls, the plants and the butterflies, and nothing to listen to but the birds.

The Dzong was built in the 17th century – no surprise, most of them were. It was built to commemorate victory over an invasion force from Tibet and was commissioned by Zhabdung Ngawang Namgyal, the man responsible for much of the 17th century dzong construction. In 1951, fire from butter lamps in the temple got out of control and the dzong was very badly damaged. This is not unusual – most dzongs and temples have a history of fire damage and any astute Bhutanese entrepreneur could do worse than consider starting a fire sprinkler business! Since others have been renovated and reconstructed many times, we asked why Drukgyel was left to stand ruined. Our guide explained that Bhutan has no shortage of dzongs and temples and there's no real need to rebuild this one; better to spend money building schools and clinics than renovating a ruined fortress-monastery that's surplus to requirements. And in a strange way, the ruins had almost more resonance and more dignity than the pristine dzongs we saw elsewhere.
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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on January 27, 2009

Ancient Ruin of Drukgyel Dzong
Upper Paro Valley
Drukgyel, Paro, Bhutan

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Tortoises and Goblins in Paro Valley

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The Tortoise Rock - yeah, really! Photo, Bhutan, Asia

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I don't think that Dungtse Temple was supposed to be on our itinerary for Paro so we were lucky to get to see it as a quick 'fill-in' for an already very busy day. Bhutanese tourism isn't known for its flexibility – in fact it's so regimented that there are military campaigns and major government initiatives which require less paperwork and forward planning than a day out in Bhutan. I believe we went because the National Museum was closed due to us inconveniently arriving on the wrong day of the week. And since our guide Rinzin seemed to have magic powers and access to a photocopier for creating magic permits to get into attractions, we stopped off for a quick look as we were passing. I'm ...Read More

I don't think that Dungtse Temple was supposed to be on our itinerary for Paro so we were lucky to get to see it as a quick 'fill-in' for an already very busy day. Bhutanese tourism isn't known for its flexibility – in fact it's so regimented that there are military campaigns and major government initiatives which require less paperwork and forward planning than a day out in Bhutan. I believe we went because the National Museum was closed due to us inconveniently arriving on the wrong day of the week. And since our guide Rinzin seemed to have magic powers and access to a photocopier for creating magic permits to get into attractions, we stopped off for a quick look as we were passing.

I'm always interested in why temples, churches, mosques or any other religious building are built and in where they are situated. Mostly I'd suggest there are fairly predictable reasons; because someone has lots of money and wants to curry favour with a higher force; because something wonderful has happened and someone wants to commemorate the event and give thanks; perhaps because something AWFUL happened that's equally worthy of marking. I can think of examples of all of these. But in Bhutan, things are a bit different.

We'd already visited Kyichu Lakhang, a small temple built in the 7th century on the site of the foot of a giant ogress who just happened to be sprawled over the Himalaya, blocking the spread of Buddhism. At Dungtse we discovered that 800 years later, the ogress had gone but Paro Valley was in the thrall of a tortoise-shaped demon. Well that's OK then – that's obviously a good reason to pop up a temple.

In the 15th century the Paro Valley was having a rough time of it. The crops kept failing and lots of the locals were having bad luck. Rather than blame the weather (I'm British, we blame the weather for EVERYTHING) or look to change the irrigation or spread some fertiliser around, the inhabitants decided that the bad luck was flowing straight down the valley from the evil tortoise demon whose head was seen in the shape of some strange rocks. To block the flow of inauspicious 'stuff' a holy man called Thangtong Gyalpo (also known as the 'iron bridge builder' ordered the building of a temple right in front of the rock, blocking the tortoise's view of the valley and so bringing good times back to the region.

We arrived in the early afternoon and parked up outside and wandered in through the archway in front of the temple. It was constructed quite differently from most of the temples we saw and resembled a large chorten. According to one website I checked, it's the ONLY chorten-shaped temple in the country. OK, now I'm in trouble because I've just told you it looks like something that I really struggle to describe. Chortens are funny little structures that are also known as stupas in some other Buddhist countries and are horribly difficult for me to get my head round. They vary in size but most of the ones in Bhutan are quite small – about the size of an old telephone box – but others can be the size of a house. I've seen massive ones in Sri Lanka, Ladakh and Thailand and I still don't really 'get' them. They generally are built to hold some kind of Buddhist relics and I believe the earliest ones held parts of the bones and remains of the cremated Buddha but obviously, there aren't too many bits like that floating around any more. The Bhutanese style chorten has a square base and is typically painted mostly in white with a band of dark brown below the roofline.

So, it looks like something I'm not great at describing and it stands in front of a rock that really doesn't look much like a tortoise. I'm doing well aren't I? The temple is built on three levels to symbolise hell, earth and heaven. We walked around the temple at hell-level before we went in – our circumambulation being foremost to see the tortoise rock and the prayer flags on the hillside above it and secondly because walking round in a clockwise direction is just something you do a lot whenever you visit a religious site in Bhutan, whether it's a prayer wheel, a temple or some other structure. Sometimes we walked round three times, or nine or some other multiple of three, depending on how big the structure was and how impatient we were to get inside.

Our circuit completed, it was time to pop inside and we were really surprised by what we found. All over the inside walls were intricate and very dark wall paintings. Foolishly we didn't have torches with us and whilst we strained to see the pictures, we were tripping over rocks around our feet. Quietly and with a sense of awe, we shuffled around the inside of the temple in near pitch darkness squinting at the statue of Milarapa and trying not to injure ourselves. It's a very small temple and it really will only take a few minutes to shuffle through the interior.

As we stepped outside the temple and our eyes adjusted to the afternoon brightness, we saw a wizened little man in the most bizarre boots standing by the prayer wheel. It would have been easy in a place of magic tortoises and saintly bridge builders to assume he was sprite or a goblin but actually he was just the temple guardian, come to check our paperwork and looking to have a chat with our guide. If you check out the photos, he's the little chap who looks like he's wearing Wellington boots and his dressing gown. The latter is, of course, the gho – the male national dress worn by all good Bhutanese chaps but seldom combined with such sartorial footwear. We gave the prayer wheel a few hefty turns, took some photos, wandered round again to say goodbye to the tortoise and hopped back in the car to head back to the hotel for some head-exploding chillies-and-cheese.
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Kyichu

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Attraction | "Be Gone, Evil Ogress"

Young monk, late for prayers Photo, Bhutan, Asia

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Kyichu Lhakhang - or Kyichu Temple - is one of the most significant temples in the Paro area and can be found about 4 km outside the town. Legend says that Bhutan and much of the Himalaya range had been besieged by a giant ogress who was lying across the area to prevent the spread of Buddhism. In the 7th Century the Tibetan king gave orders to his people to build temples at key points on the ogress's body to sap her evil powers and Kyichu was believed to be the location of her left foot. You have to admit, it's a pretty good story and not a bad reason for a bout of temple building. In total 108 temples were built because it's a very lucky number in Tibetan Buddhism, reflecting the number o...Read More

Kyichu Lhakhang - or Kyichu Temple - is one of the most significant temples in the Paro area and can be found about 4 km outside the town. Legend says that Bhutan and much of the Himalaya range had been besieged by a giant ogress who was lying across the area to prevent the spread of Buddhism. In the 7th Century the Tibetan king gave orders to his people to build temples at key points on the ogress's body to sap her evil powers and Kyichu was believed to be the location of her left foot. You have to admit, it's a pretty good story and not a bad reason for a bout of temple building.

In total 108 temples were built because it's a very lucky number in Tibetan Buddhism, reflecting the number of beads on a Buddhist rosary. Several of the places we visited on our tour of Bhutan were connected with the evil ogress and Kyichu was our first experience of a Bhutanese Lhakang.

We arrived and parked our vehicle outside the temple walls and entered a pretty garden with neat grass, beautiful flowers and lots of dragonflies. In the first section of the garden we were introduced to the typical prayer wheels lining the walls. These must always be turned with the right hand in a clockwise direction, in the same way that all temples, chortens and other holy buildings must be circumnavigated in that direction. We passed a small white chorten and say a low single storey building containing a bank of butter lamps and learned that these lamps used to be in the main temple rooms but the smoke had damaged and discoloured the paintings as well as being a serious fire risk. It's now typical for Bhutanese temples to keep their lamps in a separate building to prevent fires and the main building at Kyichu has itself been rebuilt after fire damage.

The two main temple rooms share a pretty inner courtyard with trees and flowers and an incense burner in the centre. Both temples have decorative metalwork covering the windows. The older of the two temples dates back to 659 and contains a Shakyamuni Buddha as the main icon along with the 11 headed figure with 1000 hands and 1000 eyes called Chenresig which was added in the 19th century. The new temple was built by the new king's grandmother, Ashi Kesang, who commissioned its construction in 1968. This one has a 5m high statue of Guru Rinpoche, the father of Bhutanese Buddhism as well as a Tara statue and one of the Thangtong Gyalpo, known as the Iron Bridge Builder.

To get into the older of the two buildings, our guide had to present the caretaker monk with an official document from the government tourism office. A family of Indian tourists there at the same time as us were unable to get into the temple because they lacked the necessary documents. The monk gave us a blessing and poured holy water into our hands and then we left to look around the other temple buildings.

Out by the butter lamps again, we found several elderly ladies dressed in shades of red who we assumed were Buddhist nuns. They were chatting and laughing and saying their rosaries and seemed happy to let us take their photos. We then continued on around the temple until we'd finished the clock-wise walk around all the buildings and headed back to our car. As our first Bhutanese temple, it was a very nice introduction to the religion and typical elements of the worship which we'd see again throughout our holiday.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 18, 2009

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