Bhutan Tiger’s Nest — Paro Taktsang Approach
258.13 $
The Paro Taktsang monastery in Bhutan — the ‘Tiger’s Nest’ clinging to a 3,120-metre cliff face above the Paro Valley, approached by the pilgrim trail through rhododendron forest in pre-dawn mist.
Description
The Paro Taktsang monastery — built in 1692 on the site where Guru Rinpoche is believed to have meditated in a cave in the 8th century — occupies a position of extraordinary dramatic improbability: a complex of four temples and their connecting stairways adhered to a vertical cliff face at 3,120 metres above sea level, accessible only by a 3-kilometre pilgrim trail through pine and rhododendron forest. This image was made on the approach trail at 5:30am, before the day-trip tourists begin arriving at 8am — the monastery above is partially obscured by morning mist rising from the Paro Valley, visible as a cluster of whitewashed buildings against the vertical grey granite. The trail foreground shows the rhododendron forest in its late-March flowering period, the red blooms providing colour contrast with the mist-grey cliff above. Shot on a 24-70mm zoom at f/8, the image rewards examination from trail foreground to cliff summit.
