Paro Taktsang, or popularly known as Tiger’s Nest Monastery is a Buddhist Monastery located in the remote hills of of Bhutan at an altitude of 10,000 feet. The monastery is built on a narrow space in the middle of a steep cliff, accessible only by hiking for three hours. Here is a collection of images of the magnificent monastery, taken during a photography tour I led in May. Also see details of our next photography trip to the mountain country in September.
The Taktsang Paro Monastery is located in the middle of a steep rock-face, surrounded by thick vegetation. Colourful Rhododendron flowers bloom in the forest around the monastery.
A monk makes the three-hour walk to the monastery.
Fluttering prayer flags tied all around the monastery and on the path to it decorate the structure and add to its glory.
The evening light and the clouds create a play of an orange glow and shades on the slopes of the monastery.
The monastery and the mountain slopes.
A waterfall on the approach to the monastery.
The view of Paro Valley from the monastery and the path approaching it.
To conclude, here is a short video of prayer flags fluttering around the monastery.
Punakha appear to be nothing more than a small village, but in a country like Bhutan it is big enough to be a district headquarters. And it was big enough to be country’s capital once. Punakha’s majestic Dzong (dzong: fortress) is the a landmark that is probably twenty times bigger than any other structure in the district. During the travel photography tour to Bhutan in May, we spent a good part of the day (which extended into night as well) photographing this Dzong located next to the confluence of Mo Chu and Pa Chu Rivers. Some photographs here.
The magnificent Punakha Dzong flanked by purple Jacaranda Trees, with Mo Chu River flowing in front of it.
We started our day late in the morning. For the best light to photograph the exteriors of the Dzong, we had to wait till evening. So the focus in the morning hours was on interiors. The moment we entered the dzong, we found this man settled next to the prayer wheel, rotating it slowly and murmuring mantras. He was dedicated to his task and we found him seated there for more than an hour.
Every Dzong typically has two sections, one dedicated to administration and one for the monks. Bhutan has always included Buddhism as part of its culture and administration, which perhaps explains the presence of both entities in one premises. Even when you go through Bhutan’s history, you end up reading as much about Budhism as you would read about political history. Here is a young monk, at Punakha Dzong.
A monk at the doorsteps of a temple in the Dzong premises.
Inside the Dzong.
The Dzong and Mo Chu river, just before sunset.
Women emerge from the temples in the dzong and head home as the sun makes his way down the hill.
During our travel photography tour to Bhutan, one of the participants came to me and said, ‘I am not able to figure out how to make good photographs of prayer flags.’ I immediately understood what his problem was. All along our tour, we kept seeing prayer flags – bunch of vertical poles with long fluttering flags or smaller flags tied together with a thread. They were beautiful, colourful and were often located in strategic locations like bridges, templs and high passes. They looked charming, but photographs often did not reflect the beauty in the flags. It required a slightly different approach to photograph them, and trying to frame the flags themselves was not a great idea. I responded, saying that the best photos will not be of the prayer flags themselves, but something else photographed through an array of prayer flags. I showed the above photograph from my camera as an example.
