538
By 1692 the entire monastery complex had been erected by inconceivably
challenging engineering efforts.
This gorgeous cliff monastery (also called Taktsang Pelphug Lhakhang or
Taktsang Sengye Samdrub) is, most importantly, Zangdok Palri, the Buddhist Pure
Land of Padmasambhava (“Zangs mdog dpal ri” in Tibetan, literally, the Copper
Colored Mountain, atop which is centered the so-called Lotus Light Palace). The
mountain is considered the “innermost emptiness nature,” the “Ultimate-body of
Buddhahood, the absolute sphere of all. It is the union of wisdom and emptiness, the
primordial purity, like sky.”
5
And there, amid the thousands of feet of sheer granite
“is hidden the treasure of the life force …” and “the karmic results of good and bad
actions.” Moreover, “At Taktsang Sengye Samdrub, the essence of nectar for perpetuating wealth has been hidden … treasures [that are] limitless.”
6
Prince Charles hiked halfway up in 1998. In 2008, much of the monastery was
burnt, allegedly by a spilled butter lamp. One monk tragically perished in the fire.
An international effort was launched successfully to fund and rebuild the monastery
to near perfection over a period of two years. In April, 2016, the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge made it all the way up. A “great way to burn off the curry,” the
Princess volunteered.
7
With so much history, spirituality, and populist sentiment crowding this lean,
narrow, vulnerable habitat, it is no surprise that one of the world’s great monuments to Medieval solitary meditation should become the twenty-first-century site
of what to many is blatant over-crowding: a situation not unlike similar concerns
voiced about Italy’s Venice, or so many of the most popular national parks—
bumper-to- bumper in Yellowstone, or Belgium’s Bruges, which has lately seen
mobs, pre- Covid- 19, comparable to those at Disneyland.
8
One American tour operator, reflecting on the 274,097 tourists to Bhutan in 2018, decided after a 20-year
career to stop bringing tours there. In speaking about the unsuspecting, innocent
traveler, “Imagine their dismay when they arrive at the foot of Tiger’s Nest to find
a parking lot bursting with buses, hordes of noisy regional tourists clogging the
5 In Zangdok Palri – The Lotus Light Palace Of Guru Rinpoche, Visions Of The Buddhist Paradise
In The Sacred Kingdom of Bhutan, “The Different Perspectives of Zangdok Palri,” Edited by
Supawan Pui Lamsam and Kesang Choden Tashi Wangchuck, With Contributions by Tulku
Thondup, Dungchen Sangay Dorji, Lopen Kunzang Tengye, Pema Wangdi, Chotiwat Punnopatham,
Chongmas Rajabhandarak, and Tanika Pook Panyarachun, Zangdok Palri Series, Volume 1,
Gatshel Publishing, Bangkok, Thailand, 2012, p. 3.
6 ibid. p. 316.
7 See BBC News, “William and Kate trek to Bhutan’s Tiger’s Nest monastery,” April 15, 2016, n.a.,
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36052016, Accessed May 30, 2020. See also, “Ascending Bhutan’s
Sacred Tiger’s Nest,” by David Braun, November 30, 2014, https://blog.nationalgeographic.
org/2014/11/30/ascending-bhutans-sacred-tigers-nest/. Accessed May 30, 2020.
8 See “’It’s getting like Disneyland: Bruges pulls up drawbridge on tourists,” by Daniel Boffey,
June 16, 2019, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/16/bruges-crackdown-tourist-numbers, Accessed May 30, 2020.
57 The Geography of Contradiction
By 1692 the entire monastery complex had been erected by inconceivably
challenging engineering efforts.
This gorgeous cliff monastery (also called Taktsang Pelphug Lhakhang or
Taktsang Sengye Samdrub) is, most importantly, Zangdok Palri, the Buddhist Pure
Land of Padmasambhava (“Zangs mdog dpal ri” in Tibetan, literally, the Copper
Colored Mountain, atop which is centered the so-called Lotus Light Palace). The
mountain is considered the “innermost emptiness nature,” the “Ultimate-body of
Buddhahood, the absolute sphere of all. It is the union of wisdom and emptiness, the
primordial purity, like sky.”
5
And there, amid the thousands of feet of sheer granite
“is hidden the treasure of the life force …” and “the karmic results of good and bad
actions.” Moreover, “At Taktsang Sengye Samdrub, the essence of nectar for perpetuating wealth has been hidden … treasures [that are] limitless.”
6
Prince Charles hiked halfway up in 1998. In 2008, much of the monastery was
burnt, allegedly by a spilled butter lamp. One monk tragically perished in the fire.
An international effort was launched successfully to fund and rebuild the monastery
to near perfection over a period of two years. In April, 2016, the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge made it all the way up. A “great way to burn off the curry,” the
Princess volunteered.
7
With so much history, spirituality, and populist sentiment crowding this lean,
narrow, vulnerable habitat, it is no surprise that one of the world’s great monuments to Medieval solitary meditation should become the twenty-first-century site
of what to many is blatant over-crowding: a situation not unlike similar concerns
voiced about Italy’s Venice, or so many of the most popular national parks—
bumper-to- bumper in Yellowstone, or Belgium’s Bruges, which has lately seen
mobs, pre- Covid- 19, comparable to those at Disneyland.
8
One American tour operator, reflecting on the 274,097 tourists to Bhutan in 2018, decided after a 20-year
career to stop bringing tours there. In speaking about the unsuspecting, innocent
traveler, “Imagine their dismay when they arrive at the foot of Tiger’s Nest to find
a parking lot bursting with buses, hordes of noisy regional tourists clogging the
5 In Zangdok Palri – The Lotus Light Palace Of Guru Rinpoche, Visions Of The Buddhist Paradise
In The Sacred Kingdom of Bhutan, “The Different Perspectives of Zangdok Palri,” Edited by
Supawan Pui Lamsam and Kesang Choden Tashi Wangchuck, With Contributions by Tulku
Thondup, Dungchen Sangay Dorji, Lopen Kunzang Tengye, Pema Wangdi, Chotiwat Punnopatham,
Chongmas Rajabhandarak, and Tanika Pook Panyarachun, Zangdok Palri Series, Volume 1,
Gatshel Publishing, Bangkok, Thailand, 2012, p. 3.
6 ibid. p. 316.
7 See BBC News, “William and Kate trek to Bhutan’s Tiger’s Nest monastery,” April 15, 2016, n.a.,
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36052016, Accessed May 30, 2020. See also, “Ascending Bhutan’s
Sacred Tiger’s Nest,” by David Braun, November 30, 2014, https://blog.nationalgeographic.
org/2014/11/30/ascending-bhutans-sacred-tigers-nest/. Accessed May 30, 2020.
8 See “’It’s getting like Disneyland: Bruges pulls up drawbridge on tourists,” by Daniel Boffey,
June 16, 2019, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/16/bruges-crackdown-tourist-numbers, Accessed May 30, 2020.
57 The Geography of Contradiction