One of the most holy sites in Bhutan, the Guru Rinpoche (see thephoto of the thondrol in the Paro Festival series) is said to have flown here on the back of a tigeress and then meditated in a cave, contained within the present structure, for three months.
The monastery (goembain Bhutanese) was built in its present form in 1692.
It suffered a devastating fire of unknown origin during the night of April 19, 1998.
Speculation is that the fire was caused either by lightening or an overturned butter lamp.
Old photographs and diaries were used to make the reconstruction as close to the original as possible, though there was little documentation of the wall paintings and other artwork housed inside.
Paro Taktsang(spa phro stag tshang)/(spa gro stag tshang)is one of the most famousmonasteriesinBhutan. It was built around theTaktsang Senge Samdup(stag tshang seng ge bsam grub)cave where Guru Padmasambhavais said to have meditated in the 8th Century. Today it is the most well known of thirteen taktsang or "tiger lair" caves he meditated in at different places in Tibet and Bhutan. Completed in 1692, the temple hangs on a cliff at 3,120 metres (10,200 feet), some 700 meters (2,300 feet) above the bottom ofParo valley, some 10 km from the district town ofParo.
The name Taktsang(stag tshang)means "Tiger's lair", the legend being thatPadmasambhava(Guru Rinpoche) flew there on the back of a tiger. The monastery includes seven temples which can all be visited. The monastery suffered several blazes and is a recent restoration.
Visitors ascend the slope to the monastery on foot or on mule-back.
Padmasambhava Padmasambhava statue in Hemis Monastery, Ladakh, India.[show]Part of a series onTibetan BuddhismPadmasambhava (Tibetan: པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས; Wylie: padma 'byung gnas),
The Lotus Born, was an Indian sage Guru and is said to have transmitted Tantric Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet in the 8th century. In those lands he is better known as Guru Rinpoche ("Precious Master") or Lopon Rinpoche,[1] where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha. He said: "My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantrabhadri.
I belong to the caste of non-duality of the sphere of awareness. My name is the Glorious Lotus Born. I am from the unborn sphere of all phenomena. I consume concepts of duality as my diet. I act in the way of the Buddhas of the three times."[citation needed] He was born into a royal Brahmin family.[2]His Pureland Paradise is Zangdok Palri (the Copper-coloured Mountain).[3][4]He is further considered an emanation of Buddha Amitabha[5] and traditionally even venerated as "a second Buddha".[6] 【the 2nd Buddha?】