But if there is ever a salve for a broken heart, it is Bhutan... this tiny landlocked kingdom in the Himalayas, so removed from the industrialised world for so long and now slowly, slowly opening up to western influences... and how interesting this process is! Bhutan's line of five monarchs seem to have possessed amazing wisdom and foresight - the fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, studied at Oxford and after realising that despite the huge wealth of western nations their people remained profoundly unhappy, he returned to Bhutan and created legislation to protect the Bhutanese from the same fate by declaring that in Bhutan "Gross National Happiness" is to be regarded as having priority over "Gross Domestic Product". GNH is measured by achieving four goals: good governance, environmental protection, cultural preservation and social development. GDP must come secondary to these goals and in order to protect the Bhutanese from the environmental and cultural destruction of mass tourism, Bhutan imposes a steep tariff to all tourists for every day that they are in the country (US$220), a part of which the government uses for community development projects. When comparing the state of Bhutan to that of Nepal you can really see how this policy works to protect the exploitation of the people and their environment and although Bhutan is poor when comparing their economy with that of a "western" country there is a distinct lack of "poverty" - no begging, no homelessness, no sad faced children chasing you in the street for a rupee, or shopkeepers hassling you for a "good price". The people of Bhutan do indeed seem happy... and polite, considerate, shy, gentle... this is certainly not to say that life is not hard, especially for the rural Bhutanese, and those who live in the mountainous areas, but a hard life is not necessarily an unhappy one and in Bhutan all education is free, health care is free (and includes traditional and alternative treatments like acupuncture) and the country does not suffer from food shortages, or lack of access to water. So... a "shangri-la"? Perhaps, but I don't think that it's that simple...
After a hair-raising flight through the Himalayas and down into Paro Valley, I met my assigned guide and driver (two young Bhutanese men dressed in the traditional gho as is required of all Bhutanese while employed) and I slowly adjusted to the presence of these escorts, a very strange experience for me with my love of independent travel... but, this is the only way a "tourist" can see Bhutan and while it felt very passive for me, I appreciated their consideration and kindness toward me. We hiked to Taktshang Goemba, or the Tigers Nest monastery and what a beautiful and moving introduction to the kingdom... a 900m hike up toward this architectural miracle - a traditional Bhutanese style monastery literally hanging off the edge of a cliff - it was built in the 1700s with no architectural plans (as it customary in Bhutan) and it is believed that the structure is held onto the cliff by the thread of angels... the monastery was built to consecrate a cave in the cliff top where Guru Rinpoche flew on the back of a tiger to pacify a demon and then spent time in deep meditation. It seems that most of Bhutan's history is based upon these beautiful religious stories of demons and deities and Bodhisattvas, the real so intermixed with the mythical that it is hard to sense where one ends and the other begins. I don't think I've ever seen anything as incredible as this monastery in my life, and the interior is completely decorated with traditional Buddhist paintings depicting various explanations of Dharma and the Buddhist explanations of the universe. The intense sattwa inside the main temple was so moving, and standing outside on the edge of the cliff with the prayer flags whipping in the wind was a feeling of wonderful freedom and peace.Religion is a huge part of Bhutanese life and culture - it dictates cultural values, governance, behaviour, everything. The Bhutanese are devoutly Buddhist and monasteries and temples and chortens cover the landscape. Prayer flags fly from every hill and every mountain top, huge decorated prayer wheels sit in the base of every river and a bell sounds every time the water flow turns the wheel. Monks are everywhere, their beautiful saffron robes sweeping behind them as they hurry about the towns and villages. In every region there is a dzong, or fortress, built in ancient times for leaders to monitor the invasions of the valleys from hostile neighbours (particularly Tibetans who invaded Bhutan multiple times in the 1600's). In every house there is a shrine to Buddha, in a specially designated room, and also in every house there is a picture of the king, who the Bhutanese love with an unrivalled sincerity. It's quite amazing to see a people so seemingly dedicated to their leaders, to the point that in the recent elections (the first democratic elections in Bhutan's history) the biggest unrest was from people who didn't want to convert to democracy at all - and the party that was elected was the most royalist of several royalist parties, their policies to follow the policies and plans already set out by the king!
Religion also seems to have ensured an incredibly high level of conservationism in Bhutan, also guided by the fourth and now fifth king, who have legislated that Bhutan must always have forest cover of 60% (currently forest cover is 72%!). The forest is a huge asset for Bhutan, it ensures the integrity of the soil (important in a country with hills as steep as Bhutans to prevent landslides and flooding), ensures maximum biodiversity (Bhutan has one of the highest biodiversity levels in the world), and acts as a watershed to protect the production of water which is Bhutan's largest economic source; the production of electricity from hydro power exported to India. Every tree in Bhutan is protected, even on private land - a permit from the Ministry of Forestry must be obtained to fell any tree in the nation. National parks make up 32% of the country, and 9% acts as protected biological corridors between the national parks. Bhutan must have environmental protection laws that are the envy of any conservationist or ecologist the world over. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet with Bhutan's most respected botanist, and the head of WWF in the region who have given me a wealth of information about the institutional protection of Bhutan's environment and their visions for sustainable agricultural development in the country which are really interesting - I think that there is much that the "developed world" can learn from Bhutan!Sadly though, for all of Bhutan's careful conservation, it stands to become one of the first victims of climate change. As the glaciers in the Himalayas melt, the lakes that sit in the mountains become bigger and the soil that stands between them becomes softer. The water flow into Bhutan is increasing and if the lakes flood, which is unavoidable if the glaciers and ice cover keeps melting, then the lakes will burst and flood down the mountains, destroying both the carefully managed biodiversity, and the human communities. Bhutan stands to loose everything from climate change, and for a country whose carbon emissions are a negligible 0.2 tonnes per capita (USA 20 tonnes) I think this is one of the biggest injustices of the modern world. Again, we see how intrinsically linked are human rights and environmental rights - and the worst climate criminals are the least effected. The threat of climate change is one that Bhutan is very concerned about, and can do little to impact. Within Bhutan, the largest environmental problem is waste control - plastic bags have been banned in Bhutan with the realisation of their environmental impact, but this has done little to stop the problem of plastic waste - as pointed out to me by all the Bhutanese I spoke to about it, everything they import comes in plastic - and they import a lot of their products - even simple things like soap or biscuits comes in a swathe of plastic packaging and there are no recycling facilities in Bhutan as their low population makes it ineffective (the country's population stands at 800,000). All gathered recyclables are trucked to India for (hopefully) recycling, but this is a problem that the entire world is facing (and ignoring) as our land fills overflow and our waterways become blocked and this problem is so heightened with travelling, I am horrified by how much plastic I use, even as much as I try to limit it.
With the Bhutanese shyness, and the passivity induced by having to have a pre-declared itinerary, I found it more difficult than usual to really connect with ordinary Bhutanese people. I stayed in a local farmhouse in the Bumthang Valley and this was the closest interaction I had, and how valued it was! The farmhouse was simple and clean - wooden floors and a wood burning stove in the kitchen where the family sat around at night. We drank a lot of tea - milky and weak and sweet (the Bhutanese put butter and salt in theirs also) and focused most of our attention on their 10 month old baby girl. It was nice to feel part of a family and to see the farm - Bumthang is in central Bhutan and was the most beautiful part of my visit - rolling green fields with the density of the forest above, babbling rivers of mountain water, apple trees in blossom, cows and yaks being herded, the simple smiles of the farmers - their faces lined and wise and proud, their ghos colourful in the dusk, so perfect in the setting with the smell of woodfires in the cold air and the snow topped mountains peaking between the green hills (if you can call a hill a hill when you're at 2500 feet!).The most beautiful moment I experienced was early one morning when visiting a dzong in the Punakha valley - we were quietly observing the interior of the temple as my guide (Tenzin) deciphered the meaning of the Buddhist paintings when the sound of a gong broke the air, three times, and suddenly the temple was filled with the sound of pattering feet as young monks rushed in from every direction, scurrying to their places on the floor, their saffron red robes behind them, their faces smiling and urgent (and curious at this white woman sitting at the back of the room) - hundreds of monks - all sitting in lines on the temple floor and the beginning of the rolling, lilting, sound of mantras being chanted started to fill the space around us, the small bodies of the monks rocking with the rhythmic lines, the older 'disciplinary' monks walking amongst them, slapping their heavy prayer beads against their legs, and two young monks "on duty" rushing between the lines dishing out scoops of rice into white cloths for the monks morning meal - the rice is bundled up into the cloth and stored away in the folds of fabric, to be enjoyed with tea during their morning break. I felt so blessed to witness this, such a peaceful, yet busy, process - the training monks, some as young as six, their robes dwarfing them, their small faces distracted by the sights of the huge, ornate temple room with it's towering gold statues of Guru Rinpoche, and the foreigner in the back!
So, is Bhutan a Shangri-La? I don't feel convinced... there seemed to be an sense of restriction, mental restriction. Perhaps it is cultural, and these thoughts are merely my imposing the values of myself and my culture (argument, descent, liberalism, intense and perpetual analysis) onto a people who don't wish to lead lives with the same. Perhaps the Bhutanese are indeed happier, with their beliefs in the Dharma, in their beloved monarchy, in their beautiful, protected country... but does happiness come at the expense of something else? Certainly I wish that a country like New Zealand could develop environmental protection policies with the foresight of the Bhutanese monarchy, but I also appreciate the values of a political system that has diversity of opinion. Some people have suggested that Bhutan is some pseudo totalitarian state, but I don't think that this is the case either - I think that perhaps cultural values, defined by religious values, have created a people who value the community over the individual, and the environment over the economy, and who have complete faith in the vision of their leaders, partly perhaps because this leadership has proven their trustworthiness through the creation of policies that protect the cultural and environmental integrity of the country.And regardless of this abstract title "Shangri-La" that guide books are so excited to bestow, Bhutan is an immensely beautiful, welcoming, complex and interesting country with a wonderful history and a strong culture built on values that we should all aspire to. Not only that, it offers a real example of a successful alternative system to the destructive capitalism that has driven us to the environmental precipice on which we now find ourselves.
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