 |
| Yesterday (Saturday 9th of June) I went for a walk up one of the mountains. The prayer flags were beautiful. |
There are stray dogs everywhere,
lying exhausted across the roads, defeat in their bloodshot eyes. With
composition akin to a lazy cow. Not like the dogs I know back home.
Upon arrival, I am immediately
struck by how utterly different life in Bhutan is to my experiences in the West.
The taxi drivers invite you to dinner with their family. The burgers are put on
display in plastic wrappers, pre-cooked. The air is purer than a sea breeze
(and yet its thinness leaves you gasping for breath). The mountains are lined
with colorful prayer flags. Just look at the buildings.
And yet it is essentially the
same. The procedures of human interaction. The untidiness of a city under
construction. The greyness of the sky looking down upon the valley. And with
modernization, the last Shangri-La seems at times to be slowly fading away.
In Bhutan however, the mother of the
genius peculiarity of Gross National Happiness, balance pervades all aspects of
the development agenda. Indeed, there is little desire amongst government officials
for creative destruction. The modern endeavors to complement rather than
replace the past.
On my second day in Bhutan, I am
invited to observe the opening meeting of the National Assembly’s Session. The recently
instituted seat of democracy, the parliamentary chamber elegantly marries the
routines of political liberalism with monarchical customs and the ancient rituals
of the country’s Buddhist religion. The antediluvian tapestries and faint smell
of incense fit comfortably by the flat screen televisions built into the walls of
the assembly and the Gohs and Kiras (The Bhutanese national dress) look at ease
beside suits and dresses.
Work begins on Monday, when I
will get a chance to begin examining the theory and practice of GNH in detail.
I wonder will it be, as I hope, a replicable model for development beyond the
Himalayas.
 |
| A sign that Bhutan is entering an economic heyday, this gigantic Buddha has been constructed on the mountainside overlooking Thimphu, the capital. |
