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Bhutan celebrating challenges like youth unemployment, social burden of of our country. Bhutan will be graduating from the category
ageing population, the pressure on our environment etc.
of least developed countries in December 2023.
50th anniversary With regard to your second question, there is no consensual When we became a member of the United Nations, Bhutan

of membership of agreement on the origin and the meaning of the name literally initiated planned development from a scratch
Bhutan. There are several scholarly versions of the
and had a clean slate. Through our collaboration with our
the United Nations etymology of the name, none of them really convincing. development partners and the lessons experts brought
with them, we avoided the learning curve most of the poor
From historical records maintained by British when
they ruled India, our country was referred to as ‘Bootan’ developing countries went through and avoided policy
or ‘Bhootan’ and therefore unquestionably, the modern blunders. The United Nations, through their funds and
construct ‘Bhutan’ crystallized from this ancestry. programmes, also influenced initiation of many policy
Questions to decisions on issues related to women and children, disability,

His Excellency Ambassador However, to Bhutanese people, our country is referred to justice system, education, health etc. The standardization
of our laws with international laws is also a notable
as ‘Druk Yul’ - which translates as ‘Land of the Thunder
Tenzin Rondel Dragon’ and has its origin in one of the sects of Buddhism contribution of the United Nations. Our membership to
practiced in Bhutan.
the United Nations afforded us the opportunities to take
Wangchuk Your country became a UN member in 1971. How can you our messages out to the world - messages of our values,
challenges and ideas on numerous global issues. One such
assess the UN membership contributed to your country, in idea being the concept of Gross National Happiness.
Permanent Representative of what ways, in what spheres?
the Kingdom of Bhutan to the This year marks the 50th anniversary of our membership of Owing to resource constraints, Bhutan has only few
diplomatic missions abroad. Membership in the UN and
the United Nations. It has indeed been a long journey. The
United Nations United Nations was created with a singular purpose to take participation in multilateral processes provided Bhutan
collective action to prevent another devastating world war the opportunity to engage meaningfully with other states
and it accorded primacy to sovereign equality to its members and opened opportunities to develop mutually beneficial
irrespective of the economic and military influence one political, economic, and social relations. Therefore, UN
wielded. The principle of sovereignty equality and the membership enabled Bhutan to integrate into the global
Your Excellency could you tell us about yourself. Bhutan has been a monarchy since 1907 until 2008 collective safeguard of the independence of its members community.
Firstly, I am deeply gratified to be given this when His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the would have undoubtedly been very appealing for small
space to talk about my country Bhutan. I Fourth King of Bhutan, on his own volition and countries like Bhutan. Smaller countries have the tendency You are the only country that considers happiness value -
am Tenzin Rondel Wangchuk, serving as much against the will of the people introduced to place the issue of sovereignty equality and independence GNH (Gross National Happiness) over productivity value
Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of parliamentary democracy. Since then, politically as a national priority and Bhutan is no different. (GDP - Gross Domestic Product). Tell us more about it.
Bhutan to the UN Office and other International Bhutan has been a demoractic constitutional The UN actually designated the Day of Happiness based
Organizations in Geneva. I am also accredited as monarchy. Today, His Majesty Jigme Khesar Bhutan’s membership to the United Nations is a watershed on Bhutan’s proposal (Day of Happiness, celebrated
ambassador to Switzerland, Austria and Norway. Namgyel Wangchuck reigns as the Fifth King moment in our history and also marks the beginning internationally 20 March). What does happiness represent
I started my career in the Ministry of Finance of Bhutan and the third democratically elected of our journey towards modernization and embracing for your country as a nation and for you as a person?
and joined the foreign service in 2004 and government is in office. Our monarchy is the globalization. Prior to this period, Bhutan was a closed Bhutan’s idea of pursuing happiness as a state policy in a
served in our diplomatic missions in India and singular unifying force and the institution of country and much of our engagement prior to this period written official document can be traced back to our ancient
Belgium. I served as Director of the Department Monarchy is deeply revered in Bhutan. was confined within the limits of our neighbouring legal code of 1629 which states that, “if the government
of Multilateral Affairs in my ministry before the countries. Bhutan certainly could not continue with its cannot create happiness for its people, then there is no
current assignment. Geographically, Bhutan has only two traditional ways of governance and subsistence economy. It purpose for the government to exist”. I believe that this has
neighbours, India to the South and China was a choice made with great clarity and purpose. its origin in the buddhist philosophy of pursuing the middle
Tell us a little about your country. Does the name to the North. As a landlocked country, we path towards enlightenment by avoiding the extremes of
Bhutan have any special meaning? live through many constraints and lack of When Bhutan was admitted as a member of the United self-gratification on one hand and self-mortification on the
It would be fair to say that Bhutan is relatively resources considered essential for our easy Nations, we were one of the poorest countries in the world. other.
known across the world more now than integration into the global economy. Despite Bhutan was clubbed with other poor countries, mostly from
we were a few decades ago and for a small this, we have made many gains in the last six Asia and Africa, in the category of least developed countries, In today’s context, the concept of Gross National Happiness
country receiving international attention only decades to become one of the most progressive which was created by the United Nations in the same year was first espoused by His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck
occasionally, it is quite understandable that we countries in South Asia. And we have achieved of our membership. As one of the least developed countries, as a sixteen year-old King during the early years of his
still run into people who have not heard of us. this without undermining our tradition, Bhutan received financial and technical assistance from the reign in the 1970s. He believed that happiness was a more
Bhutan is a deeply traditional society with our culture, and environment. This is not to funds and programmes of the United Nations and other preferable measure of Bhutan’s progress than theories of
distinct history, culture, heritage, systems and say Bhutan is a paradise. Like in any other international organizations. Without a doubt, the United conventional economics. As such, all our development
values. Ofcourse, Bhutan is one of the most country, modernization and development Nations along with many bilateral development partners policies and programmes were guided by this philosophy
peaceful countries in the world. has also brought to Bhutan different sets of contributed significantly to the socio-economic progression and continues to do so to this day. I am inclined to believe

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