Page 3 - BHUTAN 2007
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INTRODUCTION
There are many poetic names applied to this most beautiful country—Land
of the Thunder Dragon being the most famous and Shangri-la being the
most favorable. In addition, during our visit there we thought of some
descriptive titles of our own—The Cloud Kingdom, The Quiet Dragon Land,
and Valleys High being our own favorites. However, in the spirit of our
frolicsome adventure there, I decided to name this chapter for our most
unsettling experience in the nation. Though English has one of the largest
vocabularies of earth’s languages, even all its many adjectives cannot really
convey the astonishing beauty of this tiny kingdom, lost in time among the
majestic Himalayas. The country cries out for photographers and I was lucky
enough to be traveling with three excellent ones. So while I struggled with
my lack of adequate words to express the glory of the landscape, they
aimed their lenses at everything—sky-aspiring mountains, velvet green
valleys, torrential glacial rivers, small, tidy farms, sleepy towns, two & three
story homes with the most amazing window and door-jamb designs, sturdy
temples blazing with golden tops, colorful birds, flamboyant flowers, dense
virgin forests, amazing insects and the wonderful, friendly and handsome
Bhutanese people.
Many people, having no idea where this remote tiny kingdom is situated on
the planet, know that its monarch has declared his intention to measure the
success of his governance, not by the Gross National Product—its financial
health--but by its Gross National Happiness! By their own criteria, King
Jigme Singye Wangchuk (he proclaimed the goal in 1972) and his son the
present King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchukin have achieved a triumph
beyond their own daring. Several international organizations measure
various societies according to many different parameters, but all find in
survey after survey over the years that Bhutanese people are the “happiest”
on earth! The four goals for attaining a high GNH score are: 1) promotion of
