Boutan is a small mountainous country. The capital is Thimphu. Many tourists wonder: where is the country of Bhutan? The answer is simple - in Asia, between two great powers: India and China. It is located on the southern slope of the Himalayas. The Black Mountains stretch right in the center of Bhutan. In Bhutan, the airport is the only flat place in the state.
The delightful and mysterious landlocked country of Bhutan. It is located on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas. Because of this, the country's terrain is mountainous and densely forested.
The head of state with a limited monarchy form of government is the king. The second administrator of the state after the king is the Supreme Lama. The Council of Ministers, as well as the Royal Advisory Council, play the role of executive power. The National Assembly, consisting of one chamber, represents the legislative body.
Bhutan's history goes back thousands of years. Previously, the surrounding countries did not know about the existence of this state. The culture originated here in 747 thanks to Rinpoche, a spiritual teacher who arrived from Pakistan. He spread Buddhism among the inhabitants. In 1616, all the disparate parts of Bhutan were united thanks to Shabdrung Ngawang Namguelu, who came from Tibet. This is the most significant event in the history of the state. In the 17th century, Bhutan was attacked twice by the Mongols. However, thanks to Shabdrung, the attacks were repelled. After his death, Bhutan fell into turmoil. It ended in 1907, when the first king came to power. Since then, power has been inherited. The country ceased to be closed from the outside world and allowed tourist visits in 1974.
The people of this mesmerizing kingdom are no less beautiful than Bhutan itself. They are responsive and hospitable. They are peace-loving and not spoiled by poverty and the vices of the modern world. Bhutanese people love to have fun. Archery became a local sport. Fields for athletes have been built throughout the country. When a player hits the target, his cheerful support team runs out to him and sings a song of praise.
All Bhutanese go to national costumes. The King and Queen of Bhutan are very concerned about maintaining traditions. If a resident does not put on a traditional costume, then he will not get an appointment at some authority that he really needs. If it were not for the care of the monarch, many residents could have long since become an alcoholic and suffered from smoking. It was the king who banned smoking throughout the country.
Bhutan - the land of happiness
Since absolutely all religions are prohibited in the country, except Buddhism, the king considers it his duty to make every citizen of the country happy. For this purpose, the “Commission for General People’s Happiness” was created in 2008. During the census, citizens are asked: are you happy? The majority of respondents systematically answer positively.
Bhutan has a Ministry of Happiness. Happiness comes first national policy. The concept of GDP is replaced here by the concept of “gross national happiness”.
Bhutan is a truly happy and bright country. She is open to others.
State language officially considered Dzongkha. It, like Bumtang, a language used in the peripheral regions and in the east of the country, has no written norms. The Tibetan language has been used for these purposes since ancient times. Over the past few years, schools have been studying English language, which is gaining momentum in its distribution in the country of Bhutan. Interesting fact You could call it that the road signs here are painted by hand! They are often signed, also by hand.
Bhutan is an environmentally friendly country
Interestingly, at every step there are urns with the inscriptions “don’t forget about me” and “use me.” In this way, the authorities are fighting for cleanliness in the state.
It is prohibited in the state to kill animals and cut down forests. Trees, on the contrary, are constantly being planted. It is also prohibited to import chemical fertilizers into Bhutan, so all plants growing here are environmentally friendly.
Thanks to these bans, most of the country is nature reserves untouched by human hands.
There is practically no production in Bhutan. Everything is imported from India. It is thanks to this that the state does not pollute the environment.
Interestingly, television is banned throughout the country. Few residents have televisions and use them to watch videos.
Signs of various establishments do not differ in variety and creativity. They are all the same, regardless of the type of activity: wooden rectangular signs with blue stickers and white inscriptions.
Bhutan - the land of gingerbread houses
In the mid-seventies, the king ordered that all houses be painted. That’s why Bhutan is often called the country of gingerbread houses. The motifs mainly consist of ornaments. The addition includes images of animals and plants. Residents of Bhutan compete with each other to decorate their homes.
By tradition, all houses consist of three floors. On the first there is a stable, on the second there is a bedroom, chapel and kitchen, and on the third there is a place for drying hay.
The symbol of this mountainous state is a large beautiful butterfly called the Glory of Bhutan. Its wingspan is 12 cm.
Bhutan – the land of rice, tea and pepper
The staple of Bhutanese cuisine is rice. It is used everywhere and always. The majority of the population are vegetarians. The use of beans and chili peppers is common. After spicy feasts, residents of this mountainous country prefer to drink tea with butter and salt called souza. They drink both black and green tea.
If you are going to Bhutan, this will definitely not leave you indifferent. Here you will find yourself outside of time and space. Happiness and silence reign here. There's no fuss. In the forests on the slopes of the Himalayas a large number of Buddhist monasteries.
The time difference with Moscow is three hours. There are no direct flights from Russia to Bhutan. You can get to the kingdom with a transfer in Delhi, Singapore, Mumbai and Kathmandu.
In most cases, tourists travel around Bhutan on transfers pre-booked by tour operators. Local residents use buses to get around. You can often find Bhutanese voting. Despite the difficult terrain, the roads here are in excellent condition.
The official currency is BTN. In the central region of the country, any world currency and checks of any companies are accepted. In peripheral areas, it is almost impossible to exchange foreign currency.
Tipping is not accepted in the country. Despite this, hotel workers and tour guides will be immensely grateful for even the smallest rewards from tourists.
The Bhutanese do not know how to bargain, and they do not want to. Prices are fixed everywhere.
Special attention should be paid to altitude sickness, which manifests itself when a tourist rises above 2500 meters.
To visit Bhutan you will need a visa. To do this, you need to fill out a declaration, which must indicate all imported photo, video and electronic equipment. If any of the imported items remain in the country as a gift or goods for sale, the tourist will be required to pay customs duty for these items. Export prohibited local currency outside Bhutan. The tourist must declare the imported currency.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small state, lost in the Himalayas between India and China, one of the most rarely visited countries in South Asia. In 2016, only 209 thousand visitors visited here. The uniqueness of nature and exotic culture evoke in visitors the feeling of discoverers of these lands.
It's not easy to get here. There is only one airport, Paro, where takeoff and landing is considered one of the most difficult. Therefore, only a dozen pilots are licensed to fly here.
To reach even more remote corners of the country, such as the Laya Valley, located at an altitude of 4000 meters, you need to take a Royal Air Service helicopter.
The Kingdom’s policy is aimed at ensuring that one day of a tourist’s stay here brings at least 200 US dollars, which includes the cost of accommodation, food, transportation, guides, etc. The number of tourists is also limited by the availability of a small number of hotel rooms. All funds go towards preserving the nature of this unique place.
One of the country's iconic attractions is the Tiger's Nest Monastery, which can only be reached by climbing for two hours, but is worth every step to see it.
In another monastery, Punakha Dzong, there is a monk who has been meditating for 400 years, but only King Jigme and the abbot of the monastery can see him.
It is also one of the most sparsely populated states in the region (second only to Maldives). It is home to only 743 thousand inhabitants who speak 25 different languages. For a long time, the state adhered to a policy of complete cultural and economic isolation, which made it possible to fully preserve its independence and identity. All citizens are required to wear folk uniforms. It is forbidden to kill animals, and therefore almost all Bhutanese are vegetarians. And all the vegetables and fruits here are environmentally friendly, since the import of chemicals is prohibited.
History of the country
Stone tools, weapons, elephants and stone structures indicate that these places were inhabited two millennia BC. In the ancient chronicles of Tibet and Bhutan, the first state formation is referred to as Lhomon (“Southern Darkness”) and Monyul (“Dark Land,” a reference to the Monpa, the name of the indigenous people of Bhutan). Little is known about the early history of the country, since a fire in 1827 ancient capital Punakha destroyed most of the records.
Until the early 17th century, the state consisted of small warring principalities, when they were united by a warlord and Lama Ngawang Namgyel (Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel), who fled here from religious persecution in Tibet. He also built a network of impregnable dzongs (fortresses) to protect against Tibetan troops.
The first Europeans to visit here were the Portuguese Jesuits Stefan Cacella and João Cabral. Arriving here in 1627, they presented the ruler Ngawang Namgyal with a gun, a telescope and offered their services to wage war with Tibet, but he rejected it. After staying at Chagri Monastery for eight months, Katsela wrote an account of his journey - the only remaining testimony about the great Ngawang Namgyal.
Ministry of Happiness
The official religion of the country is Tantric Buddhism, so the main goal of the government, enshrined in the national Constitution, is the happiness of its citizens. The country is also unique in that only here there is a Ministry of Happiness, and efficiency is measured not by the Gross National Product, but by the Gross National Happiness. In the latest survey, 45% of residents said they were very happy, 51% were happy, and only 3% were not very happy.
- What exactly does the Minister of Happiness do?
The name of my title in Russian is a translation error. In fact, Bhutan has no minister or ministry of happiness. I'm in charge. Gross happiness is not just a philosophy, we are putting this knowledge into practice so that government can use it in their work. First of all, we define the criteria of happiness, then we contact the population and the government, and laws are made based on this.
Our country is very small (population 743 thousand people. - Note ed.), and we can easily get into some trouble. For example, factories can completely deplete Natural resources, and nature is one of the factors of human happiness (in Bhutan, until recently, there was almost no industrial production; now there is a factory that produces Coca-Cola under license. - Note edit). In this example, the concept of VNS allows you to control the work of factories, manage internal processes in the country so that everyone lives in harmony. A bit like how the commandments in your culture tell Christians what they should and shouldn't do. Our research helps to develop universal awareness, to be a civilized country in caring for its culture, nature, and society.
- Well, okay, you can close an unenvironmentally friendly factory - but can you interfere in family affairs?
For research, we have to ask questions about whether a person is divorced or not, whether the child grows up with one parent or is an orphan. About 5% of the total population is divorced, which is an acceptable figure for Bhutan. We know where these people live and what projects aimed at improving their lives can be offered to them. There are hundreds of such indicators that determine the strategy for working with the population.
What if what makes one person happy is not what brings joy to others? Can such a person be called unhappy?
Gross National Happiness is an evolving philosophy, very modern, and the approach is comprehensive. What you and I - you and I, the participants in this interview - consider happiness is important, but it is only a drop in the bucket. The happiness that you experience when you see your family members, your spouse, is also important, we do not diminish the importance of this. But there is a huge range of indicators. At the everyday level, happiness seems to be something very simple and achievable. We think about happiness in a deeper sense - we contemplate happiness and try to understand priorities.
- Everyone has their own.
Absolutely right. The GNH has nine areas of happiness (the website says these are standards of living, education, health, environment, community vitality, leisure time, psychological well-being, management effectiveness, sustainability and cultural development. - Note ed.). We are trying to ensure that the government meets these needs of citizens. Plus we have the values of the Buddhist community - Bhutan was not colonized, we have 1000 years of unbroken tradition. However, in the name of globalization, we have become an open country and we understand that our values are far from, say, American ones. We don't think their values are bad - they just don't match ours.
Every religion is beautiful, but ours happens to be Buddhism, so we try to use it to cope with the complex life of modern society. In addition, we do not neglect Western research in the field of psychology - they help us understand the complex mental problems of the population. Here is a man living on the hundredth floor of a skyscraper near Central Park in New York. If he is suffering from insoluble problems, he can go out the window, and our task is to make sure that he goes down for a walk in Central Park. Therefore, we work primarily on the state of the inner world, in which there are not many differences between people. Some are richer, some are poorer, but each of us still has the same 24 hours to spend the time of our lives.
- And yet, how can your developments help the rest of the inhabitants of the planet where ISIS operates (the organization is banned on the territory of the Russian Federation. - Note ed.)?
This goes beyond the scope of the ANS issue. I respect other religions, I am familiar with the tenets of the Koran and I am one hundred percent sure that Islam is a good religion. Terrorism is its wrong interpretation. This is probably a reaction to the demands of the times. It seems to me that after 20–30 years of interference by other states in the culture and life of Islamic countries, it is logical that someone began to get angry.
Bhutan is far from all this. If sleep finds me in the middle of the night on the street of Thimphu (the capital of the state. - Note ed.), I can calmly close my eyes, confident that nothing will disturb me, except that it will be cold in winter and hot in summer. My friends are all around me in this city. If the whole world took the concept of national happiness seriously and tried to use our principles, then I am sure that the problem of global terrorism would recede into the background. But who are we? Bhutan is too small - less than one percent of the world's population knows about our existence.
Tsoki Zangmo and Dorje Penjo - expert and director of the Gross National Happiness Research Center of Bhutan
Bhutan is a country of traditional values. Does modernity and the changing role of women in society affect you in any way?
We fully share feminist views. For example, my colleague Tsoki Zangmo from the Center for the Study of the VNS, with whom we came to Russia, is a real feminist. However, I believe that feminist values can best be conveyed by a man. You know, when a man speaks, other men listen to him. And when women speak, men doubt.
At the same time, I see how relations between the sexes in our country are changing. In my family, men traditionally did hard work in the fields and looked after the livestock: to work as a shepherd in the mountains, you need to be physically strong. And women did housework - cooked, looked after children, washed clothes. Thanks to the spread of education, women began to go to the office just like men, and men do not have to walk with a plow - Bhutan has tractors. We have women doctors, women pilots. But my wife doesn’t cook - I like to cook myself. Recently, a woman can become a prime minister in our country, but tradition prevents this.
Tsoki Zangmo: There is a generational problem here. Women were given equal rights when my parents were young. But their generation was not properly educated, and older women have no confidence that they can succeed. Today we have roads, infrastructure, and education, so there are no obstacles to development as such.
We fully share feminist views. However, I believe that feminist values can best be conveyed by a man
- What is the approach to childbearing in Bhutan? What about abortion?
Tsoki Zangmo: Abortion is prohibited by law, but having or not having children is everyone's choice. Compared to our neighbors Nepal and India, Bhutan is a fairly liberal society. Moreover, traditionally, property rights in Bhutan pass to daughters, not sons.
Dorje Penjo: We are very flexible! We are actively promoting family planning policies that encourage additions, of course. Several years ago we discussed giving women a thirty percent quota in parliament. Some were delighted, while others said that they did not want quotas and such charity - they needed open competition. That is, the introduction of the quota seemed offensive to Bhutanese women.
- Let's return to the discussion of world politics - what do you think about Trump and Putin?
Politics are basically terrible. The art of political diplomacy is to tell sweet lies. But I believe Trump speaks from the heart. Clinton lied, but Trump was straightforward. Outwardly, Americans are very politically correct and support Hillary, but somewhere in their souls there is a haven of nationalist ideas and the concept of white supremacy that Trump personifies. And he addresses those who suffer from the forced political correctness of society. I think he won only because his time had come. Personally, I generally wanted Bernie Sanders to win - as soon as he dropped out of the race, I stopped being interested in the outcome of the election.
As for Putin, in Western media he is presented as a bad person. It has its weaknesses, but it has proven strong enough to crack American influence on the world. One country cannot decide what to do for the entire planet - someone had to stop it.
- How does mass culture influence your country? Do Bhutanese people watch Hollywood movies?
We didn't have national television until 1999, but some homes had dishes installed. Television has only become truly widespread in the last decade. Broadcasts of American wrestling and films about Superman and Batman are especially popular. There was even a story when one boy imagined himself to be a superhero and jumped out of the window. Of course he died. But these are all isolated cases - the Himalayan ice and mountains play the role of a natural barrier between us and Western countries. Our main influence is from Indian television. When I was finishing college, I remember everyone was watching Indian movies and listening to Hindi music.
- Do you listen to rock music yourself?
Certainly! I have three favorite English-speaking musicians: The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. What I don’t like is modern songs – they’re kind of empty. I'd rather listen to Bruce Springsteen or Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. You turn on “Spring” and somehow come to life, renew yourself, even if it’s winter outside.
- Do you think you are capable of experiencing happiness?
Vajrayana Buddhism is practiced in Bhutan. If you explain to the uninitiated, then imagine how in science one theory replaces another, it is replaced by a third, postmodernism emerges from modernism. Vajrayana is something like post-postmodernism: there is no absolute good or evil. You use reason, wisdom, to train yourself and improve yourself. Even trash can be turned into jewelry. We try to keep ourselves at a distance from harmful emotions - as we gain this distance, a transformation of the mind occurs. For example, cloning is not a problem for Buddhism at all - let them clone! It is not discussed as a moral issue. Buddhism can be thought of as a religion that perceives reality as it is - in practice we do not seek to organize society in some "Buddhist way." When we think about religion in general, we think of theistic religions - belief in God. But in Buddhism, at the level of practice, such things are secondary - they are not discussed.
- What makes you personally happy?
If we talk about ANS indicators, then I am a very happy person. I was lucky to be born a Buddhist in Bhutan, where there is a wonderful king. I got a good education, I have a great job. I have a wonderful family, no health problems. The only thing that bothers me is migraines, an annoying inconvenience that I experience several times a week. Another trouble is processing. And so everything is fine - both with my wife and with my relatives. I have no enemies.
I studied at an Australian university in the department of anthropology - it was extremely useful for my profession, helped in my career, but it turned out to be completely meaningless for my consciousness. I find it more beneficial to wake up at 4-5 am while the family is sleeping and walk around the stupa as part of my daily spiritual practice. When I look at the clock, time reminds me to calm down, temper my anger, tame my ego. I am 44 years old according to your calculation system - according to Buddhist calendar 45. If I were to die in the next few years, I would not regret anything: I lived a very meaningful life.
Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, like the one that already exists in the United Arab Emirates(UAE). There, this department carries out measures aimed at making citizens more satisfied with their lives. In particular, the ministry specializes in creating new social benefits, recreation parks, etc. Citizens of the state also participate in resolving some issues - for example, they put forward their proposals for measures that will contribute to the growth of their happiness.
“They created the Ministry of Happiness. It seems to me that such a ministry would be very useful for Russia,” says Matvienko.
Which country still has a Ministry of Happiness?
In addition to the UAE, the Ministry of Happiness is also located in Bhutan. The fact is that official religion there, or “spiritual heritage”, tantric Buddhism is proclaimed. Therefore, the government declares its main goal to be the desire “for the happiness of each of its citizens,” this is enshrined in Article 9 of the Constitution.
The government takes this goal seriously and regularly measures the happiness of its citizens. So, the question “Are you happy?” asked during population censuses. In the last census in 2005, 45.2% of the population answered this question “very happy”, 51.6% “happy”, and only 3.3% “not very happy”.
In turn, these indicators directly affect the key element of building an economy, the indicator that replaced the generally accepted concept of gross domestic product (GDP) - “gross national happiness” (GNN). It is noteworthy that several international conferences were held in Bhutan, to which Western economists were invited (including Nobel laureates in economics), with the aim of developing methods for calculating GNH based on a combination of the economic situation in the country and the life satisfaction of the population.
Tantric Buddhism— Buddhism, in which tantra plays a key role. Tantra (translated from Sanskrit as “connection, thread, sequence”) is the practice of enlightened states, death and intermediate states between death and the next birth. The practice of tantra is understood as a means to achieve the final result - Buddhahood (“nirvana”).
