Tag Archive for ‘Gross National Happiness’ at Asian Window

Tag Archive for 'Gross National Happiness'

Bhutan’s boutique bourse

Published

on December 15, 2009

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Reuters:

Traders seeking a break from volatile global markets may want to head to Bhutan’s bourse, where stocks are traded on just four computers — when they have not crashed — only twice a week.

“I’ve got one order to sell 2,820 shares,” said 23-year-old Deki Peldon, the only broker for today’s short trading hours in Thimphu, the capital of the tiny Himalayan kingdom.

“It’s taken 2 to 3 weeks to find a buyer.”

Welcome to the Royal Bhutan stock exchange, where just four brokers work and which will trade about $3 million shares this year, about what many financiers may deal with in the blink of an eye. The average daily trade in New York is more than 1 billion.

In a Buddhist country where national wealth is measured by Gross National Happiness — an idea that spiritual and environmental health are just as important as material well-being — the exchange is crawling slowly along as the country and its $1.3 billion economy tentatively embraces globalization. More

Suicides in Bhutan: How the happy kingdom in the clouds lost its smile

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on September 9, 2009

in Bhutan, Culture, Economy and Society

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Bhutan's capital Thimphu at night. Photo: Birger Hoppe / Under CC

Bhutan has made its people’s happiness a national priority. But a spate of suicides suggests it is struggling to cope with the modern world. Andrew Buncombe in the Independent:

For the emergency department of Bhutan’s largest hospital, last Tuesday was a pressing day. In the space of a few hours six people were rushed in, all suspected of having tried to commit suicide.

One of the patients, a 35-year-old housewife, said she had taken 30 sedatives after problems at home. The second, a woman of 27, had swallowed 15 paracetamol tablets after quarrelling with her husband. The third to require urgent treatment was a 17-year-old girl who was rushed in unconscious having drunk nail polisher remover after an argument with her sister. The other three cases were prisoners from the local jail who had emptied a bottle of mysterious spirit. Some reports claimed they had tried to take their lives, but officials are unsure.

By the standards of a hospital in a large city in the West the numbers might be unremarkable, but the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital is in Thimphu, capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has a total population of less than 700,000. What’s more, this enigmatic mountainous nation is feted around the world for its gross national happiness (GNH) – a national policy in which the emotional well-being of citizens is considered more important than their financial bottom line. More:

[Photo: Birger Hoppe / Under CC]

Recalculating happiness in a Himalayan kingdom

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on May 7, 2009

in Bhutan and Travel

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Seth Mydans from Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, in the New York Times:

Tigers Nest (Taktsang) monastery in Bhutan

If the rest of the world cannot get it right in these unhappy times, this tiny Buddhist kingdom high in the Himalayan mountains says it is working on an answer.

“Greed, insatiable human greed,” said Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan, describing what he sees as the cause of today’s economic catastrophe in the world beyond the snow-topped mountains. “What we need is change,” he said in the whitewashed fortress where he works. “We need to think gross national happiness.”

The notion of gross national happiness was the inspiration of the former king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in the 1970s as an alternative to the gross national product. Now, the Bhutanese are refining the country’s guiding philosophy into what they see as a new political science, and it has ripened into government policy just when the world may need it, said Kinley Dorji, secretary of information and communications. More:

Lessons in happiness for all the new kings on the block

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on November 10, 2008

in Bhutan

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Michael Simkins in The National:

An extraordinary event occurred in world politics last week. The world’s newest head of an independent democracy was carried to power in an event that nobody who witnessed it will ever forget.

Even the circumstances of his triumph were significant, in that it was greeted by almost universal acclaim throughout the nation, as well as delivering him a clear mandate for government. Better still, the successful candidate was in the prime of his manhood, vigorous, dashing, and unblemished by corruption or wizened by age. Hallelujah!

No, not Barack Obama. Sorry, you obviously lost me for a moment there. I’m talking about the coronation of Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck as the new King of Bhutan.

How to beat the financial blues, Bhutan style

AFP reports from Thimphu:

“It’s the materialism, who can make the bigger buck, overnight fast money that caused the problems,” said Phurb Dorji, a doctor who works in a Thimphu hospital and is a big fan of the official national philosophy.

“The whole world is going towards materialism, and the more they get the more they want. But they’re still not happy. They don’t need to copy us, but they should take a look at other ways.”

Bhutan has been pursuing GNH for the past few decades: it was conceived by the country’s last king, and the new monarch — 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who was crowned on Thursday — says it will remain a policy centrepiece.

Bhutan: The power of spirituality, the will of the people

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on November 7, 2008

in Bhutan

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From Kuensel:

It was the ultimate empowerment of a Dharma King. In a ceremony, that was deeply spiritual, richly traditional, and shrouded in sacred mystical truths, His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the fifth hereditary King of Bhutan, received the Dar Na Nga on November 1, 2008.

The Dar Na Nga, an arrangement of silk scarves in the five primary colours, representing the five elements, is a direct empowerment from the Zhabdrung himself. The Dar Na Nga is preserved in the Machhen Chhorten, which holds the Kudung (physical relics) of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel. It is returned to the Machhen Lhakhang in a chipdrel procession after the empowerment ceremony of the Kings.

His Majesty received the same Dar Na-Nga, which was received by all the Monarchs of the Wangchuck dynasty – Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck, Jigme Wangchuck, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, and Jigme Singye Wangchuck. It is believed that the Dar Na-Nga was given by Jigme Namgyel to Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck.

The world’s newest king

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on November 7, 2008

in Bhutan

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The coronation of Oxford-educated Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 28, as the fifth king of Bhutan marks the formal transition of power from his father who abdicated in 2006 in order to modernise his country of 635,000 people. The country’s first Parliamentary elections were held in March and the coronation on Thursday took place at an auspiciously ordained time. Simon Denyar has the story in Reuters.

With mediaeval tradition and Buddhist spirituality, a 28-year-old with an Oxford education assumed the Raven Crown of Bhutan on Thursday, to guide the world’s newest democracy as it emerges into the modern world.

As the chief abbot chanted sacred sutras to grant him wisdom, compassion and vision, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was crowned Bhutan’s Fifth Druk Gyalpo, or Dragon King, by his own father, who imposed democracy and then abdicated two years ago.

BBC News has more pictures here.

And, previously on AW:

Dragon on the wings of time

His majesty the Druk Gyalpo

First step towards democracy

Finally, read John Elliott’s blog on what the king of Bhutan told him about gross national happiness here.

His Majesty the Druk Gyalpo

Published

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on October 31, 2008

in Bhutan

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Bhutan will crown its fifth king, the 27-year-old Oxford-educated King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, on November 6. Jigme Khesar became king late in 2006 after his father, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicated. The coronation was delayed because astrologers said 2007 was not an auspicious time for the young king to be crowned. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck established a parliamentary democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom with the monarch as head of state.

Kinley Dorji at Kuensel on what the coronation means:

It is the end – and the beginning – of history. On the morning of November 1, the third day of the ninth Bhutanese month, His Majesty the King will be empowered as the Druk Gyalpo in a unique and sacred empowerment ceremony, which symbolises his transcendence of the ordinary and the temporal and the personification of divine wisdom.

His Majesty will receive the Dar Na-Nga, a special arrangement of the primary colours that signify the five elements. The ceremony will take place in the Machhen Lhakhang, and the Dar Na-Nga will be symbolically conferred by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, in the presence of the fourth Druk Gyalpo, with the empowerment prayer chanted by His Holiness the Je Khenpo.

The white, yellow, red, green, and blue silk scarves represent the elements – water, earth, fire, wind, and space – the basis of physical existence, that His Majesty personifies, as well as the underlying energies from which the physical world arises.

Business in Bhutan: Financial forecasting mixed with karma

Published

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on March 28, 2008

in Bhutan

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From The Globe And Mail:

Tshering Jamtsho uncoils the burgundy robe from around his chin and smiles as the first light of a Himalayan dawn streams through the casement chiselled into a stone-cold cell at the Pangrizampa Monastery.

Twigs crunch outside, a voice calls out from the dark and an apprentice enters the chamber gripping the “Mopai.” The ancient 250-page goatskin volume provides human calculators, called “tsips,” with intricate mathematical and astronomical formulas to compute a client’s fate and fortune before birth, during life and in the afterlife.

“I am one of the 40 calculators,” Mr. Jamtsho says over cups of the pungent yak-butter tea his predecessors began serving clients here in the Kingdom of Bhutan more than 1,500 years ago.

Bhutan: First step towards democracy

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on March 22, 2008

in Bhutan

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From Associated Press (via IHT):

Thimphu, Bhutan: The command came from the king, as commands normally do in a nation where royalty has ruled for a century. But when the Precious Ruler of the Dragon People spoke that day, he stunned this deeply isolated corner of the Himalayas: The age of monarchs is ending, he said, and power should be yours.

That was a little over two years ago. Now, on the eve of national elections Monday that will upend a system rooted in feudal monarchism, much of the country remains unconvinced there should even be a vote.

Just ask the candidates. “If you had a referendum, even today, Bhutan would reject democracy. That’s the ground reality,” said Khandu Wangchuk, the burly, gravel-voiced former foreign minister who is running for a seat in the western town of Paro. “But there’s no use wishing democracy away.”

What most people want is what they’ve always had: a powerful king.

[Photo: Bhutan's King and the Crown Prince]

Smile census: Bhutan counts its blessings

In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Wonacott reports from Thimphu:

GNH (Gross National Happiness) is about to face a series of big tests. On Monday, Bhutan will hold its first democratic election. That will install a parliament, pass a new constitution and dilute the powers of a popular monarch. Later this year, Bhutan plans to join the World Trade Organization, even though its industry comprises little more than high-end tourism and hydroelectric power.

As Bhutan enters these uncharted political and economic waters, its leaders want to prove that they can achieve economic growth while maintaining good governance, protecting the environment and preserving an ancient culture. To do that, they’ve decided to start calculating GNH. It means coming up with an actual happiness index that can be tracked over time.

[Photo: The Punakha dzong, one of Bhutan's most beautiful buildings]

Bhutan’s enlightened experiment

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on March 5, 2008

in Bhutan

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Guided by a novel idea, the tiny Buddhist kingdom tries to join the modern world without losing its soul, writes Brook Larmer in National Geographic

First come the high clear notes of the ceremonial trumpet. Then the Buddhist pilgrims, gravitating toward the sound. The sun has slid behind the mountains looming over Thimphu, capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and the day’s final ritual is set to begin. Along the edge of the crowd, in pageboy haircuts and tattered robes, stand peasants who have traveled three days from their remote villages on their first visit to the big city, likely the only capital in the world without a traffic light. Near the center of the plaza clusters a group of Buddhist monks, arms linked, their betel-nut-stained teeth matching their burgundy robes. Together the monks and peasants and townspeople press forward to catch a glimpse of the main attraction: a small boy standing in the center of the circle, his bright orange shirt hanging down to his knees.

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Bhutan: Small wonder

Published

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on March 2, 2008

in Bhutan and Travel

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As the people of Bhutan prepare to go to the polls this month in the tiny Himalayan kingdom’s first general election, Patrick French discovers their remarkable achievements and asks how the success of a royal dynasty may have blunted the desire for democracy. In The Telegraph, UK:

Bhutan is the most beautiful country in the world. You fly in over the Himalayas, the plane cruising at the height of the mountain peaks, and watch the snow glistening in the sheer, sharp sunlight. A white blueness envelops the sky and, before you know it, the little Druk Air plane is dropping into a golden river valley and slaloming its way to Paro, the only airport in Bhutan.

You pass all the mountains: Cho Oyu, Mount Everest, Makalu, each peak spiking in a web of frosted snow and giving way to a further peak, the blank whiteness of the summit becoming a filigree of ice trails as your eyes descend to the lower ridges and see stepped fields and trees, the last great undestroyed Himalayan forests, and bump now on air pockets as the plane turns into the next valley and makes its way towards earth. The other passengers, Americans and Germans with padded ski jackets and virtuous hairstyles, are so busy crowding over to the left of the plane to snap photographs that I fear we will list to port.

[Photo: Would-be voters during another dummy run in December.]

Training reporters to cover elections

Andrea Bernstein, political director of New York Public Radio WNYC, was selected to train 20 Bhutanese reporters as the country prepares for its first-ever elections. The invitation came from Bhutan’s daily newspaper, Kuensel. Bernstein spent a week in Bhutan. Read her blog:

…Today, we began the training (because of the time difference, we were actually going head to head with the Oscars). We were overwhelmed by the response – twenty journalists were supposed to show up, forty three came. One drove “two-days journey” – she actually did in 15 hours by driving through until 3 am over the national highway, the road that hairpins through the Himalayas. Some of the journalists were brand new, but all took their craft amazingly seriously. We were a bit worried that we’d have to draw them out, needlessly so, it turned out. This was a group keenly aware of the history that is taking place in Bhutan, and in the important role they’ll have in shaping it.

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