I first heard about Bhutan a few years ago when its King (yes, King) announced a new system of measurement for the country — Gross National Happiness (GNH).
“(GNH) is based on the conviction that material wealth alone does not bring happiness or ensure the wellbeing of its people, and that economic growth and ‘modernisation’ should not be at the expense of the people’s quality of life,” writes Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Queen Mother of Bhutan in The Bhutanese Guide to Happiness.
What a bold and wild concept for this American.
After discovering GNH, I quickly went down a Bhutanese rabbit hole. I found out through my Googling that Buddhist values are deeply infused and ingrained in its culture and widely practiced but not mandated among its citizens. Not to mention, it is landlocked between India, China and Tibet, fairly untouched and tucked away in the Eastern Himalayas, and is referred to “The Last Shangri La” by many tourism companies in the West.
I distinctly remember putting Bhutan to the top of my travel bucket list that night, as I became fascinated by how this small country seemed to live such a drastically different life than the rest of the world.
