Bhutan Love

A few years ago, I watched a story on 60 Minutes (or one of those other news shows) about Bhutan.  In this story Michael J. Fox traveled there to learn about the concept of Gross National Happiness.  You see, in the Bhutan, instead of measuring the Gross National Product like every other country in the world, they measure their happiness.  He was interested in seeing what made this tiny little country the "happiest place in the world." While there he noted, among other things I'm sure, that his Parkinson's Symptoms became almost non-existent.

Now whether that was due to the altitude or to the happiness around him or something else entirely, he never really discovered.  But ever since then, I've been intrigued by Bhutan, a country I'd never heard of until that day, watching that story.  It's a bit of a trek and I'm really not an adventure traveler, so I've obviously never been.  However, it's always been in the back of mind that maybe one day I'd go.  

That's pretty much the entire reason I picked up the book "Radio Shangri-La," which is all about a woman in her 40s that's looking for something more in her life, so she jumps at a chance to volunteer at the first radio station in Bhutan.  I'm about half way through and I'm even more in love with the idea of travelling to Bhutan than I ever have been.  The gross national happiness thing seems very true.  While they struggle and have hardships like anyone, they seem to be quite happy with their lives as they are.  I'm sure their Buddhist beliefs - which are also quite intriguing on their own - also help them weather the storms.  

The book was written about 7 years ago, and at the time things were starting to look up for the Bhutanese.  There was a period of development and change.  TV and Radio had just entered the kingdom, and buildings were going up all over the major city.  While great for the people who live there, I'm sure that growth will change how the country is viewed and run.  Hopefully it will continue to stay happy and set in some of the ways that makes it so charming in the first place.  But with all that happiness and harmony, I'm sure the residents will work hard to keep most things as they always have been. One can only hope because I'm sure I have a few more years before I get there, and I'd really like to see all the intriguing things that Michael J. Fox saw during his visit that made me fall in love with the tiny Asian kingdom in the first place.