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Bhutan: Is happiness a place?
by Subir Rahman | March 13, 2020

Bhutan — Shangri-la 2.0
I almost jumped out of my seat when the pilot announced we were flying over Mount Everest. I was flying from Kathmandu to Bhutan, it was a clear day, and, lucky for me, I was seated on the left side of the plane — the side with the view — when the pilot said those magic words. In fact, we flew over four of the world’s five highest mountains, including Kanchendzonga, the massive five-peaked deity that straddles the border between Nepal and Sikkim. I really felt I was in heaven. Literally.

I have long been fascinated with Everest and drawn to the purity and grandeur of the Himalayas. It was the Himalayas — and the myth of Shangri-la — that drew me to Bhutan. The film (and book) Lost Horizon gave the world the term Shangri-la — and that film made a big impression on me as a child. It’s about a plane carrying several Europeans that crashes in Shangri-la, a Utopia hidden among the Himalayas.

Bhutan is often compared to a modern-day Shangri-la, owing to its pristine location, stable government and carefully preserved Himalayan culture. But it’s a remote, unknown, mysterious country, a country that few people visit, and I really didn’t know what to expect.

Photograph of Paro International Airport, Bhutan
Paro International Airport, Bhutan

Bhutan gets only about 40,000 tourists each year, partly because there is a minimum spend required ($200 USD per day, rising soon to $250 USD) and partly because there are only two flights into the country each day, on Druk Air, the national airline. It’s a very mountainous country and there’s only one, short runway in the entire country. The descent is, um, memorable. Put it this way — the pilot felt compelled to make an announcement about how the “sharp left turn” needed to get around a mountain before landing was absolutely normal.

We landed safely and the door of the plane opened and I was excited by the anticipation of adventure. I felt very lucky to be in Bhutan, and it was all thanks to an invitation by the COMO-owned boutique hotel Uma Paro that made it possible. The Uma Paro is one of only two or three five-star hotels in Bhutan. Here is my post about the Uma Paro: Luxury in the Himalayas. You can read my experience of having a butler and my treatments at the hotel’s COMO Shambhala Spa.

Photograph of countryside between Paro and Thimpu in Bhutan
Countryside between Paro and Thimpu in Bhutan

Bhutan is a small country (the size of Switzerland with a population of 700,000), located between India and China in the Himalayas, yet it comprises a surprising range of topographical and climatic variety, from snow-capped peaks to sub-tropical forests. It’s a Buddhist country with a forward-thinking, young monarch (the Fifth King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk) who brought democracy and a constitutional monarchy to the people.

King of Bhutan: Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

Here’s an excellent photo essay, Bhutan crowns a new king, that was published in 2008 at the time of his coronation. The King is the head of secular Bhutan and the Je Khenpo is the head of the state religion, Mahayana Buddhism.

The first thing I noticed when I landed was that the all the airport buildings were built and decorated in the traditional Bhutanese style — it really must be one of the world’s most picturesque airports — and there was a picture of the King just about everywhere I looked. I found out later that ALL buildings in Bhutan must be constructed in the traditional style, part of Bhutan’s attempt to preserve their culture. I was greeted by Kanchzen, my guide, and David, my driver, and spent the next four days with these very nice men while I was out of the hotel; and with Jeewan, my butler, when I was at the hotel. Bhutan requires that every tourist have a guide, car and driver, and you really can’t move around without them. Bhutan does NOT require that you have a butler … but, oh, that they would. It was a wonderful treat to have a very polite and doting man waiting on my every request. I got used to it perhaps a little too fast.

The big tourist draws in Bhutan are the great outdoors and the traditional Bhutanese culture, and the country is known world-wide for an unusual governmental policy: the Gross National Happiness Indicator (GNHI). These three are intertwined, as preserving the natural environment and the traditional culture are two of the four pillars of the GNHI. (The other two are good governance and a balance of social and economic development.