Chris and I have just had a week in Bhutan, a country that was on our "highlights" list for our travels. Known for its spirituality, isolation, gross national happiness, eco-awareness and now for being one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
As the time got closer to our trip we really looked forward to a 'break' from India and its intensity.
Sooooo.... did it deliver!?
This blog is a reflection on our experience rather than a description of our week. Watch Chris' YouTube videos for the 'what we did' stuff. We are also acutely aware that our view is limited and will be highly biased by the view of the world we got from our driver and guide; I have done a bit of Googling to supplement the information we were given - but this is primarily a personal reflection rather than positioned as 100% factual! I hope you find it interesting.....
Bhutan is often described as 'Shangri-La' - a mythical 'paradise' isolated from the world, where people live happily for 100s of years. Ironically, I didn't hear or see one reference to Shangri-La during our week and life expectancy for the 800,000 population is nearer 70 years, not 100s!
This was a very different sort of travel from our normal slow and cheap backpacking. We were chauffeur-driven in a lovely comfortable car, guided by Karma who spoke excellent English and fed, well - fed....beyond bursting! In fact - we were knackered by the end of our week from the constant touristing! There was no down-time, no chilling out in coffee-shops, or sitting and watching the world go by! There probably could have been had we scheduled it in, but at US $500+ per day (Bhutan has a daily visitor fee - see my blog Bhutan - The Cost of A Visit) we didn't want to have too much down time!
A (Very Bad and Brief) Potted History
For me, Bhutan's poetry comes much from two things - its very different and interesting perspective on life and its physical environment.
Spirituality
Much of Bhutan's spirituality is based on Guru Rinpoche (the 'second Buddha') who came from Tibet to deal with all sorts of evil spirits. Spirituality plays an absolutely huge part in Bhutan, although I am sad to confess that as the week went on Chris and I started glazing over at another temple and another manifestation of Guru Rinpoche!
Unity
Bhutan first came into being as a country in the 17th Century when Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel unified it into one religious state. He also taught the people how to sit, to dress and behave - these norms are what guide the Bhutanese even today. After Shabdrung Bhutan always had equality of political and religious leadership sitting side by side. We visited stunning fortresses with administrative areas on one side and religious areas and temples on the other. These were originally built to keep invading forces (especially from Tibet) out of Bhutan.
Royalty
Fast-forward to the First King ("King of Unity') who came to the throne in 1907 after beating all his adversaries in a number of civil wars and he became the leader of all things spiritual and political. Actually, it was described to us as "everyone wanted him to be king"...but I think the reality is probably a bit more bloody!
The Second King was known as the "Isolationist King" primarily because he managed to keep Bhutan closed off during World War 2.... no mean feat given how much of Asia was involved in the war.
The Third King was the modernising, out-reaching King. His son, the Fourth King continued this modernisation and is known as the King of Happiness as he established the Gross National Happiness index as the key marker of success, rather than GDP that other countries use. He also oversaw the start of democracy with the first ever elections in 2008.
The current King (King Five) was crowned in 2006 and is popularly known as the People's King.
The Bhutanese seem to adore their royal family and talk of the King is typically as a father-figure who cares for his people and knows best what is good for the country.
Excitement of the day - we even got to see one of the Queen Mothers when we were visiting a nunnery high on a hill. She was visiting her family nearby. I say "One of the Queen Mothers" as King Four had 4 wives...all sisters - apparently 'it was written' that he would marry the sisters.
Generally speaking the political leaders seem to play second fiddle to royalty by a long way. There seemed a lack of understanding, or that much interest in politics and the role of democracy. Not being able to identify the differences between parties and the casual thought that at each election you would just vote for the next party, just to give each new one a try was an interesting concept......buuuuuttt I can't judge from a position that I know that situation myself. For most of their adult lives the King has been the pinnacle of power and a nurturer of his people. Democratic understanding may well have taken time to develop in other countries too....I have never been there at the start to know.
Environment
From the moment we entered Bhutan we were oooing and awwwing about the scenery. The road from the border climbs up and up and up. Past the tropical jungle and up through scenery that was not too dissimilar to parts of New Zealand's South Island....arid, with pines, steep gorges, waterfalls and bouldery rivers which Chris dreamed of kayaking, not least because the rivers actually look clean (unlike India)! Think Arrowtown or Queenstown...with the potential for bike-tracks through the trees! The roads are a feat of modern engineering in their own right - they are carved from the edge of the rock and as you drive you can see it snaking up into the distance, while you can look down out of the window the edge of the road drops to the valley far, far below.
This is a country that understands the balance of economics and environment. The constitution mandates the need to keep a minimum of 60% of their land area under forest cover for all times to come. It currently stands at 71%, with over 800 million trees and is beautiful.
I wish other countries would learn from this tiny Kingdom.
Our favourite experience was the two day / one night Bumdra Trek - camping high up in the foothills before descending to Tiger's Nest (Takstang) Monastery the next day. Day one was quite a tough day - I was recovering from food poisoning and the effects of altitude hit us both - shortness of breath, tight throat for me and a tight head for Chris. The trek climbed up from 2080 metres to 3080 metres through forest that sometimes reminded me of NZ and eventually across an open plain where yaks were grazing (not very Kiwi!). Cool cows with big fluffy tails!! Lots of pretty flowers, amazing scenery of hills and monasteries. We enjoyed tea and biscuits with views of snow-capped mountains in the distance on day 1. In contrast we could just about make out the dining tent on the morning of day 2 as the cloud had come in! Part of the descent had us in shorts, part had us in raincoats and duvet jackets descending over rocks in a hail storm!!
Human Rights
For all of its idealistic image, Bhutan has a shocking human rights record - one our guide appeared to know nothing about and showed absolutely no interest in.
Refugees
From 1991, nearly a sixth of Bhutan's people have been forced out of Bhutan - this is one of the highest, per capita rates of refugees in the world; over 107,000 people have been displaced.
The Bhutanese people of Nepali origin are known as Lhotshampa - people from the south of Bhutan. Some came to Bhutan as far back as the 1600s as craftspeople; many more came in the 1890s for forest clearing and farm labouring. Many were given citizenship in the 1950s. In the late '80s ethnic tensions erupted as Bhutan enforced citizenship laws, ordered that people had to speak Bhutanese, wear the ethnic dress and revoked the citizenship of those who didn't fit in.
In the early '90s thousands were forced to flee Bhutan and many have lived in refugee camps in Nepal since then. India moved them on (they have a very strong relationship with Bhutan - control much of their foreign policy, buy their hydro and have military based along the border with China). Bhutan refused them back. Many refugees have been resettled in other countries - including NZ.
Religious Freedom
75% of Bhutan's population are Buddhist. Hindus make up 22%, Christians about 0.5% and Muslims only 0.2%.
Despite an absolute proliferation of new Buddhist buildings (many built with foreign money), we saw NO evidence of other religions at all during our tour. In fact our guide said there were no Muslims at all in the whole of Bhutan. Despite religious freedom being protected in their constitution, it seems in practice there are limitations on freedom to meet & worship, to be a missionary, to build non-Buddhist religious buildings and it is harder to get government/civil service jobs.
Get The Balance Right (in the words of Depeche Mode!)
As a hypothetical question we asked our driver and guide what the ONE THING they would change about Bhutan if they could.
Having Indians banned from being able to drive themselves as this was taking away job opportunities.
Stopping more development of Bhutan in the West of the country and increasing development more into the Eastern areas.
Both said they had never really thought about the question before. I'm not sure if I was awed by their lack of thought and engagement with 'potential what-ifs' (questions that I personally enjoy batting around) or whether I was just jealous that they were both so happy with the status quo?
It was interesting to talk with them as they personally tried to battle with their own balance - on the one hand they said they were happy with their lives, but on the other the need for more money or respect was something to strive for. Not that much different to me sometimes!!
As a country, Bhutan is trying hard to get the balance right between modernism and tradition. Adults complain of kids being on their computers; snooker halls are in every town; youngsters don't always wear their traditional outfits and sometimes have a fractious relationship with the police when police try and curtail their 'fun'. Sounds pretty similar to other countries.
There is 'freedom', but we could see a tight leash of control being held to keep hold of tradition and this limits personal freedom, for example:
To hold their national identity many things are mandated - anyone connected with the tourism industry, or working for the government has to wear their national dress, as do those playing archery, their national game
We needed a permit to travel and had to pass through many checkpoints during our journey to show our route
Our guide and driver seemed to think the control was a good thing ('Bhutan knows best'), but I admit I struggled with it.
Even the information were were given during our week sometimes seemed a little tightly managed - I was never sure we were getting the whole truth, rather a sanitised version come from what was taught to the guides?
Where's Your Soul?
We visited lots of temples, forts and monasteries. We saw beautiful scenery and enjoyed some good walks. We ate yummy food (despite the food poisoning I still recommend it!)
Buuuuttttt.... I came away from our week feeling like I had not really got to see Bhutan's soul. Because of the way the tour guiding is so structured and controlled we interacted with less people and those we did meet were primarily as part of the tourism industry. When travelling the thing we both love most is meeting people and the random day to day interactions you get. Bhutan did not serve this up to us. It was beautiful and I recommend going - but it is a sanitised way of travelling. I'd also like to have the tour guides a bit more 'real' about Bhutan's current socio-economic-political situation.....it might not all be good news, but it would be really helpful in getting an understanding of the country in the 21st Century.
India wears its heart on its sleeve, every day is an adventure and it is the people that make it so. Bhutan is still developing its tourist offering and I think this is an area it can build on. More 'real' authentic experiences and a few less temples!
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Bhutan
http://bhutaneserefugees.com/timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Bhutan