It was one year ago that I
descended into the Valley of Paro on the “Drukair” plane for the first time,
initiating my two-month adventure in the Kingdom of Bhutan. The monasteries and
small houses that nested within the trees beneath me dashed away from my eyes
like an assortment of still images encompassing the horizon. As the plane
descended gracefully onto the ground, the colossal Eastern Himalayan Mountains
seemed to rise endlessly above my head, shrinking my apparent size to that of
an insect. As I stepped out of the plane, the yellow letters “Nation Celebrates
the Royal Wedding” greeted me, confirming my immense distance from western
civilization. I felt as though I had been inserted into an alternate fantasy
universe as I gazed deep into my surroundings. Upon my departure from the only
airport in the country, two members of the Royal Education Council (REC)
greeted me dressed formally in their Ghos, which bare a striking resemblance to
the robes of the Japanese Kimono. Together we traveled 40 miles, delayed by
numerous “cow traffic” dilemmas, to the capital city of Thimphu. It was there
where I was able to work as an intern for the REC and tag along to numerous
meetings with political officials, after which I began to formulate an
understanding of how Bhutanese people view the world around them as well as how
the concept of Bhutan’s “Gross National Happiness” (GNH) is incorporated into
society. The ideas behind GNH are based off Buddhist principles and emphasize a
non-economic approach to measuring wealth. While many aspects of GNH are
specific to Bhutan, the country feels that such a system of measuring wealth
should be universally accepted. The task for me as an REC intern was to
discover how this idea, which Bhutan strongly identifies itself with, is tangibly
translated into Bhutanese society. To me, the natural environment to answer
this question was one with students my own age. As a result, I began working as
a teacher’s assistant in Tashidingkha Middle Secondary School in Phunaka as
well Pelkhill and YHSS in Thimphu. During my time in these schools, I could not
help but notice the intrinsic differences between the students in the urban and
rural schools. In the city of Thimphu, the students were far more westernized
(a direct result from more exposure to the internet) and were more critical of
the society in which they lived than the rural students. Beyond this, they also
were more aggressive and seemed to have a romanticized conception of America. This
distinction was highlighted by differing perceptions of what GNH actually
means. The urban students valued economic success with greater value while the
rural students valued emotional happiness and quality of life greater.
Effectively, there seemed to be two contradictory conceptions of GNH. This idea
suggested that increased exposure to the outside world would actually help
these varying views synchronize. Beyond this, I felt that increased contact
with the western world would actually help prevent the Bhutanese students from
developing irrational expectations. Appropriately, the idea of creating the
first student exchange program between the US and Bhutan surfaced. Now, a year
later, such a program has successfully been created through the REC. This
summer, I will be traveling with five students from Weston High School in
Connecticut to Bhutan on July 20. During this trip, which will last a month, we
will be visiting historical landmarks, traveling the country, meeting political
officials, and teaching culture, music, sports, art, politics, and technology
in schools. This blog will act to highlight our experiences as well as provide
us with an outlet to define GNH and determine to what scale Bhutan experiences
it. We will update this blog everyday with posts in order to catalogue our
day-to-day work. In addition we will be posting photos and videos to make our
descriptions of the country feel more tangible. Bhutan is a very unique country
with very unique ideas that has managed to maintain its cultural identity
amidst a period of rapid modernization. We hope that this blog manages to
capture this societal characteristic. After this one-month trip has ended, we
will be directing all of our attention toward raising money to pay for the
Bhutanese student’s trip to the US, a daunting challenge that is absolutely
essential in order to create an effective student exchange program.
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