Article: What Is Gross National Happiness?

As we descended down from the clouds, passing by small villages and farms, into the Valley of Paro, Bhutan, our group of six Weston High School students watched as the mountains rose above us, blocking our vision of the world beyond. So as the wheels of the “Drukair” plane finally touched the ground, it seemed to me as though we had just entered a land completely isolated from the outside world. Although I knew that the society altering power of the Internet had become present in Bhutan just a few years ago, the two months I had spent last summer as an intern for the Royal Education Council of Bhutan failed to help me comprehend the ever changing scale of this relatively new influence in context of the country’s traditions and, more specifically, Gross National Happiness.

The vast majority of the people who have heard of Bhutan have only done so in the context of its idealistic notion of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and, as a result, it becomes very difficult to comprehensively assess this form of measurement in perspective of Bhutan itself. Even throughout the early stages of my initial trip to Bhutan, I identified myself as, predominately, an explorer of GNH as oppose to one of Bhutanese culture. A year later, I now understand that such a belief could not be more misguided as GNH is entirely dependent on Bhutanese culture and therefore acts as little more than an attractive label for a set of ideas that have previously been set. That’s not to say that GNH has no practical application, it is just confined to Bhutan and therefore has very little influence beyond capturing and maintaining traditional conceptions of the world that may, or may not, actually be helpful for the country. What I mean is that the 9 domains that collectively define GNH (standard of living, psychological well being, good governance, health, education, community vitality, cultural diversity, time use, and ecological diversity) are, for the most part, little more than a series of abstract and immeasurable qualities that intrinsically range from country to country (or village to village).  This, therefore, makes it impossible for GNH to serve as a practical international form of measuring wealth. Beyond this, many of its ideas, such as community vitality, have actually been used as a means of creating political and social stagnation in Bhutan, as GNH can be considered a euphemism for conservatism and traditionalism under the guise of a moral constitution. This accusation was clearly validated a few years ago, when youth gangs roamed Bhutan (particularly the urban capital city of Thimphu). This time highlights a period of cultural change for the country and, as I have mentioned, because GNH is fundamentally tied to Bhutanese cultural (like the Rupee is to the Bhutanese Ngultrum), any massive societal change effectively renders the ideas behind GNH void and obsolete. This is exactly what has happened in Bhutan. The disgruntled youth and the unemployed roam around and wreak havoc while GNH drapes lazily over them as a curtain that few foreigners see through.

Bhutanese culture is extremely rich and absolutely worth exploring and experiencing, however, people must realize that GNH merely highlights some of the more attractive aspects of this culture and is, in many ways, a distraction of from the modern attitudes present in Bhutan. Effectively, GNH can be described as the extremely attractive ticketholder (somewhat literally) to a ship that has already set sail.
Still, the people of Bhutan are exceptionally kind (not a result of GNH) and willing to help and such an attitude should absolutely be spread around the world. If GNH succeeds on any level, it is because it manages to create an attractive cultural package for export to other countries. Again, it has little to no impact within Bhutan but still manages to lure in interested foreigners for the true Bhutanese experience, which is far more substantial and worth exploring. As one student I interviewed put it, “GNH is more important for the country than it is for the people living in it.”