Bhutan // Current

Bhutan crowns new king

desmondhaynes
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World's youngest monarch crowned in Bhutan

The new king of Bhutan has been crowned in a lavish coronation ceremony in the isolated Himalayan kingdom. King Jigme Khesar... more

InformedTexan
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Bhutan crowns young king to guide young democracy | International | Reuters

By Simon Denyer THIMPHU (Reuters) - With mediaeval tradition and Buddhist spirituality, a 28-year-old with an Oxford education... more

bedeboop
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Country Fast Facts:Bhutan

In 1865, Britain and Bhutan signed the Treaty of Sinchulu, under which Bhutan would receive an annual subsidy in exchange for... more

starr111
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Bhutan expedition to hunt the Yeti

DragonQuest Adventures will be organizing, for the first time in Bhutan, a three week scientific expedition to search for the... more

Sons_Of_Liberty
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Bhutan Majestic Travel

Dear Guests, On behalf of Bhutan Majestic Travel Family, it is my great pleasure to invite you to discover Himalayan Kingdom of... more

bhutanguide
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Bhutan: The Richest ZENvironment on Earth

Bhutan is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. We already know about its transition to Democracy this year...And that it... more

Divine_Madman
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Pigs in Bhutan fed marijuana to make them fat

The pigs of Bhutan have always been fed a standard diet marijuana in order to fatten them up. Only in the last few years has the... more

Christof
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Penis art in Bhutan

For well over a century, the Bhutanese have painted penises all over the country to ward off evil spirits.

Christof
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Lost in Democracy

Hidden near the Himalayas between India and Tibet, the kingdom of Bhutan has long been shrouded in mystery. Sometimes called... more

Christof
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60 Day Hunger Strike

A short update on Whose Sacred Land? detailing the months-long hunger strike by Lepcha peoples protesting the construction of a... more

rawbird
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Current Vanguard: Lost in Democracy

Vanguard Journalist Christof Putzel visits the country of Bhutan, often called the last Shangri-la, to gauge the peoples'... more

shampton
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Like many Americans of my generation, I crave national unity and a leader to follow after what seems like a lifetime of political polarization. We're called blindly optimistic, naïve and hopelessly inexperienced.

Perhaps we are. I grew up in Washington DC, where my journalist parents covered numerous campaigns and administrations. I rarely questioned the system we have for selecting our leaders.

Then I went to Bhutan.

Today, the citizens of Bhutan elected their first democratic government as their beloved king voluntarily and on his own initiative relinquished absolute power.

When I heard about Bhutan holding its first general election, I jumped at the chance to cover what I thought would be a good-news story about the world's newest democracy. As a correspondent for Current, most of my stories, it seems, are about conflict and crisis.

But when I got to Bhutan last month to capture the run-up to the elections for Current's "Vanguard" series, the democratic process looked very unlike the presidential races I was used to. The first debate between the presidents of the country's two new political parties produced no sparks. The candidates didn't really disagree on anything. In fact, it wasn't what I would call a debate at all. The party leaders complimented each other instead of sniping, and rather than calling for change, they spoke of preserving the policies of the king.

The country seemed too quiet to be a democracy. People were reluctant to say which candidates they preferred. It wasn't just that they were still grappling to understand their new form of government after a century of unity under a king. They liked the lives they had, guided by a concept invented by His Majesty called Gross National Happiness. And as they looked around at the neighboring "democracies" in Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan they saw corruption, strife, misery and uncertainty. Most countries make the transition to democracy by popular demand and often by force. But the king of Bhutan was handing power to his people, who didn't seem to want it. The king's explanation for establishing a democracy was that it was the best way to protect them from someday, inevitably, getting a bad king. But most of the Bhutanese I talked to said the unity fostered by the monarchy was responsible for their survival as a little nation wedged in the mountains between two giants: China to the north and India to the south. To people in this tiny, intensely Buddhist kingdom of fewer than 700,000 people, democracy means disagreement, and disagreement threatens their culture and everything they hold dear. In covering stories around the world and close to home, I'd never been to a place where I couldn't find a single person who would say anything even slightly negative about his or her leader. And this was not fear of retribution for speaking out against the crown. I realized that the Bhutanese already had -- and were being told to relinquish -- the unity my generation so desperately seeks. Maybe a God-like monarch wouldn't be so bad -- unless we got the wrong one.Like many Americans of my generation, I crave national unity and a leader to follow after what seems like a lifetime of political... more