Central Bhutan.

I've only got a few days left in Bhutan and i'm already starting to miss it!

I've finally loaded the pictures from my vacation I took to central Bhutan about a month ago. It's hard to describe what an incredible vacation this was! the 9-hour drive that I was dreading turned out to be one of the most scenic, enjoyable drives I've ever been on. The one-lane highway swerving up through the high mountain passes hugging the mountainside, avoiding the 1500 foot drop just beside and then dipping down into the verdant valley. Up and down we went, through 4 or 5 valleys and passes, each with their own unique vegetation, landscape and people. We finally arrived in Bumthang (Central Bhutan) after taking a pit stop half-way through in Trongsa, and spending a day doing field research in a former slave village emancipated only recently in the 1960s.  

Bumthang was just as breathtaking as the ride there. Full of monasteries and temples, there's  no shortage of monks (and nun monks!) in Bumthang. We were there for one of the big festivals, Kurjey festival (celebrating Guru Rinpoche), which only made it even more rich with culture and color. 

Anyway, it took me an entire month to go through the hundreds (maybe thousand+?) pictures we took. You can check them out now on facebook.

Bhutan--a land frozen in time?

A friend e-mails a recent BBC Travel article, Experiences that make time stand still, mentioning Bhutan:

The Kingdom of Bhutan, known to its inhabitants as Druk Yul (Land of the Thunder Dragon), is imagined by many outsiders to be a land frozen in a highly traditional past. This is not true – a thoughtful programme of modernisation began here 40 years ago. However, Bhutan’s culture is underpinned by an ancient Buddhist mythology, emblemised by the ethereal dzongs (fort-monasteries) of the Bumthang region. Combined with Bhutan’s extraordinary geography, it is this that brings visitors to a standstill while they are trekking between Himalayan peaks in the north, delving into deep central valleys or roaming the rolling southern hills.

Bhutan is very much a land of juxtapositions--a place of old and new. Many times I do indeed feel like I'm in a country stuck in another time. The rice paddies hugging the fields around the capital building, the peaceful chortens and monasteries sitting high atop the hills and the common practice of gso-ba rig-pa (traditional medicine here in Bhutan). Other times you feel Bhutan's rapid ascent into modernity, pounding ever faster forward like the loud thumping of the bass screaming Lady Gaga in one of Thimphu's surprisingly lively night clubs.

Tomorrow, myself, two of my MPA/ID classmates and a friends head from Thimphu over to Bumthang for the annual Kurji Teschu (festival) celebrating the spiritual leader who brought Buddhism to Bhutan, Guru Rinpoche. 

Bumthang, they say, is one of Bhutan's most beautiful districts. It's about 66 miles as the crow flies, shorter than the distance from New York to Philadelphia. Driving straight there, through valleys and mountain passes, it'll take us about 9-hours--assuming no landslides or roadblocks. To break the trip up we'll stop in Wangdue and then I've got a day of field work in Trongsa.

Blogging has been light lately, but not for lack of ideas, just lack of time. It's crazy how quickly my short stay here is going.

Measuring “Gross National Happiness”: My initial reflections

A few days ago, in honor of World Metrics Day, I spoke on a panel to the Investment team at the Acumen Fund.

I focused my short discussion on GNH and the measurement of happiness. Coming into this internship I was very skeptical about the practical and technical feasibility of measuring something like “Happiness”. Unlike the many tourists and researchers who flock to Bhutan mesmerized by its philosophy and vision, I’ll admit to being a bit of a hard-nosed cynic. I choose Bhutan not for its idealized image, but for the other reasons that make Bhutan and the GNHC a fascinating place with exciting opportunities.

I focused my comments to Acumen on just the facts of how Bhutan measures GNH and how it integrates it into policymaking. Thinking through what I was going to say, though, I had a few opinions of my own that I wanted to get off my chest. You guys will have to put up with some of these initial reactions from my first few weeks on the job (I choose not to share these with Acumen).

So, in my humble, naïve opinion: How well do I think Bhutan is doing at measuring National Happiness? (click below to read more)

Punakha - A breathtaking sight

Hiking through the terraced rice paddies and up the hills that border the long valley. Along we went, passing a elderly women carrying the seedlings of rice to be sown and briefly stopping to say hello to a small child and her father tilling the heavy mud beneath the sunken rice paddies. We climbed through the dense forest and up to the monastery standing vigilant overlooking the valley. A magnificent location—beautifully manicured lawns, two large prayer wheels and three floors of Buddhist deities and offerings. The caretaker monk offered us a ritual blessing and some holy water, then the chance to roll the die used to portend the future—“good luck” the monk told me. And indeed it was. The rain had stopped and the monk showed us up a narrow ladder up to the roof of the monastery. We overlooked the valley beneath us—a breathtaking sight. 

Gross National Happiness Commission v. Bhutan Olympic Committee (3-3)

This weekend was great. GNHC, the office where I’m working, has a soccer team that plays against other government teams and they invited me to join. Today we played against the Bhutan Olympic Committee…. It’s not usually the case, but since we were playing against the Olympic Committee, we played in the National Stadium, surrounded by all the bleachers and viewing boxes.

The Secretary of the GNHC was playing and we had heard there might be a small chance that the Chairman of the Olympic Committee might come as well. The Chairman, by the way, is His Royal Highness Crown Prince Jigme Dorji (brother of the current king), so this was a bit of a big deal.

As luck would have it, he did in fact show up. It was quite an exhilarating game. To be honest, I didn’t have high hopes considering our opponents, but, after a rough start 3-2 in the half time, we managed to tie it up in the second half. (I later found out that in addition to the Olympic committee, they had a few of the Bhutan Royal Guards who were protecting the prince secretly playing on their team as well).

It’s been quite a long time since my pee-wee soccer matches back in middle school and the air up here in Thimphu is really thin (plus, maybe I was a little out of shape, hah), so I think I could use some more practice before our next game. That said, I did manage to steal the ball from HRH, which I think came out as the highlight of the game for me.

Photos are now up on my photo album. 

Bhutan: Nudging itself to a better future

I’m sitting in a large room waiting for the meeting to begin. It’s the fortnightly meeting of the staff of the Gross National Happiness Commission where I’m working (GNHC is the equivalent of a Planning Ministry, coordinating and centralizing the policy among the various ministries). The Secretary of the Commission is peppering incomers with questions on the daily politics and whether they’ve read they’ve been following the news. Finally the meeting is ready to begin. First item on the agenda? Book report… Seriously?

But this is no ordinary book report… The book the Secretary brings up is Nudge. I practically fall out of my seat in excitement. For those that don’t know, Nudge is my absolute favorite book. For the next 20 minutes the secretary holds a spirited discussion about the ideas behind Nudge.

So, what is Nudge and why am I ecstatic that the GNHC (Planning Commission) has it on their reading list?

Hello World!

I’m here in Bhutan! Arrived safely about almost two weeks ago but have been enjoying the place so much, I've been having a hard time finding time to blog. That said, it’s always rewarding to reflect and blog a bit, so I’m trying to commit myself to a blog post a week (you guys can hold me to it!).

A couple first impressions:

• Thimphu is small.
  I guess this was to be expected. A city with about 70,000 people, Thimphu is the only capital city without a streetlight. Instead, the main intersection manages with a white-gloved police directing the traffic “with the balletic grace of someone doing a 1980s robot dance.”  (Lonely Planet has the best descriptions, haha).
  
  

  

  The main intersection in town

  
  

• The place is beautiful. Me and my friend Ru went hiking in the mountains behind our house. We first went up to Dechenphodrang Monastic School, where we ran into a bunch of the monk kids playing soccer. We then went along a surprising tough 3km hike up to a Monastery, Wangditse Goenpa, before heading on another path out of the mountains. The views were incredible and the juxtaposition of Buddhist lifestyle and culture in the beautiful hillsides of Thimphu Valley was breathtaking.
  
  

  
• The people are warm and friendly. I guess this was to be expected as well, but I've found the place even more open and warm to foreigners than a place like India. There’s no bartering and (much to my amazement—and seemingly contrary to economic rationale) they don’t try to rip off the tourists. The staff at the office are all a friendly, intelligent bunch. We've also met up with a few friends that past-interns have introduced us to, all very kind and friendly.
• They like spicy foods here.
  The main dish here is Ema Datsi which translates to chilies and cheese and is... well... chilis and cheese. At it's best it's tear-inducing madness, kinda like the Daal Bati I remember fondly from Rajasthan.
  
  

Feel free to browse the rest of my photo album. I’ll continue to upload pictures there.