The Silent Cost of Shangri-La? The Human Rights Controversy in Bhutan

For many in the Western Buddhist world, Bhutan has become a quasi-mythical land. Bhutan is an officially Buddhist Kingdom with ties to internationally popular Lamas. It has become famous for its lauded vision of “gross national happiness”. In 2006, it was named the happiest country in Asia and the sixth happiest in the world in a survey based on the Gross National Happiness index inspired by Bhutan itself. In 2012, as a result of an initiative of the Bhutanese government, the UN named March 20 “The International Day of Happiness”. More recently the environmental media declared Bhutan one of the few countries in the world to be not just carbon neutral but carbon negative.

Bhutan is venerated for resistance to modernization and westernization. The fact that it is difficult to even visit Bhutan due to its limitations on tourism only increases its mystique. In addition many Western students of Vajrayana Buddhism dream of retreats in the green mountains and valleys of the “land of the dragon”, where pure teachings of the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages are still to be found.

Gross National Happiness

In the 1970’s the Bhutanese King Jigme Singye Wangchuck began instituting his utopian vision, which included strong measures to protect Bhutan’s dominant ethnic culture and the religious…