Bhutan: The Happiest Place In The World

by Fred Crowe

Out of all the 195 countries of this globe, there is no other country like Bhutan.

A small country of only about 779,000 people, Bhutan has been closed from the outside world for hundreds of years leaving it relatively untouched by all the recent technological advancements that have occured over the past few centuries. It’s capital city is Thimphu and there are not really any other major cities. It is in Bhutanese culture to live harmoniously with nature which has been greatly influenced by Buddhism, arriving in the 7th century, and has since become the state religion. The Bhutanese therefore avoid the killing of animals and put kindness before everything else. Bhutan has no military presence and peace is profusely advocated across the land.

Bhutan has a royal family as well as a government and prime minister and a fully functioning democracy. Unlike most other world nations, instead of pursuing Gross Economic Growth as its main policy, the king has instead decreed that Gross National Happiness will be Bhutan’s main focus earning itself the nickname, “The happiest place on earth”. This does mean that Bhutan is obviously not the richest country in the world and their Travel, Education and Healthcare sectors are not as developed as the outside world.

Bhutan is also the only country with no traffic lights, leaving the job to the good old fashioned human being. This is also party to the fact that cars are only a relatively new concept and there are little modern roads around. As urbanisation in Bhutan is really only in the very early stages so most of the population live rualy. This means that at least 60% of Bhutan is still covered by hundreds of miles of untouched forest. Bhutan is also home to part of the Himalayas mountain range which dominates the skyline and can be seen for as far as the eye can see.

Tourism has recently become a fairly generous contributor to Bhutan’s small economy, with the average tourist paying around £200 each to stay for one day!

Bhutan has responded very effectively to climate change by planting billions of trees, setting the record for most trees planted in an hour at 49, 672 thousand. All these factors have allowed Bhutan to achieve something no other nation ever has, carbon negativity, which not only means they produce net zero CO2 emissions but they are also producing more oxygen than carbon dioxide, tipping the balance in the world's favour.

For some more information on Bhutan, Yes Theory did a great job of it so I’ll recommend this video.

It may also cover the parts I preferred not to write about culture-wise. When you see it I’m sure you’ll deem it strange as I did but you just have to sort of get your head around it.