Bhutan's Kingdom Of Bliss

STRADDLING PAST AND FUTURE, THE SMALL BUT PROUD NATION IS A MELANGE OF SURPRISING URBAN SPACES, STEADFAST BELIEFS AND MYSTIC LORE.

- Rumela Basu

It is a waltz with the clouds and the accompanying music, a traditional Bhutanese instrumental track. The airplane, as if it were a giant metallic bird, glides past mountains—always at an angle—minutes before landing at Paro international airport. I am excited.

Navigating the maze of mountains, my aircraft swerves at sharp angles. Only a handful of trained pilots can land safely on this airstrip nestled deep in a valley. When the aircraft’s wheels hit the tarmac, there is applause from all the passengers.

Walking to the two-door entry of the airport, designed like a typical Bhutanese mansion, the word that comes to mind is “quaint.” Cliché, maybe, but for now, it perfectly describes my first glimpse of Bhutan. It is hardly surprising considering how the mountain kingdom chose to be isolated from the world for a long time.

Foreign tourists were allowed in Bhutan only in the 1970s and cable television and the Internet made an appearance almost three decades later, in 1999. The country also has rather unconventional economic metrics: Gross National Happiness (GNH), brought into effect by the fourth king. By all accounts, despite not being a rich country, Bhutan is touted as one of the happiest and the greenest in the world. The urban-bred cynic in me though cannot wrap my head around the GNH or a monarchy, in the old-fashioned sense of the term.

One of the first things Sajan, my guide from the local tour company Heavenly Bhutan, tells me, sets the tone for this trip. “Our Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, is the fifth king and on his coronation Bhutan became a democratic constitutional monarchy. We love our king. Look at everything we have—free healthcare and education, so much greenery. Of course, there are some problems but at the same time, there is so much more happening now.”

THIMPHU