The Land Of The Thunder Dragon

No roads until the 1960s. No TV or internet until 1999. The Kingdom of Bhutan is truly a place of wonder. Are you ready to be wowed, asks Abi Campbell?

- Abi Campbell

Now, children, settle down. I’m going to tell you a story. Once upon a time, in the far-away Land Of The Thunder Dragon,there was a magical kingdom.This nation was ruled by a wise king, whose wish for his subjects, above all else, was never ending happiness. To protect his subjects from misery, materialism and corruption,the king banished TV and the internet…’ My kids turn and glare at me,then glaze over. Clearly a too far-fetched and horrific concept to contemplate.

I’d roll my eyes when my parents lamented about their perfect childhoods – the ’70s and ’80s seemed so progressive, with our Walk mans and VCRs.I never imagined I would one day join their grizzled (and grizzling) ranks by bemoaning the lost innocence of my own offspring’s childhood. When I describe life before the digital age,my kids tell me to ‘stop nagging’.I’m confident that a trip to Bhutan would make children pay attention; it’s the place in my story.

The Kingdom of Bhutan is positioned on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Sandwiched between neighbouring giants China and India, it remained sequestered from the world untilthe country lifted its self-imposed isolation in the 1960s.Add a TV/internet boycott until 1999, and the result is an exceptionally gentle, civilised society, predominantly unscarred by Western influence. Cultural heritage is so exquisitely preserved that the nation has proudly acquired the epithet ‘The Last Shangri-La’, a mythical Himalayan Utopia in JamesHilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon.