Asia Enlightenment

Steve Herman | Bhutan
During my three-and-a-half year stint in South Asia, I have made five trips to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

In my six-nation area of responsibility only the Maldives, a nation composed of atolls, has a smaller population. Compared to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, the other four countries I was tasked
with covering, Bhutan is an obscure and sleepy afterthought for most foreign correspondents.

But something kept drawing me back.

It was not only the serenity, cleanliness and the esoteric form of Buddhism practiced there.It was also the attitude of its people.

Contrary to the modern image of Himalayan Buddhists, the Bhutanese had a reputation as warriors - fending off, centuries ago, Tibetan invaders. The Bhutanese strike visitors as friendly, although a bit restrained and superstitious. Sociologists will likely tell you the Bhutanese have a spiritual and protective psyche.

The Bhutanese have certainly done their best to carefully filter the demands and fashions of the modern world.

Modernity has gradually crept into Bhutan. It was the last nation to begin TV broadcasting, in 1999. And now nearly every Bhutanese I met in the capital, Thimphu, seems to be on Facebook. But traditional fashion still dictates dress: men go to work wearing the gho and women don the kera.Bhutan, in recent years, has gained some outside attention for its unique concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH). This was a term coined by Bhutan's fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972 and meant as an alternative to the traditional measure of development, gross national product.

The small country of about 750,000 people is now taking GNH beyond an intellectual discourse and incorporating its values into its educational curriculum.

On several of my trips to Bhutan I sought to scrutinize this national state of happiness. Was it just a gimmick? Is it actually being implemented? Is it something the rest of the world should seriously explore? These were some of the questions I attempted to answer in my reports from Bhutan since 2007.

My most recent exploration took me to two places in BhutanThe first was the Changbangdu Primary School where classes begin with a moment of absolute silence. This is part of the new GNH curriculum Bhutan has introduced into its schools.

Teachers say they have already noticed a difference from the daily moments of meditation. Their students, they claim, are now more focused.

GNH also includes lessons on conservation and recycling. It also means teaching, for instance, why one should be considerate to other people. As a government policy, GNH, recognizes other components besides education, psychological well-being and ecology. They are: health, culture, living standards, proper use of time, community vitality and good governance.

Principal Dolma, who uses only one name, explains that Gross National Happiness is not only meant to be a classroom exercise.

"It's not just classroom teaching that we impart values," she explains in her office. "But the way a teacher speaks to the children, the way a teacher behaves with the children, so much so that even while we play games, value is imparted."

Bhutan's educators stress that happiness values, closely in line with the country's deep Buddhist faith, are not meant to bring religion into the classroom. But it is certainly not in conflict with those religious values.

That is what I found out when I visited the other important spot on my most recent Bhutanese journey - an old monastery difficult to find, up a winding side mountain road between the capital, Thimphu, and Paro.