Echoes of Bhutan

The most blatant one is the way changing societies are grappling with the role of religion - in both countries, with difficulty. The bumbling public discourse in the U.S. about religion and politics stems from differing approaches to religion, when fervent belief confronts sharp diversity. We desperately want a strong moral compass in our leadership but the freedom to believe is absolutely fundamental. Not that long ago, religion was pretty simple - children went to their parents' church or synagogue and most identified with their inherited religious identity. That's a far cry from the smorgasborg of possible religious options today. The "religious tests" for our political leaders seem to involve an extraordinary balancing act of honesty and avoidance of anything that can offend.

Bhutan is Buddhist, with its Buddhist heritage tightly tied to Tibet but with its own distinct character that I could only dimly understand. Religion is everywhere in this society. Most visible are prayer flags. Wind horse flags--small squares of cloth with religious texts--are hung where the wind will carry their messages - on bridges, hills, beside roads. White flags carry the spirits of the dead. Temples are all over the place. They have statues of the Buddha but also a bewildering array of other deities and saints, good and evil. Demons are crushed underfoot. And butter lamps burn everywhere to carry messages. The deep red of monks' robes are omnipresent, some monks as young as seven or eight. And it was hard not to be fascinated by the "Divine Madman", Drupka Kunley, so beloved in Bhutan that his phallus decorates many houses, commemorating this fifteenth century saint's exuberant approach to life and sexuality.

But the role of religion is more complicated than it seems. A significant minority population originated in Nepal, whose tradition is largely Hindu, not Buddhist. The nation, in its intense effort to preserve its culture and traditions, increasingly labels that culture Bhutanese rather than Buddhist.

Under the new constitution, the large community of monks (perhaps 12,000 in a population of 700,000) is somewhat stranded. The Bhutanese are debating what role they will play in the future, in education and health but also on the political scene. Monks were powerful players through Bhutan's history but under the new constitution they do not even have a vote. Their role is yet to be worked out.

Bhutan is fiercely committed to its environmental heritage and to respecting the balance between man and nature. In the midst of the nation's beauty - bright green rice fields, misty mountains, lush forests, birds and butterflies, powerful streams from the high mountains - the quest to preserve and respect nature is compelling. But so is the inevitable march toward social progress. Road construction contributes to the gashes of erosion. And climate change is a burning issue in a country so close to nature. Changing rainfall patterns, melting snow cover, fierce flooding could all have grave effects.

Most novel is the conscious dialogue in Bhutan about moral literacy and the ideal society to which the nation aspires. The commitment to a government-led objective of social happiness is an unusual feature of Bhutan. Both among Bhutanese and perhaps even more their foreign admirers there is a lingering aura of hope that harks back to Lost Horizon and dreams of a Shangri La, where everyone is happy and seemingly at ease with their place in the world. The effort to ask what the ideal for society is and what it might take to get there is both inspiring and thought-provoking.

But in Bhutan too, young people are restless, and concerned about their opportunities as their country moves forward. Cell phones and satellite TV have arrived bigtime, and all the rest of modern culture is just a click away.