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Bhutan News Service

Bhutan News Service

Why Bhutan’s “Gross National Happiness” is a joke

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 10:27 AM PDT

Recently, Prime Minister Jigme Y. Thinley, who traveled to the United States this week to speak at Columbia University's World Leaders Forum, told Al Jazeera that, "In Bhutan even the street dogs seem to be smiling." Article 9 of Bhutan's constitution puts it simply: "The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness."

To a lay person, being happy means having clothes to keep warm during the freezing Himalayan winter and having money to buy medication when a family member is sick. To this person, Gross National Happiness might mean living in a house with family and working the farm, instead of living in slum by the side of the road doing unpaid, compulsory labor for the government.

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C. 2010 GlobalPost. This excerpt is reproduced with permission.

One involved at gang fight dies

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 05:35 AM PDT

A 19-year-old monk who was admitted at the national referral hospital in Thimphu after being beaten by his fellow monks  has passed away on Saturday.

After he suffered severe head injury, he was undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital where he took his last breath.

Interestingly, the cause of the death was the gang fight among the monks that had involved under the influence of alcohol.

In the meantime, the police have held the 8 people in custody for further investigation.

The deceased, who was a monk of Dechenphodrang monastic school was beaten severely by the seven monks from the central monastic body on September 4.