I've been fascinated with Bhutan for the longest time. Check out this interesting article on Bhutan published on IHT last week.
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck is probably the one of the most admired kings in the world. He introduced the concept of Gross National Happiness, a somewhat unfamiliar if not strange notion in this era of globalisation where everything is measured in terms of money/quantity/growth. Add that to the fact that he also married four beautiful sisters at the same time, abdicated throne in favour of his son late last year, voluntarily gave up absolute monarchy and ordered a parliamentary election to be held in 2008, made him quite a figure I'd say, plus he made the list for Time magazine's 100 People Who Shape Our World in 2006.
2 comments:
The "four beautiful sisters" bit is quite convincing ..
I had a goosebump the first time I read about this Gross National Happiness approach to measure citizens' well being.
I am quite sure that only a handful of people in the rest of world would have even thought of such exotic concept, let alone applying it in a national scale.
Happiness is a very abstract thing in the world we know, but when it is defined in a way that it becomes quite a common goal throughout the country, now that is really something.
King Jigme Singye Wangchuk is surely one of the most extraordinary figures in this century, at least in my own version.
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