Bhutan and the Pursuit of Happiness

Bhutan

In this chapter of his book Geography of Bliss, we find Weiner on a trip to Bhutan. Bhutan is a country that could be considered paradise, with its wonderful and majestic mountain views, is isolated location and of course, its selectivity. What strikes me peculiar just as it seemed for him is that this country has a Happiness Policy. Their strive for this emotion and they make sure everyone who lives there considers themselves happy, they even measure the nation’s progress by the level of happiness of the people. This seems odd to me probably because happiness is an abstract concept. How exactly do you measure happiness? Is happiness the same for everyone?

There are a few scenes in this chapter that really make me question this policy. It makes me wonder is these people are truly happy and free to live their lives as they want it. One would think that having freedom is a form of happiness, but these people do not appear to be as free. Take for example the light they took away from the street because their benevolent King did not like it. If he is not happy, then the people are not happy. Aren’t they allowed to be free thinkers? Another part that stayed in my mind was the part where they talked about their low crime rate. I must admit this got me wondering mainly because they used my birthplace, Puerto Rico, as a comparison. Since I live there I can testify about Weiner’s opinion. He says that in Bhutan, crime is almost unheard of and this obviously contributes to their overall happiness. Then he says there are “outliers” like in Puerto Rico, a country that is crime ridden and happy. This I feel is somewhat true. Once, Puerto Rico was considered one of the happiest countries in the world, but this was before our economy went downhill and crime became another daily hassle. Puerto Ricans are happy, that’s true, we never miss an opportunity to celebrate and we try to have an optimist view of life, but I believe that we no longer consider ourselves one of the happiest countries.

Another part that made me question their policy was when Weiner visited Karma. He told Weiner that he has “achieved happiness because he doesn’t have unrealistic expectations”. This blew my mind. Here in the Western culture, achieving great things and setting high expectations is our force drive. Personally, it is when I reach one of my goals is what I consider some of the happy moments in life. When I first read Karma’s explanation I felt like these people in Bhutan were conformist. Afterward I realized that there must be a balance with expectations, they shouldn’t be unrealistic and unreachable, that would lead to unhappiness, but having great expectations and meeting them is a source of happiness.

Happiness, I believe, is a matter of perspective. I believe there is no policy that could truly achieve happiness for a whole country, but that is just my perspective. Who knows? Maybe they are truly happy in Bhutan and we should be imitating them.


NOTE: I didn't know where Bhutan was localised so I am attaching a map below for those who are as clueless as I was. You can't never know enough!

Bhutan's Map location