Himalayan Hermit Kingdom Set To Join Modern World

The Age

Monday March 24, 2008

Mian Ridge, Age Correspondent, Thimpu, Bhutan

THE world's last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom will soon no longer exist. Bhutan, an isolated country sandwiched between India and China, holds its first democratic national elections today - an historic event that is likely to dramatically alter this unique country.

For more than a century, Bhutan has been ruled by kings that have jealously guarded its culture from the outside world. International media were allowed into the kingdom only in 1974 and television in 1999. Tourism and foreign investment have been limited to slow the influence of global culture.

All that is expected to change after today, when Bhutan votes to elect 47 members to the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. The king, who until now has ruled with untrammelled power, will henceforth be a constitutional monarch.

Two parties are contesting the polls: the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), or Virtuous Bhutan Party, and the Democratic People's Party (PDP). Both parties, which admit their policies are largely identical, have said their priority is to modernise Bhutan, build roads and provide water and electricity to remote villages.

In this remote country, roughly the size of Switzerland with a population of more than 700,000 people, these changes will be radical. Bhutan is a beautiful, unspoiled landscape of forested mountains and ancient monasteries. Every house, by law, is built in a traditional style with bay windows and elevated pitched roofs. Archery is the national sport and there is not a traffic light in the country.

Bhutan's last prime minister, Kuenzang Dorji, said that retaining Bhutan's unique identity would be a challenge.

"Bhutan will modernise more quickly now for sure," he said. "That's what the politicians are promising people.

"The challenge will be balancing economic development on one hand with cultural values and with the natural environment, which is so important to us."

Kgyer Wangmo, a farmer's wife who lives south-west of the capital, Thimpu, said she was not sure what to make of the polls.

"I hope the politicians will help us. We need a road," she said, as she pumped water from the communal well in her tiny village, which is reached on foot by a dirt track.

"But I want to be ruled by the king," she added, smiling. "He has looked after us so well."

It is hard to find anyone in Bhutan who does not want to be ruled by the king.

The fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who handed over power to his Oxford-educated son last year, ushered in great developments in Bhutan. Until a few decades ago, this still largely agrarian country had no roads, electricity or hospitals. The king universalised education and health care; during his reign the average annual income rose to $1400, double that of India's.

The king also decided that Bhutan should become democratic. Analysts such as Nicholas Rosselini, representative of the UN Development Program in Bhutan, believe he is motivated by a desire to safeguard Bhutan's independence after Tibet was taken over by China and Sikkim annexed by India.