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The Hidden Kingdom is opening itself up, slowly Bhutan Notebook

Siddharth Varadarajan

The country’s priority is development and not diplomacy

Thimphu: One of the most striking aspects of Thimphu is its architecture, which sets it apart from other high-altitude towns and cities in South Asia. This is not just because of the distinctiveness of building styles but also for the planned and regulated nature of urban growth. The town’s population has doubled over the past decade and stands at approximately one lakh today.

But as the empty spaces filled up, the government’s building code was strictly enforced, resulting in a remarkably handsome city that is at once modern and traditional. Citizens are free to use any building material they like such as wood and concrete and build several stories up. But the outer façade must incorporate features of traditional Bhutanese architecture, especially wooden window frames and slanted roofs.

Though Thimphu’s setting in a narrow valley dissected by the Thimphuchu river is no more spectacular than Itanagar or Kathmandu, the overall effect is far more pleasing. Thimphu and the rest of Bhutan also stand out from the Himalayan regions of Nepal and India by the ban that has been enforced for some years now on plastic bags. Plastic packaging still exists, especially for imported goods, but shops here pack their customers’ purchases in paper rather than plastic bags. As a result, the landscape is not scarred by mountains of non-degradable plastic waste.

Awash in drink

If India’s Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss finds himself under attack for his anti-smoking campaign, he could always visit Bhutan for moral support. In 2004, the kingdom became the first country in the world to ban the sale of tobacco and prohibit public smoking. People may smoke in the privacy of their homes but are forced to rely on smuggled cigarettes. Though there is little evidence to suggest smokers here have kicked their habit in large numbers, the ban is believed to have sharply reduced the number of first-time smokers, especially among the young.

But if Bhutan is winning the war against tobacco, alcoholism remains a serious social problem. Liver cirrhosis is the largest cause of in-hospital mortality and the WHO estimates that Bhutan has the highest per capita alcohol consumption in South Asia. Why this should be so is not surprising, given the ease with which alcohol is available. Many shops double up as bars and it is not uncommon to have a shopper knock back a quick peg or three as he purchases groceries or even metal scrap from such improbable establishments as ‘Udon Bar & Scrap Dealer.’ Thimphu alone is estimated to have 1200 such “bars.” The government is now trying to limit the number of such multipurpose watering holes.

Since English is the medium of education in Bhutan, the country’s political and economic elite is easily the most English-proficient of all elites anywhere in South Asia, including India. This is reflected in the fact that the English-language editions of the three newspapers published here — Kuensel, Bhutan Times and Bhutan Observer — sell more than their editions in Dzongkha, the Bhutanese language. The local press is of good quality and takes its job very seriously. A recent report, for example, questioned the linguistic abilities of the Speaker and other MPs in the newly elected National Assembly. There is only one television station run by the public broadcaster Bhutan Broadcasting Service but cable operators run their own Bhutanese channels, mostly with local audiovisual programming. There are three private radio stations too. And unlike India, which prohibits news and current affairs broadcasts on its private stations, Bhutan has no such ban.

And now ‘Bhullywood’

When Bhutan lifted its ban on television sets and foreign channels in 1999, some feared the effect this might have on the country’s fledgling movie and music industry. But some two decades later, the local industry has never had it so good. The first Bhutanese movie was made in 1989 and since then more than 60 movies have been produced.

There are also 96 audiovisual production houses in operation. According to a recent article by Tshewang Dendup in the Journal of Bhutan Studies, there has been a definite shift in the content and style of Bhutanese movies towards more national themes and approaches rather than a mere reflection of Bollywood and Hollywood. Bollywood, of course, is widely watched, but a group of young moveigoers standing outside Luger, Thimphu’s only theatre, told me Bhutanese movies are much more popular. However, there are only seven movie theatres in the whole country and the lack of venues has led to a distribution backlog of more than a year.

In a nod to the booming Bhutanese music scene, the Indian Embassy and Indian Council of Cultural Relations will soon be organising a visit to Bhutan by the leading Indian rock band, Indian Ocean.

Bhutan today has diplomatic relations with less than two dozen countries and only India and Bangladesh maintain resident missions in Thimphu. A number of United Nations agencies are present too. Bhutanese officials say the country’s priority is development and not diplomacy and that they are not in a hurry to establish diplomatic relations with the U.S., China or other permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

As the country grows, change will come, one former Bhutanese diplomat said, but the growth of foreign embassies will be carefully calibrated. “We are a small country and Thimphu is a small town. There is no need to have so many embassies here. Our most important foreign relationship is with India and that emphasis will remain.” Though China is a neighbour, the Chinese “mainland” is thousands of miles away and the Bhutanese people do not look at China in the same way as they do India, the former diplomat said.

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