Happiness, there and here

September 2016 \ News \ DIPLOMATIC LENS

Happiness, there and here

By Malay Mishra

Ambassador Malay Mishra

I went in search of happiness, to the ‘Dragon Kingdom’ of Bhutan, which has evolved to some perfection, the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index. Articulated in 1972 by the Fourth King, Jigme Singye Wanchuk, GNH is based on the 1729 code by Zhabdrung Rimpoche, widely regarded as the ‘unifier’ of the mountain kingdom, who had incidentally fled from Tibet in the early part of the 17th century to settle in western Bhutan. The 2008 Constitution, under which Bhutan turned into a Constitutional Monarchy when royalty passed seamlessly to the Fifth King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, the current monarch aged 21 years then, under Article 9 directs the State ‘to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of GNH’.