(read time: 3 minutes)
As a practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism, I recently went on a pilgrimage to the tiny Himalayan mountain kingdom of Bhutan, a country barely bigger than Maryland, and a place I now refer to fondly as “Opposite Land.” Why? Well, because just about everything is opposite there.
For starters, they drive on the left side, but that’s not the important difference about their driving. They drive calmly and patiently, and make room for others. There are few traffic signals, and not because there’s no traffic, but because they know how to work together without being forced to or told how.
The land is beautiful, immaculate really, because they value it and are completely integrated with it. Their buildings are beautiful as well, ornately painted and decorated, and don’t stick out like an eyesore but, rather, seem to be more of a natural part of the land.
Animals are everywhere, often lying on the warm road because they know everyone will safely drive around them. How do they know that? Because killing an email is illegal in Bhutan. There are no slaughterhouses, and hunting and fishing is illegal. The animals love humans there because we take good care of them.
There are no big box stores or massive shopping complexes.
There are no homeless people.
But, most of all, the people are opposite too. They are mindful. They are kind and selfless. There is no aggression in them given the high levels of social cohesion and cooperation that are obvious. And, most importantly, they are happy. Why? Because they care about the right things, as does their government by measuring a complicated set of metrics that contribute to an overall metric they refer to as Gross National Happiness.
It would be a mistake to say that Bhutan is the way it is because it is small and homogeneous, even though it is both. As it turns out, humans are awesome when we are reared in a society that truly values peace above violence in all areas of life, cultivates mindfulness, compassion, and social cohesion, and values a lot of the right things and few of the wrong things.
Bhutan restored my faith in humanity. We are awesome (under the right circumstances).
