"MAGIC KINGDOM CALLED BHUTAN"
Despite the vast quantities of Indian tourists descending to Bhutan, the place still maintains a certain placidity and calm. Besides Indians, the Bangladeshis also seem to have a free run into the place, obviously putting scarce tourism resources under some level of strain. But the fact that the far thinking Bhutanese royalty has long ensured that back packers, yet another global environmental threat, don’t arrive on account of expensive visas’ has helped keep the place still rather remote and totally desirable. Tourism , there is no doubt in the long run is going to be one of those renewable resources that pictures countries like Bhutan will rely on in the long term.
Getting to Bhutan can be tricky. The monopoly enjoyed by Druk Air puts you at the mercy of an airline that can be whimsical. For a family trip, which included an infant grand-daughter the vagaries of Druk seemed to test our patience even before we could fly into the magic kingdom. But the relief of arrival in instantaneous must be the pristine pure mountain air. This sense of purity follows you through an easy arrival procedure to the totally fresh mountain rivers that track the road on the drive from Paro to Thimpu. Tradition blends with occasional displays of modernity and yet the mountains and the forests dominate in a most welcoming manner. The towns are small, the villages smaller and most pleasantly a lot of the local understand either English or Hindi.
Bhutan’s relationship with India is both deep and close and the signs go well beyond the easy facility with Hindi with locals. For Indians the other great sense of comfort is the parity of the Bhutanese currency with the Indian rupee. This comes in handy everywhere. From the old style bakers in Thimpu to the weekend flee markets. Incidentally exquisite Bhutanese antiques rub shoulders with Ganeshas’ in the tourist shops, clearly a sign that spiritual links bind the two nations beyond the bonds of Buddhism.
The roads we drive on are clearly the efforts of the Indian Border Roads Organization - a vital contribution in a land locked mountainous country. And everywhere one goes the evidence of India’s presence in a friendly benign way is evident. The huge hydro electric plants coming up for example will soon be yet another renewable income source for the kingdom and nearby Golf Course the Bhutanese army’s Golf pros have either studied at the NDA or at Wellington.
Keeping this fabulous relationship between a big country and a small neighbour is a professionally daunting task. But it is one that our resident Ambassador seems to have managed with the practiced ease of a senior and seasoned diplomat. The King is a comfortable visitor at the vast 70 acre India Estate, close to the heart of town. And the Queen mother is currently over the moon with the way the literacy festival has further enhanced cultural links that have just been strengthened. This is a diplomacy that goes well beyond the routine. Influential locals insist that the Indian ambassador is almost ‘Bhutanese’ is making its usual aggressive inroads. So the future especially for a fledging democracy is not going to be easy on the neighborly front. Like all evolving nations the savvy royals of Bhutan have embraced democracy for the next sequence of social engineering.
Modernity is also marching in rapidly with the spread of Bhutan’s own T.V.channels, a South Korean channel invasion, ugly modern constructions and netizens with radical opines. None of this is going to go away and the Bhutanese get an uncomfortable sense that too much is changing too fast. But with the stoic attitude of a hardy mountain race that also has the advantage of its own special brand of Buddhism, they seem to embrace the future just as well as they respect and rejoice in their past.
Royalty reigns supreme even their new democracy. The biggest event locals are looking forward to is the King’s impending wedding in October- and yes, conviently for India to a girl who has schooled in Sanawar in Himachal Pradesh. Preparations are visible in the country’s biggest Zong in Punakha. Yet another sign that more things change more they remain the same.
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