What is Happiness? Bhutan Seems to Have an Answer

A video on the Gross National Happiness (GNH) as explained by the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Jigmi Y. Thinley

Everyone wants to be happy, and we all strive daily to attain this idea of ‘happiness’. However, each person defines and measures happiness differently. So what exactly is happiness, and why does being happy matter? Does the idea of happiness mean the same thing to every nation state or every individual person? By focusing in on a region of the world that has very mixed views on what happiness is and how it can be achieved, we may be able to see some ways in which certain countries measure and work to create an overall happier country.

Asian countries have a different view of happiness than Western countries do. Overall, Asian countries ranked relatively high on the Prosperity Poll (a poll that focuses on government, GDP, and general well-being, 2013) but did not get as high of ranking on the Gallup Poll (a poll that studies individual people living in a country and tests how positive they are, how often they smile, etc., 2014). According to Ed Diener, Daniel Kahneman, and John Helliwell’s book International Differences in Well-Being (2010), Asian countries tend to report less smiles and excitement, which are also known as high activation for positive emotions, but report the same amount of satisfaction as Americans and other Westerners. This lack of smiling could be what is causing their low ranking on the Gallup poll, since smiling is one of the ways the poll calculates happiness. International Differences in Well-Being also cites a 2004 study done by Lu and Gilmour which stated that many Chinese college students described happiness as “a calm, peaceful feeling,” which leads to a “sense of equilibrium”(p. 41). Another two studies done in 2007, proved that children’s books published in Asian countries depicted smaller smiles and Buddhist texts had less positive emotions of high-activation than texts from Western religions (p. 42).   

Although many Asian countries seem to fall short when it comes to their country’s overall happiness, there is one country that seems to know exactly what they are doing when it comes to creating a happy and positive environment for its citizens. Bhutan is considered to be the happiest country in Asia. Bhutan is a small Buddhist nation located in the Himalayas, land-locked by India, Nepal, Tibet, and China. It was organized as an absolute monarchy until 2008, when it had its first democratic elections and selected Prime Minister Jigme Thinley. Their government is currently a Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy, similar in structure to the governments of Belgium and Monaco. Jigme Thinley focused most of his campaign and government (2008-2013) on the happiness of Bhutan’s people. According to “The Honourable Jigme Yoser Thinley” in the Green Interview, both Thinley and Bhutan’s previous king (Jigme Singye Wangchuck) concurred that all government programs should function to increase the happiness of the citizens, rather than the gross national product. Thinley also developed a five year plan, which involved creating new jobs, founding a strong democracy, conserving the environment, and celebrating the culture, values, and religion of the nation, while saving 22% of the national budget to improve health and education. Thinley says, “The goal is to create an environment within which every citizen will have a reasonable chance of finding happiness” (The Honourable Jigme Yoser Thinley).

However, this interest in happiness is not a recent development. Bhutan has always been dedicated to the happiness of the nation and its people. According to Mat McDermott in “How Happy Is Bhutan, Really? Gross National Happiness Unpacked,” Bhutan has legal codes dating to the 18th century stating, “if the government cannot create happiness for its people, there is no purpose for the government to exist". In 2006, Bhutan launched the Gross National Happiness Index (GNH). GNH is described by GNHbhutan.org as being “a holistic and sustainable approach to development which balances material and non-material values with the conviction that humans want to search for happiness. The objective of GNH is to achieve a balanced development in all facets of life which is essential to our happiness. The goal of GNH is happiness”.

Bhutan seems to have figured out a way to insure that their country stays happy, but why does that matter in the larger picture? What implications does it have on global politics? In July of 2011, the United Nations (General Assembly), unanimously adopted a resolution titled, “Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development”. It was proposed to the Member States to begin taking steps to, “better capture the importance of the pursuit of happiness and well-being in development”. In January 2013, the resolution noted that the GDP “was not designed to and does not adequately reflect the happiness and well-being of people in a country,” and “unsustainable patterns of production and consumption can impede sustainable development.” The concept of the GNH is that it is more about human progress than economic growth. It immediately gained 68 co-sponsors, in which these nation states supported the resolution. During a conference in Bhutan in February of 2004, in the closing of the discussion of the concept of the GNH, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel reflected that:

“I believe that while Gross National Happiness is inherently Bhutanese, its ideas may have a positive relevance to any nation, peoples or communities – wherever they may be. There cannot be enduring peace, prosperity, equality and brotherhood in this world if our aims are so separate and divergent – if we do not accept that in the end we are people, all alike, sharing the earth among ourselves and also with other sentient beings, all of whom have an equal role and state of this planet and its players.” (Preface xi).

A Bhutanese Buddhist Ceremony

So would Bhutan’s GNH plan work if other nations implemented it? Well, many countries already employ Bhutan’s system of government (a Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy.) These countries are mostly ranked as the top 30 happiest countries in the Prosperity Poll. Perhaps providing a monarch as a symbol of a nation, instead of as a ruler promotes national pride and happiness for the citizens. Religion was also a huge part of Bhutan’s GNH; Bhutan is a highly religious country, most of its citizen’s practice Mahayana Buddhism, and the religion, according to Bhutan’s national tourism website, “permeates all strands of secular life.” Bhutanese citizens use religion to find comfort in their lives, the nation is very religiously homogenous, and there is little religious conflict.  Countries such as the United States, would not be able to find happiness in religion because we have separation of church and state, in addition to a highly diverse group of religions. Diverse religions could occasionally create conflict within the inhabitants of the country, much like the current situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bhutan is also racially homogenous, and only recently opened its doors to tourists  According to Lukas Canan’s article for One World Education, “Bhutan: The World’s Happiest Country,” Bhutan “only allows a certain number of foreigners into the country each year, and the two hundred dollars a day that must be paid by every traveler is a deterrent for many.” Bhutan also very recently got both television and internet, meaning they had little knowledge of what was going on in the world or the people that inhabited it. Without a large amount of tourism, immigration, and media influx Bhutan has remained racially and religiously homogenous, so there is little racial conflict or racism. Bhutan’s GNH is also highly influenced by environmental conservation, which means the GNH could not be easily used by nations with high pollution issues, such as China. All in all, it would be difficult for more populated and capitalist nations to embrace Bhutan’s GNH concept because there are too many differences between the social groups residing within them (racially and religiously,) and there is little interest in the environment, which has been placed in a secondary position to profit and industry.

While Most countries focus on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to measure happiness in material wealth, Bhutan uses Gross National Happiness.  This unique approach means that the government is conscious of how its decisions affect the overall well-being of its citizens.  The reality of the world we live in is that money cannot buy happiness; people can have all the material things they want in the world but happiness is an intangible thing that everyone craves, regardless of age, sex, religion, or race.  The Tourism Council of Bhutan illustrates the philosophy of GNH for any foreigners curious as to how it works.  The four pillars within GNH in a sense relates to every country and the unhappiness its citizens experience.  When someone has a complaint about their government or the way that their country is run, chances are their complaint relates to one of these four pillars.  Bhutan has taken the time and the resources to pay attention to their citizens and it has obviously paid off in such a way that other countries are noticing.  If the government of Bhutan has somehow cracked a sort of formula for happiness, or a true way to measure a person’s happiness regardless of circumstance, it has the potential to change the way that entire government operate.  

Works Cited:

Bhutan Studies. Preface. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from
http://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/publicationFiles/ConferenceProceedings/GNHandDevelopment/1.Preface.pdf

Bhutan Tourism Corporation Ltd. “Religion in the Kingdom of Bhutan”. Retrieved October 4th, 2014 from  
http://www.kingdomofbhutan.com/kingdom/kingdom_2_.html. 
Clifton, J. (2014, May 21). People Worldwide Are Reporting A Lot of Positive Emotions. Gallup.com. Retrieved 
October 4, 2014, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/169322/people-worldwide-reporting-lot-positive-
emotions.aspx.
Diener, Ed, John F. Helliwell, and Daniel Kahneman. (2010) International Differences in Well-being [Google 
Books]. Retrieved October 4, 2014 from http://books.google.com/books? 
id=m99aqwLFrGoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Dorji, Tandi. Sustainability of Tourism in Bhutan. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from 
http://www.thlib.org/static/reprints/jbs/JBS_03_01_03.pdf.
Frontline/World. “Bhutan’s Busiest Cable Guy”. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from 
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bhutan/interview.html. 
GNH Bhutan. Nine Domains. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/nine-
domains/.
GNH Bhutan. GNH Tools. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/gnh-policy-
and-project-screening-tools/.
GNH Bhutan. What is Gross National Happiness? Retrieved October 4, 2014, from  
http://www.gnhbhutan.org/about/.
GNH Bhutan Index. (2010). GNH Index. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from 
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/articles/.
Kanal tilhørende GNHcentremedia. (2012, April 1). Gross National Happiness - explained by the Hon. Prime 
Minister of Bhutan, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPujYdcWCFU.
Gross National Happiness. (2012) A Short Guide to Gross National Happiness Index. Retrieved October 4, 
2014, from http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Short-GNH-Index-edited.pdf.
Gross National Happiness. (2010). GNH Survey Findings 2010. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from 
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/docs/2010_Results/PDF/National.pdf.
Gross National Happiness. (2010, April). The Second Gross National Happiness Survey Questionnaire April 2010. 
Retrieved October 4, 2014, from 
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/docs/2010_Results/PDF/Questionnaire2010.pdf.
Kingdom of Bhutan. Bhutan, The HImalayan Kingdom. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from 
http://www.kingdomofbhutan.com/kingdom/kingdom_2_.html.
Legatum Institute. (2013). The 2013 Legatum Prosperity Index. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from
http://www.prosperity.com/#!/.
McDermott, Matt. (2012). How Happy Is Bhutan, Really? Gross National Happiness Unpacked. Retrieved 
October 4, 2014, from http://www.treehugger.com/economics/how-happy-is-bhutan-gross-national-  
happiness.html.
One World Education. Bhutan: The World’s Happiest Country. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from 
http://www.oneworldeducation.org/bhutan-worlds-happiest-country.
The Green Interview. The Honourable Jigme Yoser Thinely. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from
http://www.thegreeninterview.com/bio/honourable-jigme-yoser-thinley.
Wikipedia. Former Constitutional Monarchies. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_monarchy#Former_constitutional_monarchies.
Tourism Council of Bhutan. Official Site Of The National Tourism Organization of Bhutan. Retrieved October 4, 
2014, from http://www.tourism.gov.bt.
Tourism Council of Bhutan. The Four Main Pillars. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from 
http://www.tourism.gov.bt/about-bhutan/the-four-main-pillars.
United Nations. (2012, November 6). Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development. Retrieved October 5, 
2014, from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/documents/NOTEONHAPPINESSFINALCLEAN.pdf.
United Nations. (2011, July 11). Sixty-fifth General Assembly. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from 
http://gnhusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/UN-Resolution-on-Happiness-Measures-7-13-2011.pdf.
United Nations. (2013, January 16). Sixty-seventh General Assembly. Retrieved October 5, 2014, from 
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/broaderprogress/pdf/Happiness%20towards%20a%20holistic%20approach%20to%20dev
elopment%20(A-67-697).pdf.
United Nations. The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the United Nations in New York. Retrieved
October 4, 2014, from http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/bhutan/cache/offonce/pid/8032.