Bhutan
A Himalayan kingdom that measures success in Gross National Happiness
Bhutan is a small Buddhist kingdom in the eastern Himalaya, famous for governing by the principle of Gross National Happiness rather than gross domestic product alone. Long sealed off by choice, it admitted television only in 1999 and limits tourism to protect its culture and environment. Dzongs, the fortress-monasteries that double as administrative centers, command its valleys, and a constitutional monarchy guides a society that has carefully managed its opening to the modern world. Carbon-negative and largely forested, it is one of the few nations to absorb more carbon than it emits.
The terrain rises dramatically from subtropical foothills in the south to the high Himalaya in the north, where peaks exceed 7,000 meters along the Tibetan border. The highest point, Gangkhar Puensum at 7,570 meters, is the tallest unclimbed mountain in the world, its summit off-limits out of respect for local belief. Fast rivers cutting through the mountains give the country enormous hydropower potential, its principal export to India. Forests cover more than two-thirds of the land, and the climate ranges from tropical in the south to perpetual snow on the peaks.
Unified in the seventeenth century by a Tibetan lama, Bhutan preserved its independence through the colonial era under a close relationship with British India and later India. A hereditary monarchy was established in 1907, and in 2008 the fourth king voluntarily ushered in democracy and a constitution, transforming the country into a constitutional monarchy. Tibetan Buddhism permeates daily life, expressed in prayer flags, festivals called tsechus, and the iconic Tiger's Nest monastery clinging to a cliff above Paro. Modest in size and wealth, Bhutan has won outsized attention for placing well-being and the environment at the center of national policy.