There are many countries that monitor GDP – gross
domestic product, but very few that mandate GNH – Gross National Happiness – in
their governance. In 1972, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan invented the
GNH for his country. GNH is based on people’s self-cultivation being at the
centre of developmental goals of the nation.
Kinley Dorji of Kuensel, Bhutan’s national newspaper, explains that “Gross
National Happiness is not about happiness. As Buddhists, we believe happiness is
an individual pursuit, gained from looking inside rather than outside. Gross
National Happiness is a mandate of the state to create an environment where
citizens can pursue happiness.”
Not until recently has Bhutan felt the influences of global economic and
technological changes. In 1999, television and Internet were permitted into the
country. More recently Bhutan transitioned from monarchy to democracy. Bhutan is
currently facing many challenges and the country’s prime minister recognizes
that “considerable space exists between the inspirational ideal GNH and the
everyday decision of policymakers.”
The influences of a materialistic world in this emerging democracy is
undeniable. Dorji gives an example of the problem of growing materialism: “the
Bhutanese farmer was happy and thought he had everything he needed: a house, a
plot of land, all the food….Now, suddenly he has television and sees all the
things he doesn’t have. He wants more and feels he has less.”
This is a very telling statement: as perceptions of wealth change and desire is
fed, happiness retreats. It is crucial to understand as Kinley Dorji remarked,
“Gross National Happiness is…a reminder of what we have and what we should
preserve. … to work on emphasizing the refined human values of compassion,
generosity, humility and selflessness as necessary conditions for furthering
human development.”
If happiness is built not by having more, but by being more, what sort of
environment do we need to pursue happiness? As helpful as it would be to the
pursuit of happiness to live in a state whose aims include the inner cultivation
of the human being, we ought to remember that no external circumstance can
prevent us from pursuing and living happiness – an inner state.
