Acting in good faith
holmertz
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 12416 W: 572 N: 23839]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-g-g.gif){kind=small}
(101988)
tyro 2019-01-07 3:41
Hello Gert,
A fascinating and very informative note and three delightful photographs to illustrate it. And from these we can fully appreciate just how very large a part religion plays in the lives of the people of Bhutan.
I wonder if the little boy is pushing this huge prayer wheel just for fun or is he carrying out his duty to do this? And I very much like the idea of having a portable "hand" prayer wheel - I suppose that's akin to nowadays being able to talk to God on your personal mobile phone rather than have to walk all the way to a public telephone kiosk? And the young smiling monk I like very much too.
Perhaps we in the west would benefit from closer ties with religion and the spiritual aspects of life, become better people and relinquish our political bigotries. Did you find that the people here were generally happy and content with life? Or, if they appeared fulfilled spiritually, were other aspects such as ambition severely restricted?
Anyway, a perfect posting for TE.
Excellent!
Kind Regards,
John.
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01-07-2019, 03:05 PM
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To tyro: questions
Hell John,
Thank you for your kind remarks. You ask interesting question, but it is not so easy for an outsider to provide good answers after a relatively short visit where most things were carefully planned in advance. I had an impression of a poor but relatively harmonious country, very safe for visitors and with generally nice and pleasant people. But what do I really know? There were clashes in the early 1990's between security forces and people of Nepalese origin andthousands of people were deported. Bhutan is a very environmentally conscious country, perhaps the only one that cares more for environmental protection than economic development. The government has basically stopped measuring its GDP growth and has introduced a new system called GNH, "Gross National Happiness". But does it really make people happier? Now that the country is totally open to the outside world, laptops and wi-fi available everywhere, and the number of foreign tourists has increased dramatically in a few years, people may be painfully aware that life is more comfortable in most other countries. Basically everyone below, say, 40 years is quite well versed in English, so they can find out everything about the world. It is by no means similar to North Korea. Kind regards, Gert 
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