Getting Jigme Wit It...Bhutan Style

In 1972, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, deeply concerned about the effects of globalization on his country's unique culture, was determined to protect it. He wanted to safeguard the social and cultural values by converting them into quantifiable terms so that the wider world might understand and respect them. This led eventually to the Gross Happiness Index to gauge properly the country's social, cultural and environmental assets as well as its economic development.

In 1998 the Prime Minister, Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley, formalized the vision into the government's new master plan, the Four Pillars of Happiness. These pillars - sustainable economic development, conservation of the environment, the promotion of the national culture and good governance - create conditions in which every individual will be able to pursue happiness with reasonable success.

Marylin Tam