This week in our online class we visit Bhutan, a landlocked, consciously isolated country high in the Himalayas that tries very hard to stay exactly as it is. For a country that officially values its’ economy’s gross national product less than its citizens’ Gross National Happiness…can you blame it? Of course, there are many sides to Bhutan’s story. Bhutan is on its fifth King but only recently had its first democratically elected government. The ethnic situation Bhutan is complex — a hundred thousand Lotshampas currently live in refugee camps and accuse the government of human rights abuses. So the real Bhutan may not be Shangri-La. But don’t you still want to go?
