The Green Monarch

        Article 5 of The Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan (2008) states that, 

གཞུང་གིས་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ཐོན་ཁུངས་ཚུ་གི་སྲུང་འཛིན་དང་ སྣོད་བཅུད་ཀྱི་གནས་ ལུགས་དེ་ལུ་ཉམས་ཆག་ཚུ་ སྔོན་འགོག་འབད་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་    འབྲུག་གི་ས་ཆའི་ཁྱོན་བསྡོམས་ ལས་ཉུང་ཤོས་བརྒྱ་དཔྱ་དྲུག་ཅུ་ཐམ་པ་ དུས་དང་རྣམ་པ་ཀུན་ཏུ་ནགས་ཚལ་གྱི་ཁྱབ་བརྡལ་འོག་ ལུ་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་ངེས་གཏན་འཐབ་དགོ། ༼འབྲུག་གི་རྩ་ཁྲིམས་ཆེན་མོ, ༢༠༠༨, ཤོག་གྲངས ༡༦༽

“The Government shall ensure that, in order to conserve the country’s natural resources and to prevent degradation of the ecosystem, a minimum of sixty percent of Bhutan’s total land shall be maintained under forest cover for all time” (The Constitution of The Kingdom of Bhutan, 2008, p. 12)

2022 Blue Planet Prize for His Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuck: Courtesy; Click LINK

        In keeping with the mandates of the Kingdom’s Constitution, today Bhutan reportedly maintains more than 74 percent of the country under forest cover in the form of sanctuaries and parks. There is no wonder that Bhutan contributes to the system of rich biological corridors in the world, absorbing the highest carbon footprints. 

 

        Despite being an economically developing nation, Bhutan is the first carbon-negative country in the world.  More than 6 million tonnes of carbon are absorbed annually although Bhutan produces only 1.5 million tonnes. 

 

        Thanks to His Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth Druk Gyalpo, who was the pioneer in drafting our unique constitution guaranteeing 60 percent forest cover for future generations. Conservation of the Environment is one of the four pillars of the Gross National Happiness, a developmental paradigm promulgated by His Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972.

 

        The 2022 Blue Planet Prize conferred by the ASAHI Glass Foundation in Japan, is His Majesty the King’s fourth international honour for prioritising environmental preservation alongside the nation’s economic development.

 

        His Majesty the King was awarded the “Champions of the Earth’s Award” in 2005 for his pioneering efforts in environmental stewardship. The J Paul Getty Conservation Leadership Award was conferred to His Majesty the following year. Later that same year, His Majesty received the Earth Hall of Fame, Kyoto Award from Japan.

 

        Bhutan is truly fortunate to have been blessed with a Monarch like His Majesty the King. 

 

        Elsewhere, we read history and saw nations fall apart due to power struggles and megalomaniac leadership. In Bhutan, His Majesty the 4th King renounced his Kingship in 2008. To provide early Kinghood know-how, the visionary monarch King Jigme Singye Wangchuck paved the way for His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the then Crown Prince of Bhutan. Today we have been bestowed with the King of unparalleled quality. The same year, democracy was introduced in Bhutan.

 

                    Long Live Your Majesty. 

The GNH Ambassador

        There are some people in our lives who we celebrate seeing on a routine basis. Even if there are no obvious reasons for our desire to see them, their charismatic qualities, personalities, and wisdom frequently influence us to automatically follow them.

 

        Lynchoen Jigme Yoezer Thinley, Bhutan’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, is one such personality to me. I began to hero-worship his excellency ever since I was able to use my education to understand and conceptualise what great human beings are made of. Even now, his charismatic leadership qualities, sharp wisdom, and unwavering commitment to serving his country for decades – both inside and outside the border – fascinate me.

 

           Lynchoen Jigme Yoezer Thinley became the brand ambassador for Gross National Happiness (GNH) in 2008, following Bhutan's smooth transition to a constitutional democratic monarchy. He travelled extensively around the world in his capacity as the nation's elected leader to spread the message of GNH and inspire and motivate world powers to embrace it. In 2011, he proposed that 'Happiness' be added to the 9th Millennium Development Goals on behalf of his King and the country.

 

        His excellency has kept a low profile about his whereabouts since stepping down from politics. But thanks to Lerab Ling, a leading Tibetan Buddhist centre in Europe, for hosting a live event where I was able to listen to his excellency's wisdom once more. Listening to His Excellency speak on the topic of Ecological Resilience in Gross National Happiness was enlightening.

 

            The link to the video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHp8c1iSqqc&t=34s

 

        GNH is a holistic developmental approach of Bhutan that ensures economic wealth along with emotional, spiritual and psychological needs in place. GNH is composed of 4 pillars:  

Pillar 1: Sustainable and Equitable Socio-Economic development

Pillar 2: Preservation and Promotion of Culture. 

Pillar 3: Conservation of Environment

Pillar 4: Establishment of Good Governance. 

 

        These four pillars are further divided into 9 domains and 72 variables employed. The 9 domains are: 

1. Living standard

2. Health

3. Education

4. Time Use

5. Psychological well-being

6. Community Vitality

7. Ecological Diversity and Resilience

8. Culture Diversity and Resilience

9. Good Governance. 

 

        GNH is the brainchild of His Majesty the King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth King of Bhutan. Almost 6 decades ago in 1972, His Majesty the King envisioned that all kinds of economic developments in his Kingdom must equally balance the elements of the spiritual, mental, psychological, and emotional well-being of the people. That is why, shortly after his enthronement, His Majesty the King declared that “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product”. His Majesty the King was well aware that the ultimate aim of every human being was happiness. 

 

        Happiness, which was proposed by Bhutan during the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in 2011, has become a much sought philosophical commodity since the UN adopted it as the 9th Millennium Development Goal (MDG). On the 12th of July 2012, the United Nations unanimously declared March 20th as International Happiness Day, recognising this paradigm of development as practical and imperative. 

 

        As a citizen of the country who aspires to happiness both for oneself and others, I share the pride in hero-worshipping the leaders who work to carry out the wishes of their benevolent monarch and, in the end, give their best to make the world a better place to live in.