When the profound philosophy is misused...

Gross National Happiness- The sacred philosophy and the development principle of Bhutan has been initiated and brought to practicality during the 34 years reign of His Majesty the 4th Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck. His Majesty the King has always been reinforcing to keep the legacy immortal through setting examples, giving wonderful speeches and appreciating the initiatives related to GNH. The core value of Druk Phunsum Tshogpa, headed by His Excellency Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley has been directly derived from the philosophy. Subsequently, Ministry of Education has set curriculums on GNH, rather a subject in schools in which students had to undertake homeworks, practicals and other activities on GNH.

While the Ministry feels that the GNH would be promoted through insisting students to learn through practical involvement in the GNH activities, to a section of people, it has featured like a handy tool misused. Students has started naming toilets as as GNH toilets, GNH water tap, GNH garden, GNH tree, GNH footpath, GNH kitchen and so on. The nomenclature has featured out of sheer compulsion.  Some of the students might have already planned to use GNH to some teachers because a student like Jamyang Chogyel from Nangkor HHS has already been awarded the GNH Boy certificate (Of course, his award routed through Committee and was fair). 

In this sense, the profound philosophy of Gross National Happiness, expected to be respected, is misused.

Hon’ble Chairperson graces the Annual Nomad’s Festival

March 08, 2011: The Hon’ble Chairperson graced the three-day 2nd annual Nomads’ Festival at Nasiphel under Choekhor Gewog in Bumthang. The festival which gave a platform for the nomads of the eight northern dzongkhags to showcase their culture, food and products, among others was organized by the Wangchuck Centennial Park, Ministry of Agriculture. In his address, the Hon’ble Chairperson said that the initiative taken by the Ministry of Agriculture to organize such festival was one of the prominent steps taken to enhance Gross National Happiness through preservation and promotion of culture. The festival would enable the nomads of the eight Dzongkhags to get together and exchange their culture, tradition and products to improve their lifestyle. The Hon’ble Chairperson also advised the indigenous group of people not to depend exclusively on the cordycept harvest but explore themselves to produce other products. He said the festival was the forum for innovating new ideas and learn to produce evergreen goods. He also said that while it was important for them to uphold the age-old tradition and culture, they must not ignore the laws passed by the Parliament. He said he would feel embarrassed to know somebody guilty of the repercussion of law ignored.