Why does Bhutan call itself the ‘happy kingdom’ – and is it really worth a US$250-a-day tourist tax to visit?
To get to the heart of the landlocked South Asian nation, bordered by India and Tibet, one must cast off disbelief, embrace its myths, and pass on the kindness one receives
Figures wrapped in swathes of saffron and scarlet shuffle soundlessly through steep stairways blackened by 500 years of soot from incense and yak-butter lamps at Gangtey Goemba. Young monks and nuns from other temples in western Bhutan have gathered here for a special ceremony.
One of them is 21-year-old Kuenzang Sangay Rangdrol. If not for the additional colours he wore and the onslaught of locals walking up to him for a blessing, he would have blended in with the other monks. Kuenzang was revealed to be the seventh Rinpoche reincarnate of Rinpoche Bhumthang Shrumstrang when he was five years old. (A Rinpoche is an honorific term meaning “precious one”). He is one of over 3,000 venerated rinpoches in a country of 700,000.