Why Bhutan is still out of this world

"Let’s plan an escape."

That’s what we often say before planning a trip.

But escape from what?

Well, if one were to distil the thinking here, it would be to escape burdens and inner turmoil, in favour of peace, right? And when we think of peaceful, we often think of Bhutan ...

If you’re looking for all-night parties and sexy drinks – Bhutan may not be for you, my friend. Come to Bhutan if you're someone who appreciates the peace that quiet can bring. Someone who will respect the country’s customs. Who will admire its wildlife. Who will join the slower pace and the compassion vibes.

You'll also need to be someone who is content to climb among her mountains, but not scale the highest peaks. This is because the high peaks are where the spirits dwell. So they're off limits to people. You cannot just come and conquer in Bhutan.

‘Zens’ appreciate peace. And so the attraction of Bhutan is its perceived (and actual) focus on peacefulness. 

If you ask a hotel employee in Bhutan where to visit, for example, they won't direct you to the local shopping mall. No no, they'll likely point you in the direction of the countryside or her monasteries (essentially, to go work on yourself).

This anti-materialism links to the country’s focus on gross national happiness (GNH). For without peace, you cannot be truly happy.

Somehow, Bhutan’s pursuit of GNH has allowed her to remain largely incorruptible. And what corrupts more than anything? The ching. The hearts of the Bhutanese have remained largely free from the love of money. They clearly haven’t swallowed the silly idea that money buys happiness.

That attitude alone is reason enough to visit this fiercely independent and vibrant land.

In the West, we tend to believe that ‘freedom comes at a price’. And the price is often our peace. In Bhutan though, the price is simply to give up love of the material prize.

But what else contributes to the Bhutanese people's happiness?

There are numerous articles out there, like this one by Forbes, highlighting the recent research showing that gardening with your bare hands has a therapeutic effect. This is because the soil releases a chemical known to combat sadness (read mild depression).

This is a current finding. But the Bhutanese have probably known this for centuries. Since to mark a festive occasion, they plant trees.

When the Bhutanese King and his young wife introduced the country to their first child, for instance, the people responded by planting 108,000 saplings. Around 100,000 people volunteered to plant the trees. Even the leader of the opposition party joined in!

Of course they didn't plant the trees for the therapeutic effect, but more so because trees are a symbol of long life, beauty and compassion. Each sapling was "sealed with a prayer for the heir to the throne", according to The Diplomat. But we bet the communal experience was a therapeutic one.

As a result of all their tree planting, Bhutan is the world’s only carbon-negative country. Here, the people breathe fresh air. And thanks to forest covering 72% of the land, Worldometer reports that more than six million tons of carbon are reabsorbed annually!

Time is money, or so the saying goes. Which is why so many of us in the modern world rush around like obsessed hummingbirds.

In fact, we speak of time and money with the same language. You can ‘waste’ both. You can ‘save’ both.

And we think of time in linear fashion. There's a beginning and an end to everything. Lives, seasons, books, movies. In the East, however, time is thought of as cyclical. It comes in waves, and the beginning meets the end and then starts again.

So whatever you do: when you go to Bhutan … chill the heck down. Don’t land and point an anxious finger at your itinerary as if you’ve paid to be there, now someone had better ‘produce the goods’.

While in Bhutan, why not ...

It may scare you, because we're designed to look away. We'd rather look at a screen than at our family's faces, at ourselves. At something to distract us from the pain. Mortality. Reality.

But Bhutan can change that. Because an ‘out of this world’ experience sometimes means reconnecting with – and learning to appreciate – your own world again.

So when we talk about a destination as an ‘escape’, what we're actually saying is: here's an opportunity to stop escaping.