Could the Bhutanese belief in their Shangri-La status be naive? Bhutanese lama Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche asked this question in the Bhutan Observer on Friday. It’s very similar to one of the central themes of Dragon Bones and he raises many of the points that I describe anecdotally. There’s a snake in this garden of Eden.
The simplest view of this analogy would be to say that the snake is the influence of the West and ‘modernity’. Non-Bhutanese values including materialism and addictions to drugs and porn have arrived in recent decades as Bhutan has opened itself to the world. People buy Toyota Prados, send their children abroad to private schools and go on shopping sprees to Bangkok, notes Rinpoche, but this is just the obvious face of the real problem.
The real snake is internal. It’s the Bhutanese belief in their right to these luxuries that is so contrary to Bhutanese values. Rinpoche notes, as I did, that Bhutanese now think that they’re above manual labour and import Indians to do such work for them. Once they’ve bought their Prados, they believe they have more right to the road than others and use their car’s size to take right of way.
I saw the government trying to fight this change of values by limiting exposure to materialism and consumer culture through, for instance, choice of television channels. Yet it was that same government, before democracy came to Bhutan, that told foreigners that if they didn’t appreciate the privilege they had in sharing their personal time and money to help Bhutan they should just go home – that others would come in their place. Undoubtedly true, but the belief was counter to their efforts to fight their snake.
Rinpoche looks at Nepal and sees problems caused by letting a divide grow too strong between the haves and have-nots. He questions whether Bhutanese have lost their way and are now too focused on maintaining their privileges to help their poorer neighbours. Nepal is suffering growing pains, but does Bhutan have to do the same or can they learn from Nepal’s situation and avoid it as they’ve so far managed to avoid the fate of Sikkim, Assam and Tibet?
I’m happy to see young Bhutanese coming to Australia and falling in love with my country. I’m even happier to see that they don’t lose their connection to their homeland or their desire to go back as soon as they can. If they’ve been paying attention to Australia’s problems, perhaps the experience will guide them on the path that Rinpoche hopes for his countrymen.