Bhutan is the Land of Happy People. Where these people live is beautiful

The total population of Bhutan is estimated at 2.2 million people, however, due to the fact that a census has not been conducted over the past hundred years, many sources indicate a figure of 810 thousand people.

The main population of Bhutan is "Bhotiya" (about 50%) - a Mongoloid ethnic group of Tibetan origin. In the western and central regions of Bhutan live "naglong" - the descendants of the Tibetans living in Bhutan since the 9th century. In the east of the country, the Sharchop ethnic group, considered the indigenous people of Bhutan, lives. In the western and southwestern regions live "Lhotshampa" - the people of the Nepalese group.

Political state

The Kingdom of Bhutan or Druk Yul ("Land of Thunder Dragons") is a limited monarchy. The head of state is King Jigme Singai Wangchuck (Druk-Gyalpo - "Dragon King", has ruled the country since July 24, 1972). The Supreme Lama of Bhutan (Je-Kempo or Khenpo) is the second person in the state after the king.

The executive power is represented by the Royal Advisory Council (Lodoi Tsokde, members of the Council are appointed by the monarch) and the Council of Ministers (Lhengye Zhungtsog, cabinet members are appointed by the monarch in agreement with the National Assembly for a five-year term).

The legislature is the unicameral National Assembly (Tsongdu, 150 deputies are elected for a three-year term from constituencies, 10 represent religious institutions and 35 are appointed by the monarch). Recently, the National Assembly has received fairly wide, by local standards, powers, even gaining the right to dismiss the monarch (this requires the approval of the impeachment by two-thirds of the votes).

Administratively, the country is divided into 20 districts ("dzongkhag").

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tutanh | 2014

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The next morning Arun left with our junk on the way back.
The provincial Bumthang is conveniently located in the cradle of the mountains at an altitude of 2600 m above sea level, protected from all winds.
The local people cut the entire land of the valley into patches of rice fields.
The fast turquoise river generously shared water. Under the morning sun, rice sprouts seemed to float on mirrors.

It was noteworthy that everywhere in Bhutan the bulls grazed separately from the cows. So to speak, separate grazing for girls and boys. Curious why.
The inquisitiveness of the mind (or itching in the heels) led us to a pasture with bulls and horses. The horses shook their manes very photogenic, snorting in the gut.
A charming calf emerged from the midst of adult bulls and stared at us with completely childish eyes. Everyone's faces rassiropilsya in tenderness, and let's stroke it! The cow cub was so small that he simply did not yet know about the severity of people, and therefore responded with delight to affection.

But when he ran after us with his tail, mistaking us for a many-sided mother, a huge black bull blew out his nostrils, struck the ground with his hoof a couple of times and, filling his eyes with righteous anger ... rushed after the baby abductors!

How did we run? (I remembered “Dog Mongrel and an unusual cross”).
In leg! In one crazy rhythm! My heart jumped somewhere in my throat.
They stopped only after jumping over the barbed wire fence and finding themselves on a garbage heap.
Slightly catching their breath and laughing, we went along the river.

The locals could not understand our fun at the sight of hemp thickets!
It grew densely, in a whole field, and even the most exemplary could not resist the opportunity to take pictures in these thickets ...
No, there are no drug addicts here. It just grows for itself, grows like a weed, does not interfere with anyone. Maybe it drives away the midge. Or maybe it just doesn’t occur to anyone to weed it out with an eye to someone’s opinion.
If you are pure in thoughts, no cannabis will spoil you.

Funeral pyramids stood on all natural ledges of rocks.
The bright turquoise water rattled with rifts. Strawberries ripened thickly in pine groves, and giant cones of size 45 crunched underfoot.
The needles were springy with an orthopedic mattress, offering to lie down. I would like to stay here overnight.
By the way, not a single mosquito met us in this country. Either they are blown away by high mountain winds (a rare mosquito will fly to the middle of Bhutan! Forgive me, Gogol ...), or they have serious enemies here.

There, in the valley of Bumthang, we went down to the famous "flaming lake" Mebartso.
It is not clear why it is stubbornly called a lake. In fact, this is a beautiful canyon with a mountain river Naring.
But arguing with the legend is an empty exercise.

According to legend, in the 15th century, a monk appeared from the water of the lake with a burning lamp and sacred texts in his hand. Buddha statues were also found there.
The place was immediately declared holy.
Gradually, all the side ledges of the descent to the seething river were lined with funeral pyramids, i.e. turned into a graveyard. And the place itself has become sacred for pilgrims and a favorite place of meditation.

The center of Bumthang consists of a couple of streets with 2-story, traditionally painted houses. The farther from the capital, the more superstitions.
So - more phalluses of all stripes and characters.
Phalluses smiling and sad, with and without wings.
Drawn and planed from a log, like Pinocchio.
Tiny and similar to a turnstile, on which you can do push-ups and hang a bag of twenty kg ...

They are no longer shocked. Because children with clear eyes and shy smiles walked past them.
And since they do not see anything strange in this, it is all the more useless for us to doubt and be embarrassed.

Everyone was curious about the stranger, the overseas bird. And so it’s not very crowded with tourists, and only a few reach Bumthang.
The most inquisitive groups of Japanese and Thais hang out mostly near big cities.
Throughout the route, from the capital to the highest mountain village, we heard that Russians were seen here for the first time in their lives.
And where, curiously, do those declared 200-300 Russians a year travel? ... For some reason, the answer to the problem does not converge.

There was not a single passer-by who would not smile and nod in greeting!
They happily posed and raised their children in their arms.
Mothers have absolutely no fear of the evil eye. The more the stranger shows attention to them and their children, the more pleasant they are.
Well, yes, with such and such a phallic "protection"!

By the way, in recent days everyone has become so accustomed to chopping that at the sight of a pink phallus half the size of a house, tied with a coquettish ribbon, no one even turned their heads!

At dinner, as usual, they sat for a long time and talked with Tan-Din. They asked her what she dreams about. The girl hesitated, and then answered that the state ideology ... forbids dreaming. Because when a dream does not come true, a person suffers. And this should not be in the country of happy people!
A paradoxical conclusion!
Frankly, this argument is not convincing.

They ate a salad of black mushrooms under the cheerful name "guests' ears" and listened to the Tan-Din girl, who forbade herself to dream. But dreams fought in her eyes in whole flocks. You can’t call the girls of Bhutan spineless!
They asked provocatively what attitude the country has towards illegitimate children.
It turned out that this is not considered a big sin. Children are the flowers of life, and extramarital pregnancy does not bring any negative to the expectant mother. As usual, the whole family helps her: relatives, cousins, and second cousins.
It is forbidden to protect yourself and terminate the pregnancy. You will not find a single contraceptive in the pharmacies of Bhutan!
Life must not be killed and interfere with the plan of the gods!
For the same reason, you cannot plan the birth of children yourself - this is a great sin. It's not a man's business.
And let the children be born! The country does not have enough children! (Although we did not think so).

It is curious: if a blonde with blue eyes was born, but no one saw a mother with a foreigner, then the child is immediately recognized as a Bhutanese.
But if a girl was spotted at least once before the birth of a child with a foreigner, the child will never receive citizenship! This means that the mother will also be forced to leave the country.
And this is the worst punishment for Bhutanese.

Everyone who gets an education abroad (unlike ours) dreams of going back.
Because without their mountains, fresh wind, their culture, the Bhutanese begins to wither and lose self-respect.
In the entire history of the country, only two foreigners received citizenship!
Moreover, one - only lived 50 years in Bhutan. Both made a great contribution to the development of the country.
But now even that is impossible.

Life expectancy in Bhutan is high.
90 years is the most common age. There are a lot of centenarians who are over 100.
The oldest woman, 114 years old, is visited annually by the royal couple with gifts.

The Tigress's Nest Monastery in Paro is not missed by any tourist.
This is perhaps the holiest place in Bhutan.
If you want to feel like VIPs, so as not to push your elbows with other sufferers, you will have to get up at half past five in the morning.
From the foot of the mountain (2200m) to the Tigress's Nest, you have to climb to a height of 3100m. It is there, under the clouds, that the monastery soars, shining with bright colors from afar.

According to legend, in the 8th century, Guru Rinpoche flew to this rock on a flying tigress and meditated for three months in a cave inaccessible to mere mortals.
And since then this place is holy.
Since the XII century, they began to build a dzong (monastery) there. Built by hand. They dragged all the construction belongings on their own backs.
But the hellish efforts were perceived by the builders with joy, because participation in such a great event could not but fill their souls with pride and humility.

The statue of Rinpoche was made by a master in Nepal. He "heard" the call of the statue to take her to this rock.
The statue is very heavy! It was even decided to cut it into two parts for transportation.
But a volunteer volunteered to pick her up and carry her to the tigress's nest on her back.

We walked light, realizing that with every meter rising above sea level, the load increases many times. How one man was able to drag the heavy statue up the steep slope remains a mystery.
Too bad it's impossible to show the statue itself. We handed over all photographic equipment at the entrance to the monastery, and, under the supervision of 16 video cameras, “freely” walked around the territory of a bizarre complex.

Usually people of average physical training rise to the nest in 3 hours.
The previous Than Dinh group from Singapore climbed for 5 hours (and descended for 5 hours, which was quite surprising! We flew straight down the dizzying escarpment by birds!)
Our company easily covered this way up in 2 hours (this is with a huge number of stops for photos).
But these proud calculations could only cause bewilderment among the Bhutanese.
In such holy places, a Buddhist is never in a hurry.

Next to us, two more Bhutanese were rising to the early birdsong. Young guys in jeans, sneakers and trendy haircuts. But this is just the outer shell. They ascended, flattening every two or three steps - with prayers and not saying a word to each other. Only a passionate dialogue with the Teacher that no one else could hear...
... We were returning back, and the guys were all hugging the holy land with reverence in their eyes, not caring about the cleanliness and safety of clothes and shoes.

Along the way, we were invited to carefully peer into the misty distance. According to the assurances of the locals, many see a flying Dragon here.
It feeds on pure mountain snow; you can lure it not with fresh beef, but with prayers and pure thoughts.
Everyone understood that this was just a legend, but involuntarily everyone peered into the distance until the pain in their eyes ...
Only somewhere in the foggy haze was the mysterious Jomolkhari hiding (a little over 7000 m), clearly visible on clear days from the Tigress's Nest.

Hundreds of black and blue butterflies fluttered around us. Strange, but such an incredible cluster of beauties was observed only here. As if pure souls of previous generations helped the ascent.
The serpentine road was aflame with millions of prayer colored flags. They loudly carried the words of prayers in the wind, enhancing the solemnity of the situation.

Who was the Flying Tigress?
Guru Rinpoche (precious Teacher) instilled the pure soul of a terminally ill girl who prayed for a long time and called Rinpoche into the body of a tigress. Some claim that she was his wife. But our Tan-Din seriously assured that this was just fiction.
She was an innocent maiden who joyfully reincarnated as a winged Tigress for the great Teacher, who is revered in Bhutan as the second after the Buddha.

The Tigress's nest clung to a high rock, as if it was built not by people, but by swallows.
But the "terrible danger" of the path to the monastery is so hypertrophied that after these fables the path seems easy and pleasant!
Colored flags flutter excitingly, the waterfall falls down so picturesquely! And the steps themselves, carved into the rock, although uneven, are quite passable.
According to the official version, the Tigress's Nest consists of seven separate monasteries. But in fact, you can lose count by climbing the steep stairs and nooks and crannies of this monastery, suspended at 900 m above the level of Paro and at an altitude of 3100 m above sea level.
Despite the small volume, the monastery has such an intricate design that you will not get bored.

Once, having pulled back a thick colorful curtain on a door in the rock, I got into the kitchen, where clouds of flour were flying, and smiling monks were kneading dough for cakes.
In another hall, prayers were solemnly offered to the rhythm of a thick drumming.
On a platform without a railing, plunging steeply into a chilling abyss, teenage boys in raspberry togas chewed the local “dolma” chewing gum, smiled with orange mouths and played noisily, trying to hit the hole with a coin.

But in the rest of the halls you feel yourself in complete solitude from the world of people (we learned about video cameras only at the exit and by accident!).
There are no “museum workers” in any of the halls, and at first it seems that all this wealth with silver bowls, ivory figurines and gilded statues is in no way appreciated by the monks themselves.

Now I understand that in this simple way they check the soul of aliens for humanity and purity ...
For example, a handsome old monk suddenly gave my husband a small souvenir embroidered with gold thread right from the altar!
And in the tea room of the cafe, which is located on the outskirts of the monastery, they gave us tea and buns to drink and for some reason flatly refused to take money for it!...
We understood that this was a sign of respect, but we didn’t understand how we deserved it ...
Bhutan continued to surprise and delight.

Back Arun led along the path, almost vertically falling down.
Even experienced climbers cheerfully, but puzzled, promised to lather his neck.
If they catch up.
However, we rushed through the dense forest in an excellent mood, winding along a steep serpentine, and no one even thought to turn onto a convenient path.
They were surprised at the speed with which they found themselves below.
Tourists are not driven along this road. It's only for locals.

G. Paro - a trap for clouds. They get permanent residence here. Catching a day with a completely blue sky is a difficult task.
For pictures it's bad, but for the skin it's good. Local residents and so (even under the filter of clouds) are distinguished by an extremely swarthy skin tone. And the Indians working on the roads are completely blacker than black.
Bhutanese do not go to such a difficult, low-skill work.
But Indians are willingly hired, who migrate to Bhutan in search of work in whole family clans.
Only in Bhutan have we seen the philosophical patience with which they hand-crushed river stones for road gravel. Chisel and hammer. Like in prehistoric times.

In a half-ruined monastery of the 17th century, formerly known as a city prison, trees and shrubs are now actively conquering the space (I observed the same picture after the war in Abkhazia).
From the height of the main tower, the entire valley was in full view.
June 18 is a big holiday in Bhutan. The day the Buddha came down to earth. It is customary to go to monasteries and light fires.

The Arun family collected dry branches and needles and lit a fire on the high wall of the monastery. Gray smoke flew from the wall, and butterflies danced fearlessly in it. And all this action was not hooliganism, but a tribute to traditions.

Our days throughout the trip were densely stuffed with events. But this seemed to us not enough.
We went to join the national sport - archery.
They are given to him here with passion. They shoot brilliantly!
We accidentally got to one of these trainings even late at night and marveled at the expensive, masterfully crafted bows and arrows that flew 150-200 meters at the target!
In general, the country puts an emphasis on sports among young people. Each district has several stadiums.

We did not claim to be champion titles, but it seemed tempting to touch childhood.
For more courage, everyone was dressed in national clothes.
It was woven only by hand and only from natural fibers, but it turned out to be heavy and uncomfortable.
Our arrows flew like snakes in water, waving from side to side.
That did not diminish our enthusiasm at all.

The final evening was brightened up by the folk dance ensemble, which arrived "on call".
We sat in wicker chairs in the open air, and in a clearing with a scenery of mountains behind the performers, the girls and boys of Bhutan danced and sang.
Between the numbers, a masked character (like our clown filling a pause in the circus) loitered around the clearing with a huge red phallus in his hand. He conducted the orchestra with them.
If we were newcomers to this country, we would think that this was done specifically for the amusement of the Gentiles. But after two weeks of immersion in the culture of Bhutan, this action no longer caused laughter.
Since it was impossible not to recognize the revered bully - the divine madman Drukpa Kunli.

We peered into the calm faces of the dancers.
Dignity and self-respect were seen in every movement and every look.
Bhutan's National Youth Happiness Index has been rising before our eyes.
And it was not propaganda or a wish, but today's reality.
Kadin-che to you, happy Bhutan! Live in joy!

Forty years ago, all that was known about the closed Kingdom of Bhutan was its location: somewhere in the Himalayas. Today, this is a country that, following its king, decided that “the happiness of the people is more important than percent of GDP,” and adheres to this national idea.

"Welcome to the land of happiness!" - smiling girls in national costumes from the cover of an advertising booklet on the plane of the Bhutanese airline Drukair-Royal Bhutan Airlines. The flight is from Delhi with a stopover in Kathmandu. Other airlines do not fly here: only eight pilots in the world have certificates for landing an aircraft at the airport in Paro. Naturally, they are Bhutanese. The airport is located at an altitude of 2200 meters above sea level and is surrounded by high mountains. When approaching Airbus A319 maneuvers in a narrow gorge and descends in a spiral.

Until 1974, Bhutan was isolated for 64 years. But even after the official permission for the entry of tourists, visas were issued in limited quantities - no more than a few hundred a year. With the opening of the airport in 1983, the flow of foreigners increased to 2,000 people a year, and today it is up to 90,000. But it is still impossible to simply buy a ticket and fly to Bhutan. Each tourist (or group) must be accompanied by a guide throughout the trip.

- This decision was made by the government not to hide something from the eyes of strangers, explains guide Sencho, a thin man in a national costume - gho robe. He met the group at the airport and will stay with us for the entire ten days of the trip. - On the contrary, we want to help you understand the essence of Bhutanese life, to see Bhutan as we see it: a place of harmony and tranquility, where you don't want to leave.

ENVIRONMENTAL DICTATORY

According to one version, "Bhutan" comes from the Sanskrit Bhu-Uttan- "highlands". Half of the country's land is located above 3,000 meters above sea level. From change of heights from unaccustomed lays ears. Outside the window of the car on which we are going to the capital Thimphu, mountains, densely covered with forests, flash by.

- The country has a policy of environmental dictatorship says Sencho. - The constitution states that forests should occupy 70% of the territory. For the production of paper, we use only diseased trees. Enough for 754,000 inhabitants of the country. We could sell timber and make big money. But it is more important for us to preserve the place where we live. We don't kill animals either. We rarely eat meat, we bring it from India. We try to use resources sparingly and use only what nature can supply. For example, hydroelectric power plants have been built on mountain rivers. We sell the energy we receive from them to India. This is the main income of the country.

At the entrance to Thimphu, the slopes are cut by rice terraces. They grow rice (agriculture in the country is the second source of income). Most of the rice is sold to India.

THE LAW OF UNIFORMITY

The views of Thimphu are reminiscent of the scenery for a film about a fairytale land. Two- and three-storey houses with wooden roofs and shutters are hand-painted. Each house has wooden plaques in two colors: blue and green. They have white letters in two languages: the state Dzongkha and English. This is what advertising looks like in Bhutan. No blinking signs that irritate the eye in European capitals. The streets are perfectly clean. There are urns of green ("natural") color all around, the inscriptions on which remind: "Do not forget about me."

- Garbage is one of our main problems says Sencho. - In ancient times, when cooking, building houses, we used only natural materials. What nature gave, she took away. Now there is a lot of inorganic garbage. Our territory is small, organized dumps quickly overflowed, and a couple of years ago the government agreed with India, which has several processing plants. Now we sell rubbish to neighbors.

There are almost no cars on the streets. And those that are, mostly Indian production. They drive around the city at a speed of 40 km / h. People walk around in national costumes in checks or stripes: men wear gho robes, and women wear kira skirts and tego jackets. That is the law.

- We have a democratic government, - smiles Zeina, a saleswoman in a textile store, where national costumes of about 200 colors, sewn at local factories, are laid out on the shelves. - When we go to work, official events, national holidays, the constitution obliges us to wear traditional clothes, otherwise they won't let you in. In our free time, we can wear clothes that are brought to Bhutanese shops from India. Recently, young people have occasionally begun to use this right.

Suits are presented in only two sizes: "larger" (Russian 48th) and "smaller" (Russian 44th). But that's enough for the Bhutanese. It is impossible to meet an overweight person among the locals. As if this part of life is regulated by law.

SPORT MODE

The good physical shape of the Bhutanese is due to their lifestyle. First, the basis of the diet is rice. It is grown by almost 80% of the population. Vegetables are added to rice: stewed, fried. Bhutanese rarely eat animal food. Secondly, the majority live in the countryside and work or study in the city. Only 10% of Bhutanese have cars, and regular buses run infrequently. Therefore, locals overcome distances of tens of kilometers on foot.

- Fifty years ago there were no cars Sencho smiles. Moreover, there were no shoes. People walked barefoot. I remember how, as a child, in the winter I traveled through the snow to school, located ten kilometers from my parents' house. I had to run pretty fast. This is how everyone lived. Today my children have several pairs of shoes. But in those days, no one felt unhappy. We have always been able to be content with what we have.

The main sports entertainment of the Bhutanese is archery. Playgrounds for this sport are everywhere. There are two types of them: for shooting at 50 meters and at 100.

- Archery appeared in Bhutan several centuries ago, when civil wars were going on in the country, says Yeshi Dorji, a shooting teacher at a school in the Thimphu area. - But in modern Bhutan for more than a hundred years they have not known wars. Animals are also not hunted - it is prohibited. Therefore, archery is a local pastime. And only in 1971 it officially became a sport. And in 1984 we took part in the Summer Olympic Games for the first time.

Since then, Bhutan has fielded athletes to the Olympics seven more times, without winning a single medal.

- Buddhism teaches to pay attention not to the result, but to the process Yeshi continues. - If the process gave pleasure and did not cause harm to someone, then everything is for the good.

MIND CONTROL

Buddhism is the dominant religion of Bhutan. It is practiced by 75% of the population (24% - Hinduism, 1% - Christianity, Islam and others). Everything in the kingdom is subject to religion. Even administrative centers are located on the territory of fortresses - dzongs, next to monasteries. By and large, Bhutan is one big temple. At the entrance to any room in Punakha, Thimphu or another city there are prayer wheels-drums that the locals spin at the first opportunity (one turn is equivalent to reading a hundred prayers). Multi-colored flags are hung on trees, bridges, houses, symbolizing the five elements that Buddhism believes in. Yellow - earth, red - fire, white - water, green - air, blue - space. But most of all, the palisades of high white flags scattered on the slopes of the mountains are striking. There are especially a lot of them along the road from Thimphu to the city of Punakha.

- These are prayer flags in honor of the departed explains Sencho. - The wind blowing the canvases will bring good luck to the soul of the deceased in a new reincarnation.

The place where the flags should be placed is determined by astrologers. All important events in life Bhutanese discuss with them. Even the king makes government decisions, guided by the advice of court astrologers. This is almost the most prestigious profession in Bhutan. It is taught in schools attached to monasteries or dzongs.

As in an ordinary educational institution, children of all ages run around on the territory of Punakha Dzong (fortresses are named after the city in which they are located). Only instead of a school uniform, red robes are the same as those of adult monks.

- Children themselves decide to become monks, - says the teacher of the Lakpa monastery. - We teach astrology, geography, history and other subjects. At the age of 16, the child must make a choice whether he will be a monk or will only take up astrology. Children increasingly prefer astrology, as it brings good income. This is the influence of the Western world. When money becomes the meaning of life, life itself loses its meaning. Therefore, the main thing we teach is to control the mind, not to let desires take over, to appreciate what you have, and to be grateful for it. That's the only way to be happy.

EDUCATION OF SENSES

The slogan on the wall in a school in Paro says the same thing: “Money can buy a house. But in Bhutan you already have it.”. You won't find a homeless person in the country. If a man has no land, he goes to the king. The king allocates land, which is enough to build a house, and rice fields. If the income from the sale of rice is less than 100,000 ngultrums, then you will not have to pay 10% (income tax in the country).

- It was the same with me., - says the school security guard Side, while we wait for the end of the 55-minute lesson. My sister grew up and got married. I had to leave my father's house (in Bhutan, the house and land are inherited through the female line, the son, as a rule, is forced to look for a new home or a bride). The king gave me land and fields. I grow rice only for myself, and I work in a government agency, so I don’t pay taxes. Education and medicine in the country is also paid by the state from the money that the developing tourism brings ... The government loves us.

The conversation is interrupted by a gong. The eight-hour school day at school has come to an end. The students burst out of the classrooms, nearly knocking us over.

- Children in all countries are equally happy when tiresome lessons are over- smiles the English teacher Tsomo. She has been teaching at the school for 15 years and has watched Bhutanese children change. - On the one hand, it's good that Bhutan is gradually opening its borders: in 1999 we got television, and now the Internet. Children have become more receptive to the world. The history of countries is easier for them, because they have read about them somewhere. On the other hand, there is also a negative impact. I recently caught a student smoking. I didn't tell anyone because buying and selling cigarettes is illegal in Bhutan. I tried to explain that smoking is bad. In response, I heard that in other countries everyone does this. Now teachers are paying more attention to stories about the history of Bhutan, about the principles of our life, about the concept of Bhutanese happiness, on which we grew up. Nothing bad happens, of course. Just like any child, Bhutan is growing up and is now in a period of transition. This is neither bad nor good. This is a given. And to be happy, you need to accept it.

Real stories of our emigrants - life, problems, work in Bhutan without embellishment. My comrades and I, if you remember, of course, are passionate travelers to different countries of the planet and always travel exclusively together, as soon as the first opportunity arises. And, moreover, we have already visited so many different states of the Earth that it is now interesting for us all to visit the most lost countries. And the less known it is, the fewer tourists there are, the more it attracts us in recent years.

And when we first appeared in the “Himalayan Bhutan”, we immediately fell in love with it, and from now on it has been a permanent place of residence for me personally for almost five years. And, what is most amazing and indescribably alluring, this country never ceases to amaze me, amaze me and discover new and absolutely fantastic mysteries and secrets, from which my head just spins and I so want to live and learn about “Eternally Intriguing Bhutan”.

By the way, I stayed in Bhutan due to one interesting circumstance. My uncle, a zoologist by education, has been living there for almost 20 years. He opens new reserves, explores the numerous world of the most exotic animals of the Earth in the forests, mountains and valleys of Bhutan, which attracts an increasing number of tourists from all over the world. He saves there those animals that before his appearance in Bhutan were on the verge of survival. And now Bhutan even supplies (sells, of course, and for a lot of money) almost all zoos on the planet Earth with the rarest rhinos, Bengal tigers, musk deer, mountain elephants, Himalayan bears, and so on ad infinitum and the delight of animal lovers.

I stayed in Bhutan because of a number of very good reasons for me, and, most importantly, my uncle told me then: “Do not rush to Russia, there is a lot of work for you here too.” I agreed, and then everything went like this:

• Bhutan turned out to be just an amazing state, which consisted of some of the most unique paradoxes and a place of simply shocking contrasts. In Bhutan, everything is arranged in such a way that I have never seen anything like this anywhere before. Although later too.


• In the Bhutanese wide valleys and lands of the mass of tributaries of the world-famous Brahmaputra River, it carries its waters from the northern slopes of the mighty mountains of the Himalayas to the very south of Bhutan. Nature amazes with its diversity and completely inexplicable beauty of such landscapes - the soul is numb with delight, and this is not a fairy tale.


• Uncle is engaged in the wildlife of Bhutan, organizing a number of reserves and parks to attract tourists to the country. He attached me to one VIP resort as a mountain tourism instructor and a guide to the highest points of the Himalayas for climbers from different countries. They, having understood the uniqueness of Bhutan, began to travel here in huge crowds. And I did this for exactly three years, which I liked simply unique and simply unspeakably fabulous.


• I gradually began to get used to the peculiarities and rather peculiar mentality of the local population.


• Bhutan has categorically banned the import of all mineral fertilizers into their country, and even more so "all sorts of GMO tricks." And therefore, in Bhutan, all agricultural products are the most environmentally friendly in the whole world, and therefore they are all incredibly tastier and healthier than any medicine. Yes, they, possessing "the purest vitamins" in themselves are "an invaluable panacea" for any diseases and ailments. One solid delicious health and nothing more.


• It is also interesting that only Bhutan, right up to 1974, did not let a single foreign citizen into its country. And, probably, it was precisely because of this that he was able to preserve to this day the most original culture on Earth. But when the king of Bhutan decided to open the Bhutanese borders, he (although not he, of course, personally, but his government) very thoughtfully and carefully followed and is still watching so that nothing “harmful from modern civilization” gets into their country.


• Let's take this as the most illustrative example of this. When the Americans offered Bhutan to build a Coca-Cola plant on their territory, they were told quite categorically: "Only no chemistry, but only natural products, then yes." And, imagine, the "almighty USA" went for it. But you would know how delicious the Bhutanese Coca-Cola is, which is made according to the recipe of its foundation. After all, there are no dyes, no sweeteners, no flavor enhancers, and even more so there are various harmful E-nis.


• But I, living and working in Bhutan, became, imperceptibly for myself, a completely different person. I became calm and balanced. I lost my "innate vanity" and the desire to do as many things as possible in a day. I stopped rushing to live and found what you call: "The real stories of our emigrants - life, problems, work in Bhutan without embellishment."

And Bhutan is a country of surprise and knowledge of the "truth of the universe." Today, Bhutan is confidently and only progressively moving towards its future, and it will certainly be prosperous and great. This is my firm conviction and for those people who have not been to Bhutan, I strongly recommend doing this at least once. And there you will understand how true and true all my words of this article are. Believe and verify.