Colette's Grand Detour

Bhutan is famously known for not introducing television until 1999, the last country in the world. In fact, tv and internet arrived all at once in 1999, after decades of waiting so that it could be introduced after building the cultural and institutional foundations first. Bhutan has modernized step-by-step. First roads, then schools, then electricity. Television and internet were seen as ‘disruptive modernizers’. Local leaders wanted modernization without westernization. TV and the internet were introduced to mark Bhutan’s Silver Jubilee of modernization and the king described it as a ‘gift to the people’ but with caution to use it wisely. The event symbolized Bhutan’s entry into the global community on its own terms.

The government viewed mass media as something that could deeply alter the social fabric of the country. They believed that access to unfiltered global media could erode Bhutanese values – language, dress code, family cohesion and Buddhist ethics. Bhutan’s leaders looked at other developing countries and saw that they were experiencing rapid cultural dilution. By waiting they ensured that local content production and local language broadcasting were ready before foreign channels flooded the market. From a more practical perspective, most villages lacked electricity and reliable transmission infrastructure until the 1990s. Introducing tv before this, would have benefited only the elite.

Bhutan has modernized in phases and up until the mid-20th century was largely closed to the outside world. It had no paved roads, postal service or currency system. The country used bartering and traded with Tibet and India, but there were no foreign embassies or missions in the country. The third king recognised that total isolation was unsustainable. Bhutan formally entered global diplomacy when it joined the United Nations in 1971. The first 5-year plan (1961-66) built roads, schools, hospitals and irrigation systems and was largely funded by India. In subsequent 5-year plans, electrification, telegraph lines and small-scale industries were built. Bhutan wanted self-sufficiency and avoided heavy industrialization. In the late 70s hydropower began to emerge as a key industry and the country began to open up to tourism.

Today hydropower is Bhutan’s largest source of revenue, foreign exchange and government funding and contributes around 30% to its GDP. There is an overreliance on this one sector for income, so when monsoons are weak or projects are delayed, then national income dips. So the government is looking to expand the industries it operates in. The government is currently pushing IT technology as a ‘clean industry’; suited to the educated youth, with plans to expand data centers, and host startups in software, animation and digital finance.

Once particularly interesting project that is underway is Gelephu Mindfulness City. It is intended to become a new economic growth engine for Bhutan, helping diversify away from hydropower, tourism and aid dependance. The idea is to build a city that is not just economically productive but also spiritually grounded, ecologically regenerative and socially cohesive. It is being developed as a Special Administrative Region and will have its own laws, regulatory region and governance framework. The goal is to attract foreign investment in green technologies, fintech, agri-tech and many other domains that align with Bhutan’s values. The government also hopes it will help retain local talent and reduce emigration of youth, by creating attractive, meaningful jobs at home. The city is located in Gelephu in southern Bhutan, near the Indian border and is reported to be around 1000km^2 in size. It will be served by a new international airport and other transport links to the rest of Asia.

Today around 60% of Bhutanese still rely on farming, with key crops being rice, maize, potatoes, chillies, apples and oranges. The country promotes organic farming and has a long-term goal to be the world’s first organic nation. Agro-processing (fruit-drying, herbal teas, cheese, honey) is growing for both export and tourism-linked markets. For decades, the assumption has been that agriculture would remain the livelihood of most citizens. However, young Bhutanese are leaving villages for the capital or heading abroad. Farming is seen as hard, low-income work and the result is rural depopulation, aging farmers and abandoned villages. The government now sees farming as a strategic and cultural pillar, rather than the dominant livelihood. The goal is now to have fewer farmers, who are more productive, innovative and undertaking sustainable agriculture.

Bhutan’s modernization has been deliberate, values-based and guided by the philosophy of Gross National Happiness. It is a country seeking to balance economic progress with cultural integrity, environmental protection and good governance. Being here now, its easy to see how Bhutan is achieving balance. Bhutan culture is not only dominant, it is all-encompassing in every aspect of people’s lives. And it is working very well alongside modern living like cars, cell phones and global media. I think the absolute best example of this is that there are no traffic lights in the country. Apparently there was at one stage a pilot in Thimphu to introduce them, but the consensus was that traffic lights were not personable and that people preferred traffic police to manually direct traffic with hand signals.