The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

Pet-friendly entered illegally over the porous southern border in search of jobs, fer- tile land, education, and health care. The third king granted a blanket amnesty to all illegal immigrants in 1958, making them citizens. But they continued to come, and their Hindu culture could easily swamp traditional Bhutanese mores within a few gener- ations — as it did in neighboring Sikkim. King Jigme Singye Wangchuck will need to impart even more power and not a little wisdom to his subjects in coming years if his bold effort to bal- ance modernization and progress with tradition and continuity is to succeed. Bhutanese ideas about progress, of course, differ from our own. The king’s oft-quoted goal of increasing “gross national happiness” as more meaningful for his people than grow- ing gross national product is not just a cute slogan, and Bhutan deserves more than our bemusement. In its struggles to find equilibrium between issues of national identity and pres- sures to conform, it provides an exam- ple for other developing nations fac- ing similar challenges. I’m going to savor watching, and only wish I could be around to hear how 21st-century scholars record the king’s efforts. ■ O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 63 The king’s oft-quoted goal of increasing “gross national happiness” as more meaningful for his people than growing GNP is not just a cute slogan.