For the last two weeks, I’ve been breathing the rarefied air of the Himalayas in Nepal and Bhutan, traveling with my friend Don Maruska and hosted by skilled native guides in both countries. We can learn a great deal from these two mountainous nations—especially Bhutan.
Both nations host thriving, newly established representative governments, and their people are committed to democracy and social justice. Nepal as a secular republic, Bhutan as a constitutional monarchy.
Nepal is struggling to deal with massive pollution, the chaos of urbanization, and a messy transition to a boisterous democracy within a pluralistic society. The Kingdom of Bhutan offers a quite different path. Here, there appears to be a national consensus that the monarchy serves as a national symbol of unity and cultural identity.
That culture is clearly visible from the moment one lands at Paro International Airport, where a dazzling, modern facility displays a unique style reminiscent of Switzerland. Crystal-clear rivers flow from the high Himalayas through bucolic rural landscapes surrounded by deep forests. With no large cities—its capital, Thimphu, is less than 150,000—Bhutan’s population clusters mostly in small hamlets distributed along the river courses. Two- and three-story multi-generational houses and small shops all feature the characteristic architectural style. Cows roam freely through the narrow streets.
Everywhere in Bhutan, people welcome us with smiles, and most are dressed in their traditional national attire: For men, a gho, the knee-length, loose-fitting silk wrap-around robe that looks surprisingly good. For women, it’s a kira, a slim-fitting patterned dress and bright-colored jacket. Among themselves, they speak Dzonghka, their unique national language, but English is universal.
With the combined leadership of Bhutan’s royal family as well as its independent political leadership, this nation of fewer than 800,000 is committed to mitigating the devastating impacts of climate change. They’re extremely concerned here about the disproportionate impacts they are facing as global temperatures rise. As their massive glaciers retreat, entire watersheds downstream are at risk of catastrophic failures of fragile rocky moraines that back up huge volumes of meltwater.
Bhutan is mobilizing its resources for this mission to combat climate change, and it’s taken a leadership role on the world stage. It’s become the first nation on the planet to be carbon negative: Almost three-quarters of its land area is forested, providing a key “carbon sink” that offsets its greenhouse gas emissions.
Their Constitution requires that they retain at least 60 percent of their land area as forests; 50 percent of their land is protected in national parks, wildlife refuges, and biological corridors. In its southern province, Bhutan is building an entirely new city, Gelephu, using Buddhist principles of unity with nature and compassion for all.
These are impressive achievements, considering that the United Nations has just advanced Bhutan from “less-developed nation” status to that of a “developing” nation in December 2023. (Nepal is expected to do the same in 2026).
This dramatic and positive progress by Nepal and Bhutan offers important insights to our own polarized nation. The contrast is clear: Two small nations are proud of their thriving democracies and their commitment to limiting greenhouse gas emissions. In our own country, an erratic demagogue has abandoned all pretense of respect for democracy, the rule of law, and the reality of our climate catastrophe. A recent publication in Bhutan, The Druk Journal, focuses on their national commitment to mitigating climate change—while here in the U.S., the Trump administration squelches any mention of climate change, fires scientists, and cancels renewable energy programs.
Bhutan has the advantage of a relatively homogeneous population in terms of ethnicity and religion (three-quarters of its people are Buddhist). It also has relatively high literacy, two-thirds of the population. As early as the 1970s, Bhutan established happiness as a national goal. and they regularly measure not GNP but “gross national happiness” (GNH).
In the U.S., we set as one of our founding principles that each American has the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Bhutan is implementing that ideal.
The U.S. has clearly abandoned our historic legacy as “leader of the free world,” except in a distorted commitment to continued and even accelerated consumption of fossil fuels. In Nepal and Bhutan, they’re fully aware that their delicate Himalayan ecosystems make them uniquely vulnerable.
In the absence of leadership from the United States on any of these fronts, I urge us look to the example being set by Bhutan. I’m inspired by what they’re doing, and it’s comforting to know that, at least in this corner of the world, there’s a consensus that we must address this existential threat of climate change. Δ
John Ashbaugh wrote this column from Bhutan. Send comments to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in May 15-25, 2025.
John A.
Aaaaw, how cute. Retired liberal visits exotic location, pines for an America that never existed.
“The U.S. has clearly abandoned our historic legacy as “leader of the free world…”
From the landing of Puritans on American soil to its nuking of two large, japanese cities in WWII, it’s “historic legacy” is mass murder. We’ve rampaged around the world exploiting its people and resources so it’s dynastic, WASPy, members of C.Wright Mills “Metropolitan 400” can continue to acquire and hoard the surplus value of the products created by the world’s workers.
As we can see now, those days have come to an end. The global south has organized and basically written us out of the equation. They are not using the dollar in bilateral trade and the Saudis are selling oil in yuan.
Here in the US we suffer under the effects of money printing, inflation, and an Orwellian media that has convinced many Americans that poverty is wealth, war is peace, and up is down. Both parties are corrupt and jobs will never return. At this point, work is pointless. We have no future other than living in cardboard boxes and eating Soylent green or weeds. We will also need to pay the $50 fee for the permits or licenses to live in our cardboard boxes. If one doesn’t have the money for the cardboard box license, one can always work it off at Elon or Bezo’s factory or Maggie’s farm.
So enjoy the hermit kingdom of Bhutan, pray McDonald’s and Starbucks never open there.
Johns version of America is the one he grew up in the 1950s, howdy doodie, cowboys and Indians, and Leave it to Beaver. He still believes it, lol.
John A:
It’s pretty common to read novels while abroad, it looks like you never picked up Kurt Vonnegut, Howard Zinn, Eduardo Galeano or my favorite, Gore Vidal
Bhutan sounds like a place I would enjoy visiting, although I think I will stick with my usual cargo shorts, T-shirt and flip flops instead of the traditional Bhutanese garb.
I hope that Mr. Ashbaugh appreciates the irony of his praise for the Bhutanese monarchy in the same article that he is bemoaning Trump’s threat to democracy. With our fractious government, I have often wondered whether a benign monarchy might be preferable to our current toxic arrangement. The big problem seems to be ensuring the “benign” part.
I wish Bhutan great success in conquering climate change, although with their small size relative to their carbon-producing neighbors China and India, I am afraid that their efforts will be as impactful as a gnat fart in a hurricane.
John D:
Let’s just get rid of the Executive branch altogether, there’s an argument to be made for doing so. We just need a people’s assembly, Congress. Then again, if we did, Congress could no longer punt when it comes to matters of war and peace.