Vol. I January, 2016 Gross Naional Happiness is more imporan han Gross Domesic Produc. His Majesy Jigme Singye Wangchuck, The Fourh Druk Gyalpo. Welcome o he firs ediion of he quarerly newsleer from he GNH Cenre! We are happy o share our work and news wih you and hope ha he newsleer is ineresing for all o read. We also invie ineresed people o share shor aricles on heir views and experiences on GNH. The newsleer is a small effor o share wih you he world of Gross Naional Happiness. Wishing you a very happy read! Wha s inside: Looking back a 2015, sensing wha wans o emerge GNH Youh Leadership Program: Moving owards a culure of ransformaive change GNH youh of he 21s cenury GNH a view from he UK Wha GNH means o me GNH- An Inside Job Bhuan is moving owards GNH -focused educaion GNH-in our culure! Upcoming Evens The GNH Cenre Dr. Saamdu Cheri, Ph. D Execuive Direcor GNH Cenre Bhuan The GNH Cenre is a Civil Sociey Organisaion regisered under he CSO Auhoriy. Is main goal is o provide a space of solace for ired ravellers who wish o rejuvenae, refresh and find he purpose of life. Furher, he Cenre will provide space for inner ransformaion of an individual hrough learning and experiencing GNH in living pracice. Every paricipan will be empowered wih knowledge and skills o bring effecive ransformaion in family, communiy and sociey a large, hrough compassion and giving back o our lile plane, he earh, a a ime when i is needed he mos. I is buil on he hope ha no only Bhuanese, bu all naions, will come o undersand and realize he wisdom of GNH, is pracicaliy and urgency, so ha humaniy migh choose o urn away from he mindless, singular sriving for economic prosperiy ha is desroying family, communiy and he plane. I is conceived wih he confidence ha all human beings have he innae wisdom o define rue wealh and prosperiy, he pursui of which will give rise o well-being and susained happiness. In oher words, he Cenre ries o bring he values and principles of GNH o he living pracice of every individual in he counry. However, as we live in a globalised world, wha happens elsewhere in any lile par of he world effecs us as well. Therefore he Cenre offers open programmes o he world, where people may come and be empowered o change hemselves as he ambassadors of change everywhere. The Cenre will manifes in living pracice, Bhuan s Become a member of he GNH Cenre. Log on o www.gnhcenrebhuanbhuan.org 1
unique holisic developmen philosophy of GNH, which inegraes equiable and susainable socio-economic developmen wih environmenal conservaion, culural promoion, and good governance. Togeher we can change he world from one day o anoher. Le us all srive for i ogeher, for wha we show now, so shall our generaions reap... If we canno change, we should sop procreaion on earh so ha here is no generaion o ake on an unhappy world. Looking back a 2015, sensing wha wans o emerge Dr. Tho Ha Vinh, Ph.D Program Direcor GNH Cenre Bhuan 2015 has been a year of profound changes, as i becomes more and more apparen ha he curren sysem is coming o an end and ha a new realiy wans o emerge. Gross Naional Happiness can be a major source of inspiraion o sar envisioning he emerging social, culural and economic srucures. On he world sage The heme ha, in my view, connecs many apparenly disconneced evens is he noion of inerdependence, or as Thich Nha Han calls i: Inerbeing. And, a he same ime our inabiliy o live up o i, manifesed by he lack of inernaional leadership and vision in a ime of global challenges. COP 21: he alienaion beween Self and Naure Alhough an agreemen was reached, i is far from addressing he roo causes of he ecological crisis: he disconnecion beween mankind and Naure; and an economic sysem ha is inherenly desrucive, obsessed by endless growh in a finie world. Moreover, world leaders have by and large no been able o overcome narrow naionalisic perspecives as hey ry o address issues ha are by naure planeary. The kingdom of Bhuan is a shining excepion, he Himalayan counry has made he world s mos far-reaching climae promise o he Paris climae summi, according o new analysis from a respeced climae change hink ank. The refugee crisis in he Middle Eas and in he EU: he alienaion beween Self and ohers Wesern colonialism drew false borders in he Middle Eas and in Africa and creaed arificial counries ha had neiher, culural, hisorical, nor ehnic legiimacy; o he presen days, many conflics are a direc resul of i. Moreover, he major world players use all sors of local facions as proxies o advance heir specific goals - ofen relaed o heir greed for naural resources such as oil - wihou aking ino consideraion he acual needs and aspiraions of he local populaion. I is also remarkable how he reacion o he crisis spli he wesern populaion and leadership beween hose who rose o he occasion, such as many people in Ausria, Germany and oher counries or Chancellor Angela Merkel, and hose who reaced by waning o close he boarders, bolsering naionalisic egoism, such as many far righ poliical paries all over Europe. Likewise i is impossible o reflec on he refugee crisis wihou aking ino consideraion he exreme inequaliy in disribuion of wealh and resources. The curren economic sysem has deepened inequaliy no only beween developed and developing counries, bu even also wihin rich socieies. The so -called erroris aacks: he alienaion beween Self and self This major crisis is relaed o he previous one. The scale and violence of he Paris incidens riggered a worldwide oucry ha is of course legiimae, bu which also ends o cover up boh he roo causes and he overall conex. Likewise, he reacion of he French leadership, declaring war on error and sending figher jes o bomb Syria did lile o address he acual problems. Afer all, he people who acually conduced he aacks were French 2
ciizens, born and raised in France. In he 20h cenury, he need for cheap, low qualified laborers araced many people from he former colonies o indusrialized counries and here was lile underaken o acually inegrae hese workers and heir families; and when modernizaion of producion creaed massive unemploymen among his secor of sociey, maerial povery was worsened by culural desiuion, and lef he nex generaions in a void, belonging neiher o heir ancesral homes and culure, nor o heir new counry. The only ideal hey me was he consumeris model where he value of an individual is measured by heir maerial belonging, from branded clohes, o expensive gadges, and fas cars. Bu none of his was available o hem by legiimae means, and radical ideology only me a void ha begged o be filled and offered a pseudo ideniy o people who suffered from no having any. An old sysem is dying, and a new realiy is waning o emerge These are bu some of he many sympoms ha seem o indicae ha an old sysem is coming o an end and ha a new realiy is waning o emerge, alhough we only begin o sense wha he new paradigm will be. Some elemens seem clear o me, even hough he way i will manifes on a larger scale is sill o be invened: Redefining developmen models from a fixaion on maerial and economic growh o a focus on Happiness and Wellbeing for all, including non-human life forms and he plane. Gross Naional Happiness is a good model for such a new paradigm. Redefining he role and posiion of he economic sysem from he absolue ruler of sociey, based on compeiion and profi, o a servan of human needs (raher han greed) based on cooperaion: Caring Economics. Rehinking our shared humaniy, no as economic agens sriving o maximize our profi a any cos (homo economicus), bu as fellow pilgrims on Plane Earh, our common home and our Sacred Moher. Three keys o Happiness and Wellbeing Educaion from kindergaren o universiy needs o refocus is goals and, in addiion o he usual academic and inellecual achievemen, include a cenral emphasis on Mindfulness and Compassion, as well as Social and Emoional Learning (SEL),-* as fundamenal compeencies ha each one needs o rain and develop o become a full human being. Three key objecives could define educaion a all levels: Connecing o Self: raining he mind hrough Mindfulness and oher similar pracices o suppor he awareness of our deepes aspiraions and highes poenial. Connecing o Ohers: conscious culivaion of Compassion and Alruism as fundamenal human qualiies. Connecing o Naure and o Moher Earh: rediscovering he sacredness of Earh, Waer, Air and Fire, of Mounains and Rivers, of Fores and Oceans, of he Animal Kingdom and he Plan world. We can be confiden ha inner ransformaion is possible if we jus se our inenions righ, and ha inner ransformaion can lead o collecive and social innovaion and change. We have creaed he sysems we live in, hey are he produc of he human mind; herefore he mind can also change and ransform he sysems o make his Wonderful Plane a beer place where all beings can live ogeher in peace and harmony. These are some of he ideals ha give meaning o my work a he Gross Naional Happiness Cenre, Bhuan. 3
GNH Youh Leadership Program: Moving owards a culure of ransformaive change 4 Wesel Dema Program Officer GNH Cenre Bhuan The GNH Youh Leadership Program wih 23 paricipans (14 Inernaional and 9 Naional) sared from 18 January 2016 30 January 2016. The program was designed for young people o spend ime ogeher in naure, discuss GNH values and ook place in, Gelephu, Wangduphodrang and Paro. The aim of he wo week program was o deepen he pracical undersanding of how we can bring more compassion and wisdom o our personal lives and he communiies we live in hrough he values of GNH. The program combined a deep rerea wih ravelling hrough he counry. I was boh an inner spiriual and ouer physical journey, which helped he paricipans undersand how effecive and auhenic social change goes hand in hand wih self ransformaion. The program kicked off wih guided mediaion and an inroducion o GNH by Dr.Saamdu Cheri, Execuive Direcor. The paricipans ineraced and held discussions on how values of GNH be implemened in heir daily lives. The day included visis o communiies and monaseries and owards evening, hey refleced and shared heir feelings on he sighs hey experienced during he course of he day. Some highlighs of he program were visis o he Bhuan Nuns Foundaion, Youh Developmen Fund and VAST. GNH Cenre believes in parnering wih oher CSOs o creae and promoe he work of CSOs in Bhuan. They also voluneered for he reconsrucion of he Wangduephordang Dzong. During his program, Clean Bhuan was invied o share heir work and purpose. In addiion, wo youh paricipans of he previous youh program also visied he GNH Cenre o share how he GNH Youh Leadership Programme changed heir oulook. The paricipans also camped near a Tshachu (ho spring) in Gelegphu. Their pahs were srewn wih he values of GNH for inner ransformaion, wih daily evens like mediaion, reflecion circle, presenaions, connecion o naure, mindfulness pracices, group work, dialogue and solo ime. The program concluded wih a mediaive hike o Takshang, Paro. GNH youh of he 21s cenury Drona D Cheri Program Youh Coordinaor GNH Cenre Bhuan Le us sar wih a sory abou wo wolves. One is darkness and despair, and he oher is ligh and hope. They always figh, bu he quesion is, which one wins? There s a lo of wrong and bad hings ha are happening in he world. We have survived his far because our ancesors buil srong foundaions for us, and for he world. Now he whole burden of responsibiliy lies in our hands. Wha we do oday will define he omorrow for he nex generaion. The quesion ha we read a he beginning sill needs an answer. Which wolf wins? I s a quesion we should ask ourselves every day. There s always a figh going on inside our hears and minds. If you
wan o believe ha he world is ending, so be i, i will end. Or do you believe ha here is sill hope for our world? Youh, our young people, are full of passion and love, and are fresh o his world. They are he fuure. They are he main srengh for a beer world. The world and he fuure depend on wha we are going o do oday. Youh are he hope and ligh for every one of us, and for he fuure generaions. A his ime here are lo of empaions and disracions. I is easy o fail o undersand he real meaning of life. People ge disraced because of heir curiosiy a he abundance of informaion good and bad, and do some hings ha will harm he world and hemselves. We, being he guardians of he nex generaion, mus hink gravely before doing somehing. Time is no going o wai for us. We should make a change and ake he responsibiliies seriously. Raher han jus enjoying and surviving, we should learn how o live he life ill he fulles. Raher han being ignoran, we should unie in love and peace and move forward o he beer fuure. We are he fuure and we have o be selfless and wise o see, and o differeniae beween wha is good and wha is no. I s up o us which wolf are we going o feed. GNH a view from he UK Ania Buler Proofreader, Copy-Edior and Word-sylis Raw Tex (rawex.co.uk) Devon, Unied Kingdom Wha has Bhuan, a iny kingdom housands of miles away in he foohills of he Himalayas, go o do wih life here in he UK? I is he birhplace of Gross Naional Happiness, which has become inegral o a global conversaion quesioning he assumpions behind he sysems in which we all live. Alhough borne ou of Bhuan s ancien pas, GNH grounds iself in he realiies of he modern world. I is a robus challenge o ou-daed paradigms and dogmas ha are failing humaniy and he plane. One of hese dogmas is Gross Domesic Produc. Used o measure he economic performance of counries, GDP has parly been responsible for he unresrained consumpion of finie naural resources ha has caused long-erm consequences for he earh s ecosysems and wildlife, and conribued o global warming and climae change. Defining human developmen in erms of maerial abundance, i has promoed he illusion ha consumpion alone creaes wellbeing, and ignored vial aspecs of human exisence social equaliy, physical and menal wellbeing, spiriual and culural engagemen, and environmenal conservaion. Tha is no o say ha GNH is incompaible wih GDP. Developed from inuiive wisdom and concepualised ino 9 domains including Good Governance, Susainable Socio-economic Developmen, Preservaion and he Promoion of Culure and Environmenal Conservaion GNH is a balanced middle pah and akes a long-erm view. Holisic and human-cenred, GNH undersands ha wihin he conex of he personal, social and envi- 5
ronmenal wellbeing of people and he plane, economic growh has is appropriae place. Wha makes GNH revoluionary, however, is ha i speaks on boh a pracical and an inuiive level, acknowledging he complexiy of humaniy as being more han economic unis. Ye, while i is emping o romanicise and idealise, we mus remain raional and realisic. Alhough no sysem so far has been perfec, GNH iself knows i should be par of a complex jigsaw. As HRH Princess Kezang Choden Wangchuck says, We do no claim ha i is he bes opion. I has is limiaions. We see i as a dynamic design ha mus be consanly enriched and improved wih he help of people from all walks of life who bring wih hem immense experience and knowledge wih a shared inspiraion o creae a beer world. Mankind has ye o find he perfec paradigm, bu in a world of financial disarray, depleing naural resources and poliical crises ha consanly hreaen war, GNH will go a long way owards an evoluion of curren sysems, and make a serious conribuion oward he improvemen of he wellbeing of mankind and he world in which we live. 6 Wha GNH means o me Lhaki Woezer Fashion blogger for Sain Diaries (www.sain-diaries. com) and kushuhara Diaries (www.kushuharadiaries.blogpso.com) Inern a he Royal Texile Academy of Bhuan. Gross Naional Happiness o me is he deepes and mos pracical approach o measuring he growh and social progress of a counry. Ye while i makes perfec sense o me now, i ook me a long while o undersand i. I sill remember he days in my 10h grade, when I would argue wih friends abou how i seemed a lile unreasonable, jus a heory and no a pracice, only because I didn know beer and my opposing friends couldn give me a reasonable doub. Wha I argued mainly was how i was impossible o be happy wihou money, for all I cared abou was o win my friends lunch money. I was shallow of me o hink like ha, and ha was jus he ip of he iceberg. Mos of us use he erm Gross Naional Happiness loosely, wihou undersanding is essence, parly because GNH was a concep wih is framework being buil over ime, wih broader indicaive parameers. I don know if I have a flair for debaes bu I remember having anoher argumen wih an American friend of mine called Dusin when I was in college. Here is anoher hing ha I have learned. Happiness is subjecive and wha makes us happy doesn always make ohers happy. By us I mean we Bhuanese. Happiness is very culural and environmenal o is core. GNH is no an approach ha compleely denounces GDP, and i would be almos impossible for GNH o be as universal an indicaor as GDP is righ now. Gross Naional Happiness is an approach ha needs ime o age, prey much like he mos expensive wine. For now wha we can do is sar on ourselves as individuals and do hings ha make us happy, be i physically, emoionally, menally, financially, or ecologically. Wha is amazing abou he GNH index is ha i is made up of 33 G e v i i m T
differen indicaors, and objecive indicaors are given more weigh han subjecive indicaors, so wha makes you happy is bound o fall under anyone of he 33 indicaors ha collecively make up he GNH index. Don fre abou he echnicaliies or anyhing, jus work owards your own happiness, hen o your families and friends, and hen as unis of families and friends, and o he naions as a whole. And hen maybe evenually over ime we can overcome challenges, cross ha ransculural border, and finally spread GNH o he world. On ha day maybe I could pick a debae wih Dusin, and I migh acually sand a chance of winning. We all have one life o live, so we migh as well live i in happiness. I jus makes perfec sense o me. GNH- An Inside Job Pema Yangsho Co-ordinaor Jangsem Monday has now been adoped as he millennium goal. I believe i is very imporan for a counry o have values as we develop. Developmen wihou looking afer he basic necessiies of a person will resul in disaser, as we have seen all over he world. The very laes concep of GNH has been broken down ino smaller pars and exended o maerniy or paerniy leave. Through his we can see ha he governmen is concerned abou he upbringing of children, raher han implemening more work hours, because love and care means more han jus making money. You see, GNH is abou wha you can do for he counry, no wha he counry can do for you. I all sars wih oneself, and being a spiriually Buddhis counry we may find happiness and peace wihin ourselves while being compassionae and helping ohers. And i comes back o you. like Karma: wha goes around comes around. Tha in iself helps raise he GNH flag. And i is in our hands o srenghen GNH. If we all pu in he effor, we will realize we are responsible for all he houghs and acions ha make and break us. If your reckless acions lead o someone s demise and desrucion, i comes back o you. Even wih suicide cases and he menally ill, hey are he cause of our own acions and our reacions. If we really wan o implemen GNH, we need o correc and change our houghs and acions o beer improve ourselves and everybody. I believe posiive ehical acions will enhance GNH and enable us o sand sronger. I believe we are mean o individually sar being responsible firs. GNH is how you behave. GNH is an inside job. GNH for me sars a home, from he food we ea, he good houghs we hink, o he ehics and values we uphold and acion we ake. I is and can be in he mos simple erms, as His Majesy describes i, developmen wih values, conribuing o our menal and physical wellbeing and seing a foundaion for our own happiness. Even a simple ask like eaching a child how o mediae can be broken down o waning hem o achieve psychological wellbeing. This idea of our fourh king has inspired many and 7
Bhuan is moving owards GNH -focused educaion Paivi Ahonen Universiy of Oulu Finland of a good, happy and susainable way of life. Sudens of he secondary schools also drew picures of he hemes of GNH and susainable developmen. Based on he maerial, I am now wriing an aricle abou How he drawings of Bhuanese secondary school pupils reflec heir percepions abou GNH s Four Pillars. Due o my background as an educaionis and experience working in educaion developmen in many counries, I have been ineresed in Bhuan s educaion developmen for some years now. Afer learning abou Bhuan while working wih he Royal Educaion Council over five years ago, I became inspired o iniiae he process of wriing docoral heses on he heme of Sraegies of Bhuan in implemening he Gross Naional Happiness policies - How is GNH philosophy applied in he conex of educaion for susainable developmen? The heses are par of he docoral sudies in he Universiy of Oulu, Finland. The conens of he firs aricle was based on he inerviews of he eachers, principals, educaion adminisraors and NGOs in Bhuan in July 2012. According o he conclusions of he aricle of Bhuanese Teachers Percepions abou Gross Naional Happiness in Educaion for Susainable Developmen (BJRD, Ahonen, Thinley, Korkeamäki, 2013), he educaion sysem in Bhuan has developed and increased he capaciy of eachers o inegrae GNH policies ino he eachers classroom pracice. Implemening he new GNH educaion policies and sraegies in he classrooms has helped he eachers o innovae and adop new mehods of eaching. Teachers also saw he imporance of exending heir eaching ino communiy life. They fel increasingly comforable pracicing mindfulness, engaging in more criical hinking habis, and appreciaing he role of media lieracy in he eaching of differen subjecs. In March 2014 he Minisry of Educaion approved he reques o gaher maerial for he research in hree schools in Paro. The quesions for 198 sudens and 49 eachers were abou he opics 8 Our counry is called GNH counry because in happiness, we celebrae ogeher and when we grieve, we grieve ogeher as if we were all members of one family. If here are works o be done, we share equal responsibiliy in carrying ou he work and when we face problem, ogeher we solve he problem. - His Majesy Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. c a i n p c o a f s w m u a o e c d b
GNH-in our culure! Nima Tshering Communicaions Officer GNH Cenre Bhuan We have very rich culure and ways of life, bu hese are a high risk wih wesern influence. The challenge is o preserve our culure by pracicing and making hem par of our lives. Our culure is imporan o he fuure of our children and o our naion, because culure ensures a hisory, a pas, presen and cerainly a fuure. The fuure of he naion lies in he hands of our children. They are our fuure! And hey mus carry our ideniy. They deserve o be cared for, direced arigh, nurured, and culured, and prepared ready for he fuure of he naion. We mus make an effor o susain our culure. Our effors o preserve and promoe culure should never sop. I has o be a coninuous process wih progress. The culure in which we grow up molds our views of ourselves and he world around us and mainains a connecion wih our ancesors and radiions. The feeling of belonging o a group of people wih whom we idenify is a human need ha ges expressed by learning and cherishing one s ehnic religious and culural heriage. This idenificaion is very imporan in shaping our ideniy. Our culural values should be implemened in daily life ha consiue a GNH living. Man is no only a social animal bu also a culured being. Man s social life has been made possible because of culure. Anonymous. Today, GNH has come o mean so many hings o so many people bu o me i signifies simply - Developmen wih values. Thus, for my naion oday GNH is he bridge beween he fundamenal values of kindness, equaliy and humaniy and he necesssary pursui of economic growh. - His Majesy Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. 9
Recen: Journey hrough GNH I (16 Feb 22 Feb, 2016) A week long program, Journey hrough GNH ook 14 paricipans from Vienam, Unied Kingdom, Ausralia, France, Sweden and Turkey on a journey o reflec and use mindfulness echniques for inner ransformaion; implemening he values of GNH. They visied Punakha and also Wangduephordang, where hey voluneered for he Dzong reconsrucion. The paricipans came up wih following prooypes: 1. Happiness Business Plan 2. Freedom and happiness for children 3. Model of a happy brand 4. GNH peer & nework: GNH in acion - concep Upcoming Evens: Inernaional Happiness Day Celebraion (20 March, 2016) The Righ Livelihood Programme, UK and Bhuan Finding Deeper Purpose ( 2-13 May, 2016) Global Wellbeing and GNH Lab (4-8 April, 2016 ) Journey hrough GNH(18, April-29, april, 2016) once every wo monh. GNH Cenre Bhuan, Jaffa s Commercial Bldg. 3rd Floor-Fla No. 302GPO Box 443 Changlam, Regisered Office: Dewaling, Chokhoroe Pos Office Jakar, Bumhang Phone: +975-2-321263/322354 Fax: +975-2-332275 www.gnhcenrebhuan.org Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/gross Naional Happiness Cenre Twier @GnhcenreBhuan Insagram:gnhcenre 10