If you want a peace of mind, then you have arrived at the right place on earth – a kingdom known for its untouched culture, pristine nature, lush green valleys, and majestic snow-covered mountains. About 60 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture.
Bhutan opened up to the world only in the early 1960’s and tourism was introduced in 1974, the year of the coronation of the Fourth King. The country has been rated as one of the top 20 most exotic travel destinations by the National Geographic Travel magazine. Early European travelers described it as “a country of “majestic mountains, haunting ravines and primordial forests.” According to a survey, the tourists use three key words to describe Bhutan: “beautiful,” “friendly” and “natural.”
Snuggled in the folds of the eastern Himalayas, the only Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas, Bhutan is an island of calm abiding, wedged between the two most populated countries in the world – India and China.
It is a country where Vajrayana Buddhism is a way of life and the government measures development in terms of Gross National Happiness, where democracy was handed “top down” from the Golden Throne. A natural paradise with 70.5 percent of the land still under forest cover, and a great variety of rare plants, medicinal herbs and wildlife, with friendly, polite and easy-going people – it is one of the world’s 10 biodiversity ‘hotspots”.
