In the land of the Thunder Dragon

With a population of less than eight lakh, Bhutan is tiny – smaller than most Delhi neighbourhoods, as a fellow journalist visiting the Land of the Thunder Dragon for the Mountain Echoes Literature Festival put it. That works out to just 20 people per square kilometre. It's visible around you – there are fewer people and vehicles; and a laidback air that's in keeping with Bhutan's fame as the 'happy' nation.

On the face of it, Bhutan is deeply traditional. Everywhere you see men dressed in the traditional knee-length Gho and the women in long skirts and short jackets made of colourful brocade – the Kira and Tego, respectively. In schools, colleges, offices, marketplaces and Thimpu's karaoke clubs that are filled with revellers till the wee hours of the morning, there's seldom anyone in jeans and T-shirt.

Buildings, many of them built in traditional architectural style with colourful Buddhist motifs painted on the walls, are fronted with portraits of Bhutan's royal family – King Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, Queen Jetsun Pema and toddler Prince Jigme. The audience at the literature festival got up every time Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck walked in or out of a session – this is a country where, despite it embracing democracy a decade ago, hasn't allowed new-fangled ideas of equality to disrupt the traditional mores.

But it's evident that the winds of change are blowing in. As you drive into the capital Thimphu, the suburbs seem to be in the throes of a construction boom, with large showrooms of all the major car-makers. Foreign cars attract a 100 per cent tax in Bhutan, but it doesn't seem to deter the Bhutanese from buying them – Maruti and Hyundai being favourites. It's become bad enough in Thimphu to choke traffic on the narrow roads along the inner city; the only saving grace is that everyone queues up patiently in a single lane.

Bhutan has a different problem from its large neighbour to the south – a rising forest cover, which has gone up from around 45 per cent in the 1960s to 71 per cent now, according to the National Forest Inventory Report published earlier this year. It's great, of course, but there can be too much of a good thing. According to Phuntsho Namgeyl, author of Forest for Gross National Happiness, Bhutan's forest cover could be at the cost of biodiversity – forests seem to have taken over what were meadows earlier. Besides, logging – if done judiciously – could help significantly augment income levels, but no one thought about it. Besides, the thick forest cover attracted wildlife – especially tigers –from Nepal and India.

Buddhism came to Bhutan around the 8th century with Padmasambhava, a Buddhist monk whose origins historians have widely divergent views about – some say he was born in the Swat Valley, while others believe that it was Odisha! But what about pre-Buddhist Bhutan? Sadly, very little is known about it, says Kuenga Wangmo, Bhutan's only archaeologist. Supported by National Geographic, she has discovered ancient zoomorphic rock paintings in the remote area of Lingzhi, a two-day trek from Thimphu. Wangmo is not sure of the dates, but says they probably go back to the first centuries of the Christian era. Unfortunately, follow-up research has been hampered by the lack of trained archaeologists. Even for her trek to Ligzhi, Wangmo had to get her cousins to tag along with her.

More about Bhutan

At Chimi Lhakhang, a temple a few hours' drive from Thimphu, the object of worship is a phallus. Nearby village shops sell phallus mementoes and there are phallus murals all over the walls of houses
Bhutan may have 'Gross National Happiness', but Norway is the world's happiest country, as per the latest UN World Happiness Report. Bhutan comes way down at 97