Inscription reading "Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product" -- written on the wall of a school teaching traditional Bhutanese arts and crafts.

As much as the concept of Gross National Happiness is promoted in Bhutan, there exists a clash between traditional values and modern development. We had the opportunity during our trip to meet an Bhutanese author, Kinley Dorji, who has written a book titled Within the Realm of Happiness. It is a collection of thirteen short stories, memoirs, and essays that represent a mix of childhood memories, travel tales and contemporary reflections on a rapidly changing populace. As Bhutan joins the modern world, Kinley Dorji provides sensitive insights into the dilemmas that the people, and society, confront every day.

If you remember from last week’s post about Gross National Happiness, Bhutan only started to change from a feudal system to a modern democracy in the 1950s. At present time, only sixty years later, Bhutan society is under more pressure than ever before from the forces of globalization, the invasion of commercial media, and the complex implications of development. These forces are tugging at the roots of the traditional values system that kept the Bhutanese society intact for centuries. Decades of spiritual practice and honest hard work is threatened by the forces of materialism.The real challenge is that Bhutan must control change and not be controlled by change.

There are rebels to the traditional values system. While there is a national dress code requiring the populace to wear traditional costumes in public, I noticed that many young people changed to jeans and modern western clothing in the evenings. There is a story in Kinley Dorji’s book about a young couple who convinced their parents to use the family’s savings to buy a television set rather than a diesel-powered rice mill. The television is set up in the living room, opposite the family altar, and its ‘glistening presence’ commands the room. From there, an upsetting tale is told about teenage girls dancing to gyrating music in front of an audience of twenty people who have never seen anything like this before. The evening ends with younger people drinking and watching films they don’t understand because the dialogue is foreign, but they are fascinated by the action. The older people go home because their sight is not so good and they prefer the outdoor dancing of their times. The clash of traditional values vs. modernization is obvious.

Old bridge that was moved from Eastern Bhutan to a new location that is more accessible to tourists.

The preservation of traditional values is also tied to economics. Tourism is the second most important contribution to the economy of Bhutan, the first being the sale of hydropower to India. Because of tourism’s contribution to the economy, it is important for Bhutan to preserve its monuments, temples, and unique ties to tantric Bhuddism. Seeing everyone dressed in national costumes and adherence to the ‘old ways’ helps keep Bhutan a unique tourist destination. In fact, we visited an ancient bridge that we later learned was moved from a location further east than its present location. Why was it moved? Because it was not accessible to tourists in its original location. Bhutan needs to greatly improve its infrastructure to accommodate more tourists. This includes both improvements in road systems and hotel standards.

Our tour bus -- typical of the small buses that travel through the country.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the country of Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon (as the Bhutanese refer to themselves….), as part of a Stanford University Study Group. Our trip was described as a ’suitcase seminar’ meaning that a professor traveled along with us who lectured about the history, economics and culture of the country. It also meant that our accommodations would be booked in the ‘best available’ — that was ‘code’ for expect-some-less-than-western-standard hotels. That was okay with me as I subscribe to the theory that it is the ‘journey’ that is important plus I have some funny stories to now share about some of the places we stayed.

I had always wanted to visit Bhutan, a mountain culture which I expected to find somewhat similar to my own mountain community of Telluride, Colorado. Indeed there are some similarities: life at high altitude (although the central region of Bhutan is not as high as Telluride), reverence of nature, a pace of life that is quieter and simpler than life in larger, busier communities. I was somewhat disappointed to discover that I would never catch even a glimpse of the high Himalayas during my visit. The highway infrastructure is so undeveloped that there are simply no roads that lead to the northern third of the country. The only way to access the high Himalayas is by trekking. There is a famous trek in Bhutan called ‘the Snowman Trek’ which takes visitors north into the mountains, into regions inhabited only by a small percentage of Bhutanese nomads. These people move around with their herds of yaks and sheep, much like the Mongolian nomads. It sounds like more of a ‘young man’s adventure’ to me — strictly camping, living outside in extreme temperatures, hiking up and down valleys, limited food.

I learned that most of the Bhutanese people live in the central region of Bhutan where the largest cities of Thimphu and Paro are located. There is a major two-lane highway that travels east and west through the central region, and this is the main artery for traffic back and forth. The roads are narrow, twisty, and not in very good repair. They are used by trucks and cars alike. Most vehicles are small buses, like the two that we were traveling in, that could wind their way up and down through the mountain valleys on the narrow roads even if dancing precariously close to the edges. I found myself leaning to the inside on more than one occasion!

The 'Main Artery' road through the mountains. We are are meeting on-coming delivery trucks.

The southern part of Bhutan is mostly a farming region and is populated by Nepalese people who have settled across their borders from Nepal.  Historically, the Bhutanese and the Nepalese are very different people originating from different Asian roots. The Bhutanese are most closely related to Tibetans and Burmese people; the Nepalese are more closely related to the people in India and they are Hindu. Bhutan is the only country in the world that claims Buddhism as its official religion. The people practice Tantric Buddhism which dominates every aspect of life in Bhutan.

Many of us who are U3b may or may not know that mtdna haplogroup U3b is often found in the Romany populations of Europe. 55% of Romany are U3b. The fact is, many of us with the U3b dna have origins in Eastern Europe. Don Locke, the administrator of the Romany DNA Project wants to remind us, however, that U3b is NOT South Asian in origin — it was introduced into the Romany population during their migration to Europe.

U3b, found in many Roma clans of Europe, is a good hint to a possible Romany connection in our family trees. There is a reason however, for much more admixture on the female side of the Romany family trees than on the Romany male side: the Romany are more willing to accept European females into the clan than they would be likely to accept European men. Typically, when a European male marries a Roma female, they are banished from the clan whereas when Romany males marry European females, the European females are typically more accepted. Most European men were not willing to conform to Romany customs and traditions so Romany women who married outside of the clan were usually banished whereas European women who married Romany men usually adapted to Romany customs and traditions. So….the U3b admixture found among the Romany typically comes from European females marrying into the Romany clans.

Autosomal testing could be an important factor in determining Romany roots. While U3b can be a good clue to a possible Roma connection in one’s family tree because it is found among multiple Roma populations, autosomal testing should point up some South Asian origins from the male lineage. Y-Haplogroup H is dominant in males among the populations of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan. Because of their South Asian roots, haplogroup H1a-M82 is a major lineage cluster in the Balkan Romani group, accounting for some 60% of the total males. Also, a variation of H1 is also reported in one-third of the males from traditional Romany populations living in Bulgaria, Spain, and Lithuania. This high prevalence of Asian-specific Y chromosome haplogroup H1 supports the theory of Indian origin in Romany clans and a hypothesis of a small number of founders diverging from a single ethnic group in India.

Don Locke presents this metaphor as an explanation of the relation of U3b to Romany populations:  “If we look at the Romany as a wheel, the hub of the wheel or the cog as it is known, is the Founder Romany population i.e. the direct Indian descendants. From that cog are spokes branching out for those who are related to that founder population which in turn forms the wheel or family tree of the Romany. There are direct Asian Indian Romany, and then there is everyone else who forms the spokes of the wheel. Everything revolves around the cog of the wheel, and everyone directly related to the cog form the many spokes which are Romany or part-Romany in origin.”

Although many U haplogroups are found in India, U3b is NOT. It is not South Asian in origin. The conclusion is that mtU3b is NOT part of the cog but instead a spoke of that wheel that appears to have been introduced during the migration of the Romany into Europe.

I have just returned from a three-week trip in Asia, starting from Bangkok and continuing with a comprehensive tour through Bhutan, the land of the ‘Thunder Dragon’. I went with a study group from Stanford University so this excursion was like taking a multi-discipline condensed course in two week’s time! More about that next week…..first we have to finish the saga of the trip down the Grand Canyon.

Last Post from the Grand Canyon

Early morning view of Diamond Peak, on the last few miles out of the Grand Canyon.

Our string of bad weather unfortunately continued. Our mornings would start out promising, with sunshine and clear skies; by lunchtime, we would be checking out the sky, trying to predict when the rains would start. When it rained, it POURED! I regularly sat next to Irv, one of our guides, who I knew would toss me a tarp from his supply box which I used to wrap around me. In short, the rain made things pretty miserable. We had to forgo a number of side hikes up the canyon because of the danger of flash flooding.

By late afternoon when we stopped to set up camp, it was usually dry again. It is amazing how the water dries up in the dry heat of a desert climate. After about an hour, it seemed that the ground was dry. After the camp was set up for the evening and all of us were gathered in a circle enjoying a cocktail or two, the rain seemed like a distant memory.

One evening we played an interesting parlor game introduced by Victoria. Each of us had to tell something about ourselves that the others probably didn’t know. Victoria started the game and set a standard that none of us could compare to by announcing that she had once gone out with Robert Redford! That caught the attention of people who were not even sitting in the circle! But wait….hasn’t he been married for years and years? I think there is more to that story than came out. I made claim to being an amazing small animal trapper and told stories of capturing guinea pigs who had escaped in my basement, scaring wild squirrels out of the house with my cat, and rescuing trapped skunks from window wells. Irv surprised us all by sharing with us that he was a competitive sky diver who had won a number of international competitions.

On our last evening of camping out, we had a dance party on the beach. We were beyond our wet days and enjoying the driest end of the canyon so everyone was feeling very happy and some of us were counting the minutes until we were on our way to hotel rooms in Las Vegas. After dinner, we rigged up a tiny stereo with some portable equipment supplied by one of the guides, and we got together some music between a number of us who had brought I-pods. We danced under the starts to both new and old music, which made a fun end to seven days’ excursion down the Colorado River. All of us survived intact, with stories to tell and experiences to share.

Our arrival in Las Vegas, surrounded by bags of dirty clothes!

I personally will never go down the Grand Canyon again — too much camping for me — but most of our group had a wonderful time and could probably be encouraged to take a longer trip. I appreciated it for the historical value however, and greatly enjoyed hearing the stories about all the river runners who traveled the Colorado River before us.

Our first night in camp was such a beautiful evening that I was lulled into a state of confidence. We were told to put up our tents, but I was tempted to ignore that advice with the thought that I would be completely happy to sleep outside under the stars. In fact, if my sons had not put up our tent, I probably would have made a big mistake.

As dusk was setting in, I started to notice all the spiders crawling around in the sand. Suddenly the thought of sleeping on the ground, snuggling up to all the creepy-crawlies, didn’t seem so inviting. I went right into the tent, zipping up the screened door and window securely. At this point, my husband was still intent on sleeping under the stars but when he began to see the bats dive-bombing his sleeping bag, he changed his mind and joined me inside the tent. There we were — two adults squeezed onto the floor of a small tent.

Heidi wearing her boyfriend's trousers as her wet pants blew away in the windstorm!

In the middle of the night, we heard thunder! How could this be when the evening was so clear when we went to bed? Fortunately our tent had a rain tarp over the roof. The wind began to blow ferociously and we could hear the cracking of branches all around us. We had left a lot of clothes drying on the trees and I began to worry that nothing would be there in the morning. Needless to say, none of it would be dry.

The morning dawned dry and clear, much to our surprise, and everyone talked about the wind and rain storm over morning coffee. We broke camp, loaded the boats and were off to enjoy a lovely morning of floating down the river. But the rainstorm was a warning of things to come: that afternoon we were drenched in pounding rain, making it very hard to enjoy a float down the river. Despite wearing a wet suit, I need to wrap up in a tarp to keep the rain from penetrating.

Huddling under hats and dressed in wet suits, trying to withstand the rain.

As we worked our way down the Colorado River, we had three days of rain. The guides admitted to us that it was the worst weather they had experienced all summer! Unfortunately, the rain prevented us from taking some of the side hikes off the river for fear of flash floods.It seemed that our effort to take the last launch of the summer to avoid scorching temperatures backfired in that we hit maximum rain.

NOTE:  The author of RedTambourine is setting off for an adventure traveling through Bhutan so posts will be suspended until after November 6th due to sketchy WI-FI service.