“You will live until you are 65, and then in your next life, you will come back as a pigeon,” announced Mr Pema rather icily. As I took in my Buddhist astrological future, the low humming from the monks’ prayers in the hall next door, coupled with the loud fluttering of hundreds of prayer flags in the impending storm, only seemed to add to the grim inevitability of it all. This was certainly not the start I was expecting when visiting the self-proclaimed land of happiness, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
I was on a quest to understand and experience this nation’s unique aura. This is a land known for its celebrated Gross National Happiness philosophy and its unconditional commitment to preserving cultural and spiritual traditions. It also often seems from the outside as if it exists in another era entirely, and I wanted to learn its secret.
My journey had started by being granted an audience with a senior monk, Mr Pema, at the 16th-century Pangri Zampa Monastery, home to Bhutan’s Royal College of Astrology, in capital Thimphu. As Mr Pema took in my vanishing smile, he tried to hit a more upbeat note.
“If your karma is good, then you will be happier and you’ll be adding many more years to your life,” he proclaimed. It was at this point that my guide, Sonam, chimed in: “By karma, he is referring to all your actions as a human,” he intoned, deep in concentration. Even though it was my life that we were unpicking, this was a deeply spiritual experience for him too, because for believers in the Mahayana form of Buddhism, which is widely practised in Bhutan, astrological readings tend to guide all major decisions and life events.
After a somewhat gloomy overview of my past lives my highpoint was being a naga (half human, half cobra) - I was elated that Mr Pema was eager to wrap up our visit. The hundred or so monks of the college, together with those of all the monasteries in the valley, were busy preparing for the city’s biggest annual religious festival, the Thimphu Tshechu.
“You are blessed that you get to experience a tshechu, so make sure you use your time in Bhutan to be happy,” ordered Mr Pema as he sent me away for my first taste of Bhutan’s miniature of a capital.
There is no denying the grandeur of Thimphu’s setting, but change is afoot in the kingdom’s largest city. While the first thing that caught my eye was a skyline dominated by the imposing peaks of the Himalaya mountains - some over 4,000m high - I saw just as many construction cranes.
“Thimphu has grown dramatically over the last few years, and every time I come back there are new buildings that have popped up,” affirmed Sonam. Indeed, almost one-eighth of Bhutan’s tiny total population of 800,000 now call Thimphu’s narrow valley home. “And to think this was all rice fields just ten years ago,”
