KINGDOM OF BHUTAN - Community Projects with Tarayana Foundation

KINGDOM OF BHUTAN

If you’re looking for “Shangri La”, look no further than Bhutan!  Upon arrival into the national airport in Paro, Bhutan, we were amazed to experience the most beautiful traditional architecture airport we’ve ever seen.  Immediately, the traditional Bhutanese architecture amazes and embraces you as guests to their country.  Friendly faces from baggage handlers to customs agents welcomed us with warm and friendly smiles.

One quickly gets a sense of calm, tranquility and happiness upon arriving into this immensely green and mountainous kingdom.  Bhutan is truly a magical place with its huge snow-capped Himalayan mountains, colorful Stupas and Temples around every corner, extension foot bridges over rivers and prayer flags flowing in the wind everywhere.  A sense of happiness is rooted in the government’s decision in 2008 to promote happiness within its constitution which is called the Gross National Happiness index. This is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan.  This index is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of their population in contrast to the traditional GDP index of most western societies.  Gross National Happiness is instituted as the goal of the government of Bhutan in the Constitution of Bhutan. Bhutan is a gracious kingdom and operates with a style considered Buddhist-socialist.  This view of Buddhist-Socialism can be observed nationwide through the gracious acts of kindness, sharing and compassion shown and exemplified by the Bhutanese People.  If you are interested in learning more about the broad array of social topics of Bhutan discussed by their Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay, see his live presentation at TED global conference, which has over 2.1mm views: https://www.ted.com/talks/tshering_tobgay_this_country_isn_t_just_carbon_neutral_it_s_carbon_negative

Situated in the Himalayan highlands of Asia and landlocked by India and China, Bhutan is a beautiful forested mountainous Kingdom with only 700,000 people.  Indigenous art, clothing, architecture and customs everywhere, reveal a strong sense of national, Buddhist and cultural heritage and pride of the Bhutanese People.  At every turn, you’ll see the young and old, giggling and smiling.  What is it about this country and their big smiles?  Although no country is perfect, Bhutan truly strives to provide a good standard of living and well-being for every citizen from the urban to the rural communities alike.  This is a far cry from our typical observations with the Inti Raymi Fund’s travels, observing many nation’s capitals draining and bleeding the natural resources of remote rural communities and never giving back for education, medical or other needs of remote villages.

Some interesting observations we noted include: national funding into regions to promote prosperity including maintenance of temples, stoupas and other religious sites, free education through grade 10, free education post grade 10 upon successful exams, free vocational training for non-university bound students, free university scholarships at Bhutan Universities and/or abroad studies, utility bill subsidies for rural communities, nationwide village road unification programs underway, annual tree planting programs, national forests maintained at 65% of total land area yielding Bhutan as a “net carbon sink” whereby as a nation, Bhutan absorbs roughly 3X the carbon than they emit into the environment.

WHAT THE INTI RAYMI FUND DID:

Inti Raymi Fund pleasantly realized the Kingdom of Bhutan has a very strong social fabric of emotional, spiritual, compassionate and financial support for their people.  Further, we honestly believe in the Royal Queen’s Tarayana Foundation and their approach.  Tarayana Foundation provides Respectful help in rural communities including personal interaction and engagement for the “buy-in” on rural community projects, giving Respect & Dignity to the People.  This process is very similar to Our Approach at the Inti Raymi Fund.

In summary, we believe that Tarayana will most effectively utilize our contribution for the service of the Bhutanese People; therefore, we funded their operations directly.  We encourage you to consider supporting the Tarayana Foundation Directly as we did. 

TARAYANA FOUNDATION

You can read more about the Tarayana Foundation:  http://www.tarayanafoundation.org/

TRAVEL IN BHUTAN

We strongly recommend you visit the amazingly beautiful and culturally rich Kingdom of Bhutan and experience their wonderfully warm and compassionate people.  Tourism is a wonderful way to enjoy your life but also, tourism tremendously helps developing countries like Bhutan.  By supporting a country through your tourism dollars, you are voting positively for that country you visit and its’ human rights record, good or bad, so please think before you go somewhere else. 

If you are interested in traveling to Bhutan, we recommend Yangphey Adventure Tours at  http://www.aboutbhutan.com in Bhutan. Our helpful and friendly guide was Norzang Choda with our safe driver, Namgyel.  You can reach them at the link below: