The Positive Impact on Gomchen Tradition on Achieving and Maintaining Gross National Happiness

The essay deals with the role of Gomchen, Buddhist lay priests, in achieve and maintain Gross National Happiness

Rade, Development, and the Broken Promise of Interdependence: A Buddhist Reflection on the Possibility of Post-market Economics

Bhutan's stated intention of keeping the value of happiness central to the development process is a suitable counter to the values and karma that prevail in most development strategies and ideals. Given present day realities of unprecedented, accelerating changes and paradigmatic shifts in economic, political, and social practices, any successful strategy for integration into global development processes must be creative in nature. It must, in other words, consist of an ongoing improvisation that is at once virtuosic and virtuous and that brings both greater resolution and resolve into the development process. In this essay the author wants to contribute to this effort by considering the broad landscape of development and trade concepts and practices and their implications for the trajectory of innovations needed to insure that development processes and greater economic interdependence are, indeed, liberating. The auhtor starts by reflecting on the context of present day patterns of development, raising some issues related to history and scale in assessing the effects of increasing global interdependence. He suggestes that present day patterns and scales of globalization have both generated and been generated by the extremely rapid and practically irreversible commodification of subsistence needs—a commodification that (paraphrasing Ivan Illich) has the effect of institutionalizing entirely new classes of the poor. Beyond a critical threshold and unless redirected—that is, informed by radically different values—present day patterns of interdependence will continue bringing about the conversion of communities that have been faring well into aggregates of individuals in need of welfare. Unchecked, the promise of globally extended, deep community will be broken

Cherry Picking in Bhutan

What this paper focuses on is the way that orthodox economic policies can erode and destroy the happiness of a society and its people. It also outlines a range of economic policies and ethics which have the potential to provide a structure within which Gross National Happiness (GNH) might be more effectively created. This is by avoiding some of the mistakes of orthodoxy, and considering alternative 'New Economic' policies that provide room for the many subtle elements that contribute to GNH to emerge

Roar of the Thunder Dragon: the Bhutanese Audio-visual Industry and the Shaping and Representation of Contemporary Culture

The Bhutanese audio-visual industry plays a critical and important role in the creation of cultural products, which are consumed by the masses. The industry's significant role in the preservation and promotion of culture is worthy of state support. Although comprehensive data is not available on the industry, available data and anecdotal evidence prove that the industry is growing and playing its own role in shaping and representing contemporary culture in Bhutan

Folktales and Education: Role of Bhutanese Folktales in Value Transmission

This paper begins by introducing Meme ‘Haylain’ Happiness, a concept drawn from a Bhutanese folktale about an old man, Meme Haylay Haylay, who exchanges his turquoise for a song, and happily returns home singing the song. It questions whether we are ready to pursue happiness in our daily life like Meme Haylay Haylay who had realized that more happiness would flow from singing a song than from guarding the turquoise. The paper then explores the roles of Bhutanese oral tradition in educating children who could not avail themselves of either monastic or modern education. It argues that modern education, which primarily provides secular, pluralistic, egalitarian and market values necessary for running economic, political and legal institutions and the machinery of the modern nation-state is deficient in many ways; it is the oral tradition which fills this gap by inculcating universal, humanistic and Bhutanese values. It also discusses the main functions of Bhutanese folktales which are about trivial events but embedded with multi-layered meanings of great moral and social importance, with experiences drawn from daily life. The common motifs of the tales are chosen to relate them to the daily realities of the Bhutanese people. Lastly, this paper makes some policy recommendations to promote, document, disseminate and study the Bhutanese folktales through the mass media such as the press, radio, TV, internet, and film industry

Public Good Provision in Indian Rural Areas : The Returns to Collective Action by Microfinance Groups

Self-help groups (SHGs) are the most common form of microfinance in India. The authors provide evidence that SHGs, composed of women only, undertake collective actions for the provision of public goods within village communities. Using a theoretical model, this paper shows that an elected official, whose aim is to maximize reelection chances, exerts higher effort in providing public goods when private citizens undertake collective action and coordinate their voluntary contributions towards the same goods. This effect occurs although government and private contributions are assumed to be substitutes in the technology of providing public goods. Using first-hand data on SHGs in India, the paper tests the prediction of the model and shows that, in response to collective action by SHGs, local authorities tackle a larger variety of public issues, and are more likely to tackle issues of interest to SHGs. The findings highlight how the social behavior of SHGs can influence the governance of rural Indian communities

"... a curious and intricate ethnological puzzle": Diversität und rezente interkulturelle Interaktionsprozesse im Hochgebirge Nordwestpakistans

Für den am Randsaum der Ökumene gelegenen Lebensraum Chitral (Pakistan) ist eine ausgeprägte Vielfalt ethnolinguistischer Gruppen charakteristisch. Soziokulturelle Diversität im Hochgebirge ist weniger als Resultat von Rückzug und Isolation, sondern vielmehr als Folge gesellschaftlicher Marginalisierung im Kontext übergeordneter Herrschafts- und Wirtschaftsformationen aufzufassen. Darüber hinaus haben sozialhistorische Entwicklungsprozesse sprach- bzw. bevölkerungsgruppenspezifische Formen der Existenzsicherung ausgebildet, die insbesondere in jüngerer Zeit weitreichender Transformation unterliegen. Bezüglich zukünftiger Entwicklungen birgt eine Überbetonung kultureller Differenz die Gefahr, über stereotype Zuweisungen Distanz und Ignoranz zu befördern und vermeintliche Gruppengegensätze politisch zu instrumentalisieren

Clash of the Paladins: India's Hindu-nationalism in decline?

Hindu-nationalism is generally portrayed by most observers as the largest threat to India's democracy

Pitfalls of participatory programs : evidence from a randomized evaluation in education in India

Statement of responsibility on t.p. reads: Abhijit V. Banerjee, Rukmini Benerji [i.e. Banerji], Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster and Stuti KhemaniSeptember 5, 200