Bhutan Today, an eight-page morning paper, is part of Bhutan’s attempt to build a free press after its former monarch and fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, forced his largely unwilling subjects to accept democracy earlier this year.

Delivering copies of Bhutan Today will be a chore in a country with few passable roads, meaning newsagents will have to carry it to far-flung districts on foot and on horseback.

The paper has a cover price of five ngultrum, or about 10 cents.

Monks chanted prayers and rang bells and drums were banged as the newspaper’s first copies rolled off the presses at an auspicious hour chosen by astrologers.

Bhutan’s only newspaper until 2006 was a bi-weekly, state-run venture. Two privately owned papers entered the market later — the bi-weekly Bhutan Times and the weekly Bhutan Observer.

There is fierce competition for the small advertising revenue generated in the country of about 700,000 people. There are virtually no private advertisers and only government agencies offer advertisements.

In its first editorial, Bhutan Today complained of unfair competition.

“They asked the Ministry of Information and Communications to deny us a license to operate,” it read.

But Tenzin Dorji, the newspaper’s 32-year-old managing director, said they would overcome teething problems.

“I am confident,” Dorji told Reuters, adding that the novelty of being Bhutan’s first daily could win it more advertisements.

Bhutan’s literacy rate is about 60 percent but newspapers estimate a total readership of only about 12,000 people. Bhutan Today has an optimistic print run of 18,000 copies.

It is written in English but Bhutanese law means it must soon be printed in the local language.

The newspaper launch comes days before the coronation of the new king, 27-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, on November 6.

His father and predecessor abdicated in favor of his Oxford-educated son in 2006.

Bhutan held its first general election in March and parliament endorsed the country’s first constitution four months later, formally turning the absolute monarchy into a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.

Bells and chants launch Bhutan’s first daily newspaper

Most Americans are probably not thinking about Bhutan right now. Sure, some are aware of that tiny Buddhist nation sandwiched between China and India. But Bhutan can seem a universe away. It didn’t have television until the late 1990s. Its main export is electricity. Instead of focusing on gross domestic product (GDP), Bhutan measures gross national happiness (GNH).

Jigmi Y. Thinley, Bhutan’s first democratically elected prime minister, describes his five-year term as “a period within which we will have to prove to the people that democracy itself is worthwhile.” That sounds like a lot of pressure. But when I meet Mr. Thinley at the Bhutan Mission in New York City, he seems quite calm. “I’m not losing sleep,” he admits. Mr. Thinley, born in 1950, is wearing a Western suit. He studied in the U.S., and his English is so articulate that it borders on poetic.

Bhutan’s road to democracy was paved by the fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who decided that the country’s destiny should not be left to accidents of birth. Bhutan is now a constitutional monarchy, and its fifth king was coronated this month.

Many Bhutanese were initially squeamish about democracy. But the election, comprising of two parties with fairly similar agendas, was remarkably peaceful.

“What we have proven is that peace and stability are prerequisites to the establishment of democracy,” Mr. Thinley says. In Bhutan, “without having to worry about their daily security, survival, these basic things — people were able to reflect on the philosophy itself.”

He adds that in many so-called democracies, “you trade your vote for a square meal. . . . The Bhutanese didn’t have to do that.” He draws a contrast to countries where “democracy has been the child of a convulsive process . . . instability, war and revolution. And then, those people who came to power knew how to create revolution, how to stir people, and how to fight against despots and authoritarianism — but did not know how to govern, how to serve.”

Mr. Thinley outlines his idea of good governance: “We have to ensure that in the first five years of our governance we act completely within the confines of the constitution . . . that the rule of law prevails under any circumstance. . . . We will respect and ensure the absolute separation of the three branches of government, that’s the judiciary, executive and the legislature.”

He describes the process of drafting the constitution — there was a committee that referred to the constitutions of the world. Mr. Thinley says the U.S. constitution “defined the conceptual framework within which all other constitutions have been drafted. And so the United States Constitution was certainly a major document that inspired and that was referred to by the constitution committee.”

He rejects the argument that some cultures are not wired for democracy. If there were “any culture where democracy would not be appropriate, then perhaps it was Bhutan!” When he was a little boy, he says, the idea of a democratically elected prime minister was “out of the realm of possibility.”

Bhutan has had its share of problems. In the early 1990s, tens of thousands of people of Nepalese origin fled Bhutan, many accusing officials of driving them out. Thousands are in refugee camps in Nepal. Today, Bhutan may still be far from a full-fledged democracy. But considering other turbulent states in Asia, it seems off to a good start.

Democracy, according to Mr. Thinley, boils down to “the empowerment of the people, the freedom of the voter. . . . giving the capacity to the individual citizen to determine his or her own destiny,” he says. “Now if these are what democracy provides, then I would say that regardless of what culture you belong to, democracy is essential.”

Some will make the (basically pro-authoritarian) argument that some cultures don’t want to determine their own destiny. “People can be made to think that way.” Human beings are a “very interesting species . . . as intelligent as we are we can act and we sometimes appear to prefer to act in the most foolish ways. As much as we inherently search for, yearn for, freedom, we very willingly submit ourselves to subjugation and tyranny. And then find ourselves saying: This is how we like it.”

Mr. Thinley will continue to implement the government policy of GNH. Happiness is not hedonistic, “it is not the kind of fleeting pleasures that we seek.” It has to do with “being able to balance material needs of the body and the spiritual needs of the mind.”

He says the conditions for the pursuit of happiness have four pillars: Equitable and sustainable socioeconomic growth; conservation of the fragile Himalayan economy and environment; cultural preservation and promotion — and good governance.

Mr. Thinley admits that there’s a limit to what the government can deliver. It can try to create the right conditions, but “the individual himself and herself must pursue happiness.”

WSJ.com

The first king, Ugyen Wangchuck, was a masterful warrior-diplomat who was able to crush constant clan warfare and woo the British overlords in neighbouring India. London approved his proclamation of a kingdom in 1907.

When the British withdrew 40 years later, India replaced it as Bhutan’s protector. That role continues today: India is Bhutan’s biggest investor and customer.

The new king is an unexpected addition to the colourful array of personalities destined to play a role in this sensitive India-China border region.

For 34 years, his father, King Jigme Singhye Wangchuck, presided over a potentially tumultuous but ultimately calm period of rapid change. He has four strikingly beautiful wives, all sisters. King Jigme Khesar’s mother is his father’s third wife.

Educated in the United States and Britain, the handsome fifth king, the world’s youngest ruling monarch, is still single. He was catapulted onto the throne in December 2006. With little advance warning, his father, then a vigorous 51-year-old, announced that he would abdicate during the Wangchuck dynasty’s centenary celebrations.

It was time, he told his people, for the Crown Prince to take over Bhutan’s Raven Crown, which is named after the crown’s stylized raven’s head.

Before leaving, he engineered Bhutan’s transition from absolute monarchy to a limited parliamentary democracy. He now appoints five members of the National Council, the upper house, and the people elect the 47-member National Assembly or lower house. In the March election, the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party won all but two seats.

The new government is committed to the fourth king’s notable contribution to theories of national development, the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH). Reacting to criticism in the early 1970s that Bhutan was developing too slowly, he had declared that his kingdom would not rush into the 20th century. Instead, individual and environmental rights would take precedence over headlong entry into modernisation and consumerism.

To a visitor, GNH is most visible in the slow, even tempo of life, the pristine countryside and clear mountain air. Plastic bags and tobacco products are banned. Outdoor advertising for soft drinks, MTV and televised wrestling matches are also not allowed. Said Bhutanese guide Chodrup: “They do little to promote happiness.”

The Raven Crown | My Sinchew