John McCain visited the world’s youngest democracy on Thursday, one month after he lost the race to lead the world’s oldest.
McCain stopped in Bhutan, a tiny Buddhist kingdom nestled high in the Himalayas between IJohn McCain visited Bhutan on Thursdayndia and China, while on a tour of South Asia.
The isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan crowned a 28-year-old Oxford-educated bachelor as its new King yesterday, six months after reluctantly transforming itself from an absolute monarchy into the world’s newest democracy.
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he was handed the Raven Crown by his father, the former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in an elaborate ceremony in Thimphu, the capital. The former King, who is 52, abdicated two years ago as part of a plan to reform the hermit-like Buddhist nation of 635,000 people, which had no roads until the 1960s and allowed television only in 1999.
Many Americans are likely unaware of the other historic election of 2008. Bhutan, once an absolute monarchy, became one of the world’s newest democracies in March.
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).