Posted by Pinky.
Hi. I received another e-mail from Daisy today, who is still in Hawaii (he'll probably be there for another month or so). It made me think so thought I'd share it with everybody. ~ pinky
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Posted by Daisy.
Dear Pinky,
Today was "free day" at the Honolulu Academy of Arts so I went. There is an exhibition going on there at the moment that I know you would have been very interested in. It is called The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan and is an incredible collection of 100+ Buddhist objects, mostly paintings and sculptures. I wasn't able to photograph any of the objects in the exhibition for you, but here are a few shots from outside the museum:
There was an introductory video running as you first enter the exhibit that gives a brief overview of Bhutan. In the video it was noted that in Bhutan, the state/success of the country is measured in GNH (Gross National Happiness), rather than GNP (Gross National Product). According to an independent study, Bhutan is ranked as the 8th happiest country in the world. The U.S.A. is ranked 23rd.
~Daisy
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Posted by Bunny: GNH seems like a good idea. Here's a few pieces from around the internet: Gross National Happiness and Development (an e-book in pdf form by the Center for Bhutan Studies, Karma Ura and Karma Galay, editors); Gross National Happiness: Towards Buddhist Economics (presentation paper by Sander G. Tideman); Gross National Happiness (short essay by Donald Ardell); The True Measure of Success (short article by Daniel Pink, Wired magazine). There's lots more - just Google "Gross National Happiness".
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Posted by Kim: Just to say the obvious - Bhutan has problems too: report from Radio Free Asia, 2006.