Central Asia

Abstract

Bhutan, the last of the Himalayan Kingdoms, started to capture global attention a few decades ago: for its Shangri-La like nature and culture; for its concept of “Gross National Happiness” (GNH); and most recently for being known as the only CO2-negative country in the world. In several ways, Bhutan seems to be the only non-policy-failure around, yet it remains curiously under-researched in academic terms. It is therefore welcome that three new books are setting out to shed new light on the Land of the Thunder Dragon from a social-science perspective.