The revered Korean Dharma master and socially engaged Buddhist activist Venerable Pomnyun Sunim (법륜스님) has been conducting a wide range of community surveys and social development activities in remote areas of rural Bhutan in recent months, aiming to improve daily life for local communities and to gauge the feasibility for larger-scale sustainable development projects that could serve as models for programs to be replicated around the world. These undertakings, led by Ven. Pomnyun Sunim, are being implemented by the Buddhist humanitarian relief organization JTS Korea in cooperation with the royal family and the Royal Government of Bhutan.
Remote, landlocked, and perched in the rarified air of the eastern Himalaya, sandwiched between two political and economic heavy-hitters India and China, the Kingdom of Bhutan is the world’s last remaining Vajrayana Buddhist nation. The ancient spiritual tradition is embedded in the very consciousness and culture of this remote land, where it has flourished with an unbroken history that dates back to its introduction from Tibet by Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, in the eighth century.
While the Bhutan’s unique holistic approach to economic development has resulted in a healthy level of growth and low inflation over the last 20 years, life in the kingdom is not without very real challenges. Bhutan is regularly ranked among the happiest nations in the world, yet it is also one of the world’s smallest and least industrialized countries. Nevertheless, it has significant experience in managing growth in a sustainable manner, famously encapsulated in its conservative “Gross National Happiness” (GNH) approach to economic development, introduced in the late 1970s by the country’s fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuk.
An alternative to traditional metrics for measuring national development, such as gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP), GNH is founded on four underlying principles or “pillars:” good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, the preservation and promotion of traditional culture, and environmental conservation.
After conducting exploratory surveys of remote communities, and their lives and livelihoods, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim and a team of volunteers and experts from JTS Korea discussed potential approaches to sustainable development in a meeting with Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and members of the Royal Cabinet in the capital Thimphu.
“To begin with, it would be good to proceed with improvements to the living conditions of local residents. According to our survey, about 10 per cent of the communities either lack suitable housing or have homes that need improvement,” Ven. Pomnyun Sunim explained, sharing insights from the JTS team’s site visits. “About 10 per cent of homes that appear fine from the outside are in need of internal remodeling. Overall, it’s the kitchens that are most in need of improvement: in particular, there’s an urgent need to prevent smoke from accumulating inside as these homes use open wood fires for heating and cooking. Also, raising the height of kitchen work surfaces would go a long way toward making life more comfortable as bending over to work can cause long-term back issues for women.
“For larger families, it’s necessary to partition the living space to improve privacy for married couples and grown children. And it seems to be common among the poorest people to sleep on the floor, therefore we should provide some essentials such as mattresses and blankets. There also seems to be a lack of small household implements and agricultural tools. Of course, more specialized farming equipment could be shared communally. . . .”
▶️ Published by BDG on June 26, 2024
▶️ Read more: https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/engaged-buddhism-special-report-ven-pomnyun-sunim-explores-sustainable-development-in-bhutan/
