The Last Shangri-La

In Bhutan the Culture and Environment Come First

By Deborah McLaren

This summer I visited the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Slightly larger than Switzerland, this "Last Shangri-La" lies between Tibet and the Indian states of Assam and Sikkim. The king has made sure that development takes place at a slow and sustainable pace and insists on the protection of the environment and of Bhutanese culture before anything else, including increased tourism. Fewer than 3,000 international tourists visit Bhutan each year. One limit is the hefty $200 daily fee; another is Bhutan’s isolated location. Those who do visit are environmentally conscious and well informed about Bhutan.

My job was to assist the conservation arm of the Bhutanese government in designing an ecotourism management plan for a newly established national park along the border of Tibet, the Jigme Dorji National Park. Some of the mountain passes are over 15,000 feet and the climbs can be very difficult, with 70º grades. Blue sheep scampered across the sharp cliffs. Occasionally, we entered a foggy valley full of grazing yaks. We seemed to have come to an ancient world or another planet.

I met with the community members to discuss the national park and to encourage their participation in its planning and management. Most of the local people are traditional pastoralists who have little experience of tourists. Their only perceived benefit from tourism is horse contracting. Under our preliminary management plan, community members will participate in study tours to neighboring tourist spots in the Himalayas--Ladakh, Nepal, and Sikkim--to explore the pros and cons of tourism and Western "development." Such an information exchange among Himalayan people has never happened before. It will be interesting to watch where their journeys take them --and maybe us--in the new millenium.

Travel in Bhutan

Visas and hiking permits for Bhutan must be obtained through a registered tour operator. The $200 daily fee covers everything from hotels to food to hiking. To reach one of the 30 government registered tour operators in Bhutan, contact: Tourism Authority of Bhutan (TAB), Attention: Tourist Information, Thimphu, Bhutan; (011) 975-2-23251/23252; fax (011) 975-2-23695. Kingdom of Bhutan at the United Nations, 2 United Nations Plaza, 27th Fl., New York, NY 10017; (212) 826-1919. (Note: there is no Bhutan embassy in the U.S.). Bhutan Travel Inc., 120 E. 56th St., Suite 1130, New York, NY 10022; (212) 838-6382 or (800) 950-9908.

For Bhutan information on the web see: www.bootan.com; Kingdom of Bhutan, www.kingdomofbhutan.com.

DEBORAH McLAREN, director of the Rethinking Tourism Project, works with communities designing alternative tourism projects worldwide. Send information about your environmental travel experiences, tips, and recommended educational programs and ecotour operators to: Deborah McLaren, RTP, P.O. Box 581938, Minneapolis, MN 55458; RTProject@aol.com.