There is A Secret To Bhutan Being One Of The Worlds Happiest Countries And You will Never Believe It

Admin 16-Apr-2016 14:56:25 Inothernews

There is A Secret To Bhutan Being One Of The Worlds Happiest Countries And You will Never Believe It


Eric Weiner claims to be a malcontent and philosophical traveler. When he travelled to Bhutan, a nation that runs on happiness, he learnt something that could be seen as grossly morbid in the western world. In an article which he wrote for the BBC, a doctor who was treating him recommended that he think about death for five minutes everyday. According to his doctor, a fear of dying is what prevents people from thinking positive. Once the mind manages to be at ease with death, life becomes a lot simpler.



Weiner later found out that Bhutanese culture dictates that people should think about death five times a day, but what's surprising is that, it is also a country with a reputation of being the happiest.

A study by the University of Kentucky found people who were made to contemplate their own death often completed the expression 'jo' with words like 'joy'. The researchers concluded that “death is a psychologically threatening fact, but when people contemplate it, apparently the automatic system begins to search for happier thoughts”.

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In a mountainous Buddhist nation like Bhutan, death is all around them in terms of imagery and chances of natural calamities. Buddhist temples and monasteries depict death and pain in gruesome images and dances, which is perhaps how some children learn not to be scared of it.

The death of a person calls for 49 day rituals that are taken very seriously. While mourners may seem detached, they are actually in grief.

Buddhists believe in rebirth until they can attain enlightenment. In death, the soul leaves the body only to take shape in physical form in another living object. Weiner realised that while westerners try to fix the negative emotions, the Bhutanese accept them as a part and parcel of life.

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