New Perspective On Promoting Happiness

The term, Gross National Happiness, now generally referred to as GNH, was created in 1972 by Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who opened up Bhutan to modernization, soon after the demise of his father, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. He used the phrase to signal his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Although the term was at first offered as an offhand remark, the concept was taken seriously. Soon afterward the Centre for Bhutan Studies, under the leadership of Karma Uru, developed a sophisticated survey instrument to measure the population's general level of well-being. The four pillars of GNH are:

1. Promotion of sustainable development,
2. Preservation and promotion of cultural values,
3. Conservation of the natural environment,
4. Establishment of good governance.

Through collaboration with an international group of scholars and empirical researchers the Centre for Bhutan Studies further defined these four pillars with greater specificity into eight general contributors to happiness:

1. Physical, mental and spiritual health;
2. Time-balance;
3. Social and community vitality;
4. Cultural vitality;
5. Education;
6. Living standards;
7. Good governance;
8. Ecological vitality.

Although the GNH framework reflects its Buddhist origins, it is solidly based upon the empirical research literature of happiness, positive psychology and wellbeing.

The Bhutanese grounding in Buddhist ideals suggests that beneficial development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. At this level of generality, the concept of GNH is transcultural—a nation need not be Buddhist in order to value sustainable development, cultural integrity, ecosystem conservation, and good governance.

The Canadian health epidemiologist Michael Pennock had a major role in the design of the instrument, and uses (what he calls) a "de-Bhutanized" version of the survey in his work in Victoria, British Columbia. Ura and Pennock have also collaborated on the development of policy screening tools which can be used to examine the potential impacts of projects or programs on GNH. These tools are available on the grossnationalhappiness.com website.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Gross National Happiness
• Bhutan
• Buddhist
• spiritual values
• The four pillars of GNH
• transcultural
• British Columbia
• dr. dj verbena
• laftrproject.org
• amy j miller
• Milarepa Center