Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Common girl transformed into Queen !

During the Buddhist ritual the king, who is 31, came down from his throne to place a crown upon the head of 21-year-old student Jetsun Pema.Monks chanted to celebrate the union as the king returned to his seat and Ms Pema took the throne as the new queen.Wherever he goes he holds her hand. Now young people are starting to copy.The whole theme of the wedding was to keep it a simple family affair, that is the Bhutanese family.


Although polygamy is legal in Bhutan, the king is not expected to follow his father's example and take more wives.The kingdom is also well-known for its "Gross National Happiness" index - an alternative to GDP - which measures personal happiness as opposed to economic growth.


So are Bhutan's 630,000 people ready for democracy?


There are already elections at the local level, and the king and Crown Prince have been touring the country to prepare their people for the change.The people of this tiny kingdom, perched high in the Himalayas between India and Tibet, hope they can have the best of both worlds: retaining their Buddhist traditions but adopting modern technology - and democracy - at the same time.
They know it is a bold experiment - and they know there's a risk it could fail.

No comments:

Post a Comment