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Bhutan

Bhutan is a very small and very beautiful country. It's in the Himalayas and is landlocked. China is to the North, India to the West, South, and Southeast. Nepal is to the West and Burma (Myanmar) is on the East. All of these influences come together to influence the country. Most people are Buddhists. Even the non-Buddhists have been influenced by the centuries of the Buddhists priests and monks.

      To give you an idea of the exotic nature, look at the animals. In the hardwood forests of the south, you find the Bengal tiger, one-horned rhinoceros, leopard, and the sloth bear (it eats insects, honeybee colonies, and fruit). You also find a short-earred rabbit with coarse, dark hair called a hispid hare. The temperate zone offers a gray langur (looks like a long, thin pale monkey), the Indian leopard, a goral-an antelope that looks like a goat, serow- an actual antelope. In the bamboo forests, you find the Himalayan black bear, the red panda, wild pigs, and barking deer.In the North you find the snow leopard, blue sheep, Himalayan musk deer, and the Tibetan wolf.The national animal is the Takin, a gnu-goat, that's related to sheep; it also lives in the north.

      The National Flower is the blue poppy. The National Bird is the raven

      Bhutan is called the Land of the Thunder Dragon. It's flag features a gold dragon.

      Food includes rice, buckwheat, and maize. Meat includes pork, yak, sheep, and mutton. They make a lot of soups and stews, using many spices, chili peppers, and cheese. They don't just use chili peppers for flavor; they have dishes of just peppers. Almost all milk, including yak milk, goes into cheese and butter. They drink tea, rice wine, and beer. No tobacco is sold in the country.
     
      There are many languages. The official written script is not used so much in every day life. It is named for a former emperor. Bhutanese may be the most common language, and used in government offices. There are 53 languages all together. Nepali is the one used most by the refugees who are going to Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK. Nepali is the language of Southern Bhutan, and is used by the people of Hindu descent.

      By some scale developed somewhere, Bhutan is listed as the happiest nation in all of Asia, and 5th happiest in all the world. The happiest quotient is deemed more important than financial success. Yet despite all this mountain beauty, the majestic temples posed on the sides of mountains, appearing to sit in the clouds, and this happiness and peace frame of mind, Bhutan is a place of great suffering and sorrow.