Bhutan Wired


June 14, 2002


BOB GARFIELD: To the remote Himalayan nation of Bhutan. [BUDDHIST MONKS SINGING, CHANTING, MUSIC] Tucked inside the mountains between Tibet and India, speaking its native tongue, Dzongkha, fiercely protective of its traditional Buddhist society, Bhutan has survived independently for thousands of years with little help from the outside world. But even all the Bhutanese King's men can't stop the forces of digitization and globalization forever, and in 1999, Bhutan became the last nation in the world to get cable TV. HBO, the Cartoon Network, the BBC and-- the World Wrestling Federation. [WWF MUSIC, CROWDS CHEERING, ETC]

ANNOUNCER: The Rock has come back to Las Vegas! [HUGE CROWD CHEERING]

BOB GARFIELD: East Asian scholar Orville Schell took one of the rare flights into Bhutan to see what 26 channels of cable and pro wrestling had done to this Buddhist fiefdom.

ORVILLE SCHELL: Kids around the country began acting out roles as if they too were professional wrestlers, cutting cardboard, you know, belts and, and, and all the affectations of this utterly bizarre Western World. It, it, it really stunned people, and people began to wonder what have we done?! I mean why have we let all this in? And one of the most sort of notable effects was that there was much less street life, people used to sit outside their houses and talk, and suddenly everybody was inside watching television! It's very seductive stuff, and there's no way that, you know, a traditional dance at the local Buddhist monastery is going to be able to compete with 26 channels of, of lurid cable-- replete with all of the bombastic commercial advertising that goes with it!

BOB GARFIELD:Well if cultural imperialism is a general problem, this must be a -- a most acute case of it. Is the society damaged in any visible ways?

ORVILLE SCHELL: Well you know I don't think it's more acute --the, the actual effects on Bhutan -- than on any other place in the world. It was simply that this needle went into the arm of Bhutan in such a high speed way -- a, a country that, you know, has a king -- king has 4 queens --they're all sisters -- there's been a tradition of relatively benevolent rule, and one of the operating principles of this small little Buddhist kingdom is a thing called gross national happiness, not gross national product. And the idea being that the measure of what a country and a government does and is should be the happiness of its people -- not simply their economic well being. Well-- cable television I suppose you could say it does increase gross national happiness if your idea is to be a couch potato. But on the other hand this society which had tried to shepherd itself and protect the virtues and the values of its traditional culture and religion suddenly found itself upended in the most violent fashion by this intrusion which it could have controlled but, alas, isn't really controlling.

BOB GARFIELD: Well what have the government ministers and the Buddhist clergy had to say about this sudden infusion of Western low culture?

ORVILLE SCHELL:Well I think most people are rather confused and even depressed by what they're seeing, even people who are involved in owning, running and profiting from the cable systems that are being set up. I think the government made a, a major mistake here, and I think most people recognize it. The question is how do you get the genie back in the bottle?

BOB GARFIELD:So if the culture shock of cable television wasn't enough, about a year later along comes the internet. Are Dzongkha-speaking pre-pubescents dialing up-- teen-sluts.com?

ORVILLE SCHELL: Well it's interesting, in the case of the internet, this was controlled in a way which was somewhat more thoughtful. The government-- became in internet service provider, but they also had the wisdom to sort of filter it with a -- backstop program which did filter out at least a large measure of the pornographic web sites that young people could dial up. And I think in many ways you know the internet -- it's not such a danger to Bhutan because one can make the argument that unlike television it's much less invasive and intrusive, and indeed is a way -- provides a way for a little country that wants to keep a certain distance to be connected -- to be involved -- and to have transactions going on but not be physically invaded.

BOB GARFIELD:Well I guess this all leads to, to-- one question -- and that is the following -- the Bhutanese -- are they liking the Osbournes? [sp?]

ORVILLE SCHELL: [LAUGHS] Well you know I -- you walk down the street of the capital of Thimphu in Bhutan and, and you look through the doorways and you see all these people spaced out in front of, you know, their television screens, and you know you have to ask yourself is this a good thing? I mean it raises that very Monty Pythonish question of the meaning of life -- why, why are we here? Are we here to, to recite sutras in the local monastery or temple or are we here to watch the World Wrestling Federation? I, I, I don't quite know how to answer that. I, I like to watch a little television myself, and I'd be the last one to [LAUGHS] deny the Bhutanese that, that privilege, but I do think, you know, if you're - if you believe at all that there's equilibriums that need to be maintained in a good life, Bhutan is-- one of the last places that has a chance to sort of engineer that equilibrium in an intelligent way, and I'm not sure, you know, all of these cable channels being lofted over the mountains and into these once-sylvan, quiet, peaceful valleys is the way to effect it. On the other hand, I believe in free speech! How can you prevent people from watching what they want to watch? It's a very interesting and, and tricky question to answer with absolute certainty.

BOB GARFIELD: Well thank you very much.

ORVILLE SCHELL: Pleasure.

BOB GARFIELD: Orville Schell is a professor and dean of the Graduate School of Journalism [MUSIC UP AND UNDER] at the University of California at Berkeley. [MUSIC]