The flight attendant leant across me and without warning snapped up the plastic window blind. Before I could say anything, he points his finger to the window and says, “Mount Everest.”
Another "mountaintop kingdom" (well, at least historically) like this is Ethiopia. Ostensibly much easier to access than Bhutan with arguably a much less enlightened government, Ethiopia's still stands as a unique and ancient culture that was largely insulated from outside influence until the late 20th Century. As a result, tradition and modernity interact in very fascinating ways there:
They still use a 13-month calendar, still have a distinct way of telling the time (the day starts at 6am), still have Africa's only indigenous alphabet (with an intimidating 230 characters!), and still largely follow Orthodox Christian and Muslim practices that predate and are very distinct from the newer varieties that you'll see in countries that you'd more readily associate with those world religions (Ethiopia is mentioned in both the Bible and the Qur'an and has a decent claim to being both the first officially Christian and Muslim countries, respectively).
Things are certainly more globalized than when I was living there in the early 2010s, back when you couldn't even get a 2G data connection from the state telco monopoly and voice service was spotty-to-non-existant. But Ethiopia still strikes you as a sui generis type of place that's just hard enough to navigate as a tourist that you get that special experience of being a traveler to a place that doesn't exist on your behalf. I woke up every day there and found the most basic assumptions of my normality questioned. I felt constantly mystified and intrigued. I also found it extremely frustrating regularly. But that's the cost of truly encountering difference!
This was delightful to read! I did not know about this new city in the south of Bhutan. I'm from Bangladesh (which lies across the Indian border from Bhutan). The King of Bhutan will be visiting us in the next few days. Bhutan is planning to develop a special economic zone in northern Bangladesh near the Indo-Bhutan border. I hear this SEZ will be a green zone, eco-friendly, sustainable and all. So your post kind of completes my jigsaw puzzle. A potential Bhutanese SEZ in Bangladesh will probably complement the sustainable city being planned on the Indo-Bhutan border.
Another "mountaintop kingdom" (well, at least historically) like this is Ethiopia. Ostensibly much easier to access than Bhutan with arguably a much less enlightened government, Ethiopia's still stands as a unique and ancient culture that was largely insulated from outside influence until the late 20th Century. As a result, tradition and modernity interact in very fascinating ways there:
They still use a 13-month calendar, still have a distinct way of telling the time (the day starts at 6am), still have Africa's only indigenous alphabet (with an intimidating 230 characters!), and still largely follow Orthodox Christian and Muslim practices that predate and are very distinct from the newer varieties that you'll see in countries that you'd more readily associate with those world religions (Ethiopia is mentioned in both the Bible and the Qur'an and has a decent claim to being both the first officially Christian and Muslim countries, respectively).
Things are certainly more globalized than when I was living there in the early 2010s, back when you couldn't even get a 2G data connection from the state telco monopoly and voice service was spotty-to-non-existant. But Ethiopia still strikes you as a sui generis type of place that's just hard enough to navigate as a tourist that you get that special experience of being a traveler to a place that doesn't exist on your behalf. I woke up every day there and found the most basic assumptions of my normality questioned. I felt constantly mystified and intrigued. I also found it extremely frustrating regularly. But that's the cost of truly encountering difference!
This was delightful to read! I did not know about this new city in the south of Bhutan. I'm from Bangladesh (which lies across the Indian border from Bhutan). The King of Bhutan will be visiting us in the next few days. Bhutan is planning to develop a special economic zone in northern Bangladesh near the Indo-Bhutan border. I hear this SEZ will be a green zone, eco-friendly, sustainable and all. So your post kind of completes my jigsaw puzzle. A potential Bhutanese SEZ in Bangladesh will probably complement the sustainable city being planned on the Indo-Bhutan border.
Bhutan has a very cool Dragon King!