Bhutan and Religion

Bhutan is a happy place. A great majority of the people that I met are happy and very peaceful. All of those that I met practice Mahayana Buddhism. I personally think that religion is the cause of more descent than good and would like to see religion somehow removed from the human experience. I serves no real function outside of control of a population, explanation of the unexplainable and a way of satisfying the greed of religious leader and institutions.

Yes, even Buddhism, and Taoism are guilty of placating and dulling of the mind, perniciously stealing spirituality and the wonder of what we do not know. In Taoism, the god that we can describe is not the Tao "god" but all throughout it's history, Taoist teachers jealously guarded and politicized their teachings to the pointing of murdering and causing imprisonment of competing teachers.

Religious Freedom

The law in Bhutan provides for religious freedom, however, in practice, this is limited. The state religion is Buddhism. Proselytization is illegal, and Christian missionaries are not allowed in the country. Buddhist texts are the only religious materials permitted to enter or be manufactured in Bhutan. Prior to constructing a church or temple, communities must obtain a government license; yet minority religions are not permitted to build places of worship or congregate publicly in large groups. Worship in private homes, however, is legal as long as there is not a gathering of believers.


How good is this from the point of view of people who look beyond religion to spirituality and evolving knowledge? I do believe in god, make no mistake about but for me, god is everything that exists, especially the things that I cannot comprehend because I, like all humans are too egotistical and lacking in compassion to be still and quietly let our minds wander without judgment.

Buddhism like most religion is based of freeing ourselves from ego and attempting to define to the point of exclusion of god. For me and from experience, the people of Bhutan are close to god in their compassion that it would be a travesty to pollute the people with Christianity, Islam or any other religion.