Buddhism and modern life in Bhutan

Mary Kay Magistad in Bhutan (TheWorld.org)

Above: Tktsang Palphug Monastery, also known as Tiger's Nest. Below: Bhutanese high school students Nanjita (left) and Sonam (Mary Kay Magistad).

BHUTAN, Himalayas - The guys in the band are in black, with shaggy hair, and attitudes. They do a sound check in their rehearsal room and then let it rip.

Guitars shriek through a familiar opening then move into a hyper-paced riff on the Pachelbel Canon. This might not be the usual punk rock fare -- but then, not all self-proclaimed punk rockers are polite, well-spoken Bhutanese college students.

• AUDIO: Why travel in Bhutan costs $200 a day (MP3)
• Bhutan* wants to boost tourism while keeping the number of visitors under control. So it requires tourists to spend a minimum of $200 per day. The amount goes up next year.
  

“Most of our audience is not into hard music, like what we like to play,” says 19-year-old guitarist Ughyen Phuntso, a communications major. “So mostly, we end up playing in my garage.”

Or they play here, at the Youth Development Fund’s youth center in [the capital of] Thimpu, where rehearsal space and instruments are offered free as an attempt to keep young people off the streets and out of trouble.

“We had noticed there were very few places where the youths could engage productively,” says Dorji Ohm, the center’s program director. “They’d go to the movies or to the bars. In fact, we did a survey and found 500 bars and one library, which was shocking.”

• SLIDESHOW: The Last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom
  
• Postcard from Bhutan: Gross National Happiness

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so shocking in many places, but Bhutan is experiencing growing pains. It has long been a mostly rural, deeply Buddhist, largely isolated [Himalayan] mountain kingdom. But in the dozen years since it decided to modernize and opened up to television, Internet, and other... More plus photos

*Bhutan is a small, landlocked mountain kingdom wedged between giants India and China with more than 70 percent of its population living in rural areas, 50 percent illiterate, and much of its budget coming from overseas aid [to turn it into a strategic military asset in the region] and grants.