What is GNH?

Gross National Happiness, as the guiding philosophy of Bhutan’s development process, was pronounced by His Majesty King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, soon after his enthronement in 1972. Over the decades, many conferences and dialogues have led to increasing elaboration of this concept as well as its practice. Thanks to gatherings like this, there is a greater shared understanding of seeds of a powerful idea that His Majesty unleashed. He was clear so long ago that happiness is the ultimate common end and everything else was means or instruments for fulfilling this wish that every human being has. Yet it is ironic that we are pervasively susceptible to confusing between ends and means, although it is a constant theme in Buddhist social and economic thought.