Plato’s Cave

While conducting my research, one of that saddest articles I have come across is that highlighting the introduction of television into the gentle buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, recorded by the Guardian (’03):

Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan’s first crime wave – murder, fraud, drug offences.

The article mentions Bhutan’s unique history:

A refugee monk from Tibet, the Shabdrung, created this tiny country in 1616 as a bey-yul, or Buddhist sanctuary, a refuge from the ills of the world. So successful were he and his descendants at isolating themselves that by the 1930s virtually all that was known of Bhutan in the west was James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon. He called it Shangri-la, a secret Himalayan valley, whose people never grew old and lived by principles laid down by their high lama: “Here we shall stay with our books and our music and our meditations, conserving the frail elegancies of a dying age.”

And starts:

April 2002 was a turbulent month for the people of Bhutan. One of the remotest nations in the world, perched high in the snowlines of the Himalayas, suffered a crime wave. The 700,000 inhabitants of a kingdom that calls itself the Land of the Thunder Dragon had never experienced serious law-breaking before. Yet now there were reports from many towns and villages of fraud, violence and even murder.

While it was good to see that the Bhutanese had not lost touch with intuitive judgment:

Why was this kingdom with its head in the clouds falling victim to the kind of crime associated with urban life in America and Europe? For the Bhutanese, the only explanation seemed to be five large satellite dishes, planted in a vegetable patch, ringed by sugar-pink cosmos flowers on the outskirts of Thimphu.

The Bhutanese seemed to understood what they were losing by introducing TV into their kingdom:

Four years on, those same subscribers are beginning to accuse television of smothering their unique culture, of promoting a world that is incompatible with their own, and of threatening to destroy an idyll where time has stood still for half a millennium.

And very quickly social patterns attributed to the west start the manifest

Since the April 2002 crime wave, the national newspaper, Kuensel, has called for the censoring of television (some have even suggested that foreign broadcasters, such as Star TV, be banned altogether). An editorial warns: “We are seeing for the first time broken families, school dropouts and other negative youth crimes. We are beginning to see crime associated with drug users all over the world – shoplifting, burglary and violence.”

What is sad is that the negative social behavior in the west is constantly attributed to social-economic backgrounds while in Bhutan it can be clearly linked to the introduction of the medium of television, and the letters pages of Kuensel are testament to this:

Every week, the letters page carries columns of worried correspondence: “Dear Editor, TV is very bad for our country… it controls our minds… and makes [us] crazy. The enemy is right here with us in our own living room. People behave like the actors, and are now anxious, greedy and discontent.”

The article limply asks:

And for those of us sitting on the couch in the west, how the kingdom is affected by TV may well help to find an answer to the question that has evaded us: have we become the product of what we watch?

…after what the journalist have seen, a logical conclusion should be easy.

The foreign minister sadly noted:

His Excellency Jigmi Thinley, Bhutan’s foreign minister [..] “we were determined not to become pawns on a chessboard and decided not to have formal relations with the superpowers. We also sensed the regret of many nations across the world at what they had lost in terms of values and culture.“

The king had hope in the people and their ability to not let the medium dominate their lives:

The year after France beat Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup final, the people of Thimphu gathered once again in Changlimithang stadium, this time to celebrate the Dragon King’s silver jubilee. On June 2 1999, he stood before them to announce that now they could watch TV whenever they wanted. “But not everything you will see will be good,” he warned. “It is my sincere hope that the introduction of television will be beneficial to our people and country.”

And BBS [Bhutan Broadcasting Service] glefully recorded:

News footage from the first BBS broadcast of June 2 1999, records the cheer that resounded around Changlimithang. Bhutan’s spiritual and cultural leaders were all agreed that TV could only increase the country’s Gross National Happiness

But the person heading up Bhutan’s only cable company was a little more down to earth:

Rinzy Dorje, Sigma Cable’s chief executive [...] Between calls on his new mobile telephone, he defends cable TV: “Look, Bhutan couldn’t hold back any longer – we can’t pretend we’re still a medieval, hermit nation. When the government finally got around to announcing cable TV, I was ready, that’s all. All the information you need to know on cable technology is on the net. I got prices and sourced the parts in Delhi and Taiwan. And cable came to Bhutan. It’s no big deal.”

[...] Have Bhutan’s values been corroded by TV? “We are entitled to watch what we want, when we want, if we want. And we are quite capable of weeding out the rubbish; turning off the crap,” he retorts.

And it’s sad to see the Bhutan government’s ignorance in regards to media control:

It takes three days to pin down Leki Dorji [...] He readily admits that, in its haste to introduce TV, the government failed to prepare legislation. There is no film classification board or TV watershed in force here, no regulations about media ownership. Companies such as Star TV are free to broadcast whatever they want.

And shear belief in the will of their people:

“Yes, we are seeing some different types of crime, but that just reflects the fact that our society is changing in many ways. A culture as rich and sophisticated as ours can survive trash on TV and people are quite capable of turning off the rubbish.”

Sadly as is the case in most countries, it is up to independent bodies to monitor the impact:

While the government delays, an independent group of Bhutanese academics has carried out its own impact study and found that cable television has caused “dramatic changes” to society, being responsible for increasing crime, corruption, an uncontrolled desire for western products, and changing attitudes to love and relationships. Dorji Penjore, one of the researchers involved in the study, says: “Even my children are changing. They are fighting in the playground, imitating techniques they see on World Wrestling Federation. Some have already been injured, as they do not understand that what they see is not real.

That becomes all to aperent to the traditional Bhutanese press:

Kinley Dorji, editor of Kuensel  [..] a member of the taskforce charged with drafting the kingdom’s first media act, believes Bhutanese society is in danger of being polarised by TV. “My generation, the ministers, lamas and headteachers, have our grounding in old Bhutan and can apply ancient culture to this new phenomenon. But the ordinary people, the villagers, are confused about whether they should be ancient or modern, and the younger generation don’t really care. They jettison traditional culture for whatever they are sold on TV. Go and see real Bhutan, see how the people are affected.”

It’s sad to see…

Sangay Ngedup is one of the only government ministers willing to voice concerns about television. [...] For the first time, he says, children are confiding in their teachers of feeling manic, envious and stressed.

And it’s easy to see why:

What do you like about TV, we ask the class. “Posh and Becks, Eminem, Linkin Park. We love The Rock,” they chorus. “Aliens. Homer Simpson.” No mention of BBS.

The impact of the introduction of television can be seen in the figures:

Bhutan’s isolation has made the impact of television all the clearer, even if the government chooses to ignore it. Consider the results of the unofficial impact study. One third of girls now want to look more American (whiter skin, blond hair). A similar proportion have new approaches to relationships (boyfriends not husbands, sex not marriage). More than 35% of parents prefer to watch TV than talk to their children. Almost 50% of the children watch for up to 12 hours a day. Is this how we came to live in our Big Brother society, mesmerised by the fate of minor celebrities fighting in the jungle?

But instead of commendation and questioning change, the article in the ends:

Everyone is as yet too polite to say it, but, like all of us, the Dragon King underestimated the power of TV, perceiving it as a benign and controllable force, allowing it free rein, believing that his kingdom’s culture was strong enough to resist its messages. But television is a portal, and in Bhutan it is systematically replacing one culture with another, skewing the notion of Gross National Happiness, persuading a nation of novice Buddhist consumers to become preoccupied with themselves, rather than searching for their self.

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