What is the “Happiness” in Gross National Happiness? A Paradigm to Sustainable Human Existence: A talk by Gampo Dorji
A Talk by Gampo Dorji, MPH, MBBS
Monday, September 10, 12-1:20 PM
Crosstown Center Building, Room #305
Bhutan is a country unknown to many; it can be an arduous test of one’s high school geography to locate it on the globe. Nested between the world’s two most populous nations, India in the south and China in the north, this tiny Himalayan nation has received recent global press for having a high Gross National Happiness or GNH.
Bhutan’s GNH index is a multi-dimensional measure comprised of 9 domains: psychological wellbeing, time use, community vitality, cultural diversity, ecological resilience, living standard, health, education and good governance. Unlike certain concepts of happiness featured in current western literature, happiness is not just a measurement of subjective feeling of emotions nor is it narrowly focused on happiness for and with oneself.
In early 2012, the United Nations High Level Meeting addressing “Happiness and Well-being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm,” convened by Bhutan, emphasized building a “guiding vision for sustainability and our future, one that will bring a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach that will promote sustainability, eradicate poverty and enhance well-being and happiness.” The UN General Assembly recently adopted March 20th as the “the International Day of Happiness” to explore various ways to measure prosperity that go beyond material wealth initiated and championed by Bhutan.
Dr. Gampo Dorji is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student in International Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. He holds a MBBS degree from India and MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He worked as a primary care physician, district medical officer and later directed a cluster of national public health programs in the Ministry of Health in Bhutan. He is a current member of the IRB in Bhutan and serves as a technical expert to the South Asian Association Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Tuberculosis Center in Kathmandu. He has extensively worked in the area of HIV/AIDS and Non-Communicable Diseases in Bhutan. Currently he works as an intern at MSH supporting the Fragile States Initiative.
