Original subtitles

You think animals are sentient?

I think pain is, you know...

- Pain... - Pain is pain.

If you don't respond to that,

you're doing something seriously wrong.

That's very Buddhist of you, I think.

Look, when I worked in Cape Cod,

my job was to load this steamer with lobsters.

And they don't scream, but, you know,

you hear them scratching against the thing.

I'd have dreams, and, I mean, I'm in a sauna

and I look through the window

and there's this giant lobster,

like a... you know, a bib with a chef on it, you know.

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

- ♪ La, la - ♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

- ♪ Sha la, la, la - Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

Bhutan,

a remote, relatively rarely visited

kingdom of myth and legend high in the Himalayas,

known as Land of the Thunder Dragon.

One of the reasons it's not on the tourist trail

is it's hard to get to.

Flying in, you hang on to your seat

as the plane negotiates some alarming maneuvers

through narrow mountain passes...

Before dropping into the country's

only international airport,

said by some to be the most dangerous in the world.

Located between India and Tibet,

Bhutan, about the size of Switzerland,

is caught between the old world and the new.

Thimphu is Bhutan's capital and largest city.

It has a rapidly growing population of 100,000,

as Bhutanese have begun the inevitable move away

from a rural, agrarian lifestyle.

Tourism was only allowed starting in the 1970s.

The amount of foreign visitors each year is strictly limited

to protect Bhutan's culture and environment.

There are no Starbucks, no KFCs, no King or Clown.

Basically, they don't want you to come here...

at least en masse.

- Watch your head. - Yeah, right? Wow.

What do you think of the altitude? How you feeling?

I'm here because of this guy,

my friend, a film director, Darren Aronofsky,

fresh off the unjustifiably horrified reaction

to what I think is his masterpiece, "Mother!"

I don't know if you've studied the effects of high altitude.

You know, your blood gets thicker and thicker

until it's like freakin' marmalade.

- All right. - We'll be dying slowly.

Awesome.

"Mother!" is an angry and thinly veiled warning

that we are destroying our planet.

And, policy wise, Bhutan is something

of an environmental wonderland.

You want to protect the country from being overly influenced

by foreign values, culture, you know,

all of the bad stuff that happens with tourism.

Has anyone made a film here? I don't know.

It's got to be hard to work here.

Yeah, plus talk about contaminating

the values of a local culture, I mean, I don't... that'll...

What, we are... Hollywood doesn't do that.

Our first meal becomes our go-to favorite

for the rest of the trip.

If I'm not on camera, chances are I'm somewhere

eating these bad boys.

- Momo! - Momos.

Plump, flavorful, often quite spicy dumplings

filled with meat, cheese, or veg.

Did I mention Darren is a vegetarian?

- God damn, these are good. - They are really good.

- Try chili cheese momo? - Pardon?

- Chili cheese momo. - Cheese momo?

- Chili cheese. - Hot, very hot.

- Wow, everybody's smiling. - The thing to do.

- Okay. - All right, here we go.

- Mmm. - That's excellent.

Yeah.

That's spicy.

That is... yeah, I'm feeling that.

Mmm. I feel it in the back of my head.

It's enlightenment.

It's your third eye opening, man.

I can't even tell what we're talking about,

I'm, like, so high from the altitude.

Morning in Bhutan's capital.

A kingdom that has existed contentedly

in a state of self-imposed isolation for centuries.

In some forms of Buddhism you're very much...

This life does not matter at all, it's about the next.

Next.

But on the other extreme,

it's all about today, right now.

The form of Buddhism practiced here is the Middle Path.

Middle Path. Mahayana Buddhism.

Buddhists consider the next life.

Yes, and always is your karma.

And karma.

Whatever tragedies fall on you,

that's the family of karma.

It's all about an attitude, pick up and move on.

Once, his holiness the Dalai Lama

told me, "Every day when you rise up",

"you try and be a good a human being as possible.

That more important than being religious."

- Beautiful day today. - Winter days...

- Yeah. - Are normally like this

every day.

In the good old days, we used to have

snowfalls about four, five times a year.

- Mm-hmm. - But over the last decade

or so, it's decreased a lot. Noticeably, really?

Some glacier lakes have disappeared completely.

Dasho Benji Dorji is known as

Bhutan's godfather of environmental conservation.

And in Tantric Buddhism, is there a respect for nature?

- There is a lot of respect. - You don't mess with nature.

Yeah, you don't mess with nature.

This is a traditional welcome drink, is an ara.

It's raw alcohol.

The normal toast is "tashi delek."

- Tashi delek. - Tashi delek.

May good fortune be with you.

I'm a retired alcoholic, so I will not join you.

Okay. Mmm.

- Pretty good. - Yeah.

Kind of a warm sake but made out of wheat.

- Yeah. - Yes.

If you could tell us a little more about the chef.

Oh, she and her husband are both colonels

in the Royal Bhutan Police. Oh, wow.

We have to use the finger.

Touch, so that the flavors come out.

These recipes, where do they come from?

They come from the farms, from all the local houses.

Just passed down.

These nine grains have a very historical

and spiritual significance.

There was one saint called Drukpa Kunley,

he's known as the Madman. The Divine Madman.

Yes, of course.

So when he came to Bhutan, he carried the nine grains.

This is the hide, the yak hide. Mm. Yes.

Hot Sichuan pepper.

Lots of tomatoes to tone down the pepper.

This is the yak hide.

It's a delicacy.

♪

And then this is... the green one is the orchid flower.

- Oh... - I always think

it's very exotic, the orchid. Mm.

They say it's good for your health.

- Mmm, good. - I know, it's really amazing.

Can you tell us about

the famous Gross National Happiness?

Ah, well, you have in your Constitution

the pursuit of happiness, the right of every individual.

It's true. Yeah, but, we don't...

We don't actually believe that, but please proceed.

I do believe in Gross National Happiness.

Good governance, human rights,

justice for all, education, health.

It is not a wealthy country.

The average daily wage is very low.

- Yeah. - But would you say

the average person living in Bhutan

is reasonably happy and content?

Most people, yes.

Bhutan is a good welfare state where

the health of people are taken care of,

you know, and taken care of very well.

♪

♪

It's a 2 1/2-hour drive from the capital

to the picturesque mountain village of Punakha.

♪

This is a must-see destination

and one-time home to Bhutan's revered and beloved

Drukpa Kunley, known as the Divine Madman.

- Beep, beep! - Beep, beep.

Beep, beep.

It's... Okay. Here you go.

Wow.

- Uh... - So, I mean, we...

I really kind of got nothing to say.

Now, dear viewer,

Bhutan is a very devoutly Buddhist country,

and in such circumstances, I always do my very best

to be respectful and restrained,

shying away from my usual toilet humor.

Never in the history of television

has a host faced a greater challenge.

How to talk about what's happening without, uh...

well, without making the obvious joke.

God, give me strength, as we wander through

the valley of the low-hanging dick jokes.

I'm trying to be respectful

of a five-century religious tradition here.

For centuries, Bhutan has celebrated

the, um... phallus.

Uh, I'm not sure about the teeth.

This is the necklace ones. Ooh.

I'm trying to think of a circumstance

that you could wear that around your neck.

You see them everywhere here.

Ah, jeez, it's a cock-alanche.

You could make a chess set out of them, though.

Really, my dick takes your schnatz.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's a little... Yeah, that's...

That's making a statement of some...

Yeah, it is. It is.

All right, I got to go for the sad one.

And you're going for sort of... It's a rainbow.

Rainbow dick. Five, six...

I want to see this appearing on the budget, by the way.

Exactly. How do you write this off?

Do I add a little tip? N-

- Do we have a bag?

Can I pass this along? I'm not walking around with it.

I mean, I'm holding two...

It's... I feel like I'm... So what do they-

Tell me what they represent.

Uh, embarrassment? All right.

All this is the legacy of Drukpa Kunley,

a lama and holy man who lived 500 years ago

and spread the tenets of Buddhism

along with a healthy skepticism

for the institutions of power.

We are sitting just below the Chimi Lhakhang

which is a temple built in the honor of Drukpa Kunley.

The temple's also known as the Temple of Fertility.

He reveled unapologetically in casual sex,

the copious use of spirits, and seduction,

smiting demons and making frequent friends

with what is referred to

as his Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom,

which is a term you and I are unlikely to get away with.

People from all over the world come here

to buy wooden penises... Yeah.

And to hear the stories of the Divine Madman.

And to get the, yeah, blessings from the palace.

The Phallus Palace. Phallus Palace.

They bless you with a phallus? With a phallus, yeah.

Kunga Tenzin Dorji is a journalist and radio host

who knows a few things about the Divine Madman.

The phallus has been a symbol in Vajrayana Buddhism

long before Drukpa Kunley came around.

It's just that because he was such a character,

it's come to be associated with him.

The Divine Madman was a rebel.

Questioned his own religion. Mmhmm.

His own... his fellow monks.

So the monks hated him, of course,

but then the establishment hated him.

But the people took readily to him

because he was a guy who came to your house.

It didn't mean that, you know, like other monks,

you had to prepare a special meal for him.

He probably wanted, you know, your latest batch of ara,

you know, the local rice wine.

And maybe he'd hit on your daughter

and your wife as well, in the process.

So you could imagine in 16th-century Bhutan,

a person who was known to have performed miracles

would strike the fancy of anyone.

- Mm-hmm. - What were his miracles?

Well, things like shooting an arrow

all the way from Tibet and landed in a house

that's about a few kilometers from here.

- But he did exist, right? - Yeah.

Then the first thing he did when he got to the house

where the arrow had landed was to hit up

on the lady of the house. Mmhmm.

Yeah, that wouldn't fly these days.

This is one of the most difficult things

to understand about Drukpa Kunley,

because he breaks our own... our...

Our notions about what is right and what's proper.

This man was essentially saying,

"We should make love." True.

"We should drink. We should feel pleasure."

Oh, well, not necessarily that.

I think what he was trying to say is that,

you know, all these things that you hold dear

to your heart such as, you know, your wife

and your kids and your house and all of this,

in the end, it doesn't really matter.

So you're saying the Divine Madman was bringing

people towards enlightenment. Yes.

So should I be getting drunk more

and having more casual sex?

Will I be more enlightened? No, not just because of that.

I'm sure not.

♪

Until about 15 years ago,

the East-West Highway was the only road in Bhutan.

Bisecting the country, it twists through

some pretty gnarly mountain passes,

with at times crumbly cliff face on one side...

Wow.

And harrowing freakin' drop-offs on the other.

♪

The road is undergoing a major expansion,

with plans to have it fully paved by, well, soon.

It's carved into the side of the mountain.

Unbelievable. How many workers they say working this?

40,000.

Respect for the natural world is fundamental

to Bhutan's spiritual identity.

More than half the country

is off-limits to development or timbering.

A whopping 50% of Bhutan's GDP comes from hydropower.

- Amazing, huh? - So where are we?

What is this place?

This is the Punatsangchhu hydropower dam.

So this is one of the biggest hydropower dams in Bhutan.

It's about 1,200 megawatts.

- How much is that? - It's a lot of refrigerators.

No, I heard there's gonna be

a second... Second dam further down.

So they're gonna capture power twice.

If you have already destroyed one river,

you know, might as well... Keep building-

- Get the most out of it. - Yeah, get the most out of it.

Dr. Nawang Norbu is the director of

the School for Field Studies Bhutan program.

And what country's building this?

- It's mostly India. - Do the Indians

build it and then get the power to pay it?

They get the power. We sell it to them.

And then we sort of liquidate the loans away.

We have five such dams which are operational.

- Five. - And I-I think

six being constructed at the moment.

You know, obviously there's a lot of destruction.

It will stop some of the fishes

from migrating up and down.

You're also talking about a lot of transmission lines.

But, obviously, for Bhutan,

I think when we started on

the path of development, I think we were left

with few other options.

And I think this was the best thing for us to do.

The water that comes through this dam,

is it an inexhaustible supply?

- It's all glacial water. - We hope so.

There are many studies which are showing

that the Himalayan glaciers will disappear

in about 50 to 60 years. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

That's soon. Yeah.

Yeah, but nobody knows for sure.

I mean, the science is debatable.

Are we talking about the difference

between 50 years and 100 years,

or are we talking about whether it's happening at all?

No, it is happening. There's no doubt about it.

- Yes, there's no doubt. - And you're not only talking

about energy production but you're also talking

about agriculture.

You know, you have less snow,

it means you have less water to feed.

So climate change is going to have a serious impact.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

As we head further and further east,

road conditions get sketchy.

Whoa.

♪

♪

♪

Whoa. Wow.

♪

Looks like a landslide.

That whole thing collapsed.

That's not encouraging.

What if our car had been...

That's a big freaking...

Oh, shoot, he's gonna have to move that whole thing?

I think we're gonna freeze out here like rats tonight.

♪

Jeez. Whoa!

♪

He's... look at that. He's going after the big one.

Here he goes. Whoa.

Whoa,

♪

Hey, he's through.

- You think that's it? - Saddle up.

♪

- That song about the road... - Ah. Mm.

It's almost having West Virginia,

Blue Ridge Mountains... "Country Roads."

John Denver?

It's where my head went first.

Wow.

♪

It is considered enlightening and therapeutic

to think about death for a few minutes a day.

Yes.

You are reminded time and again

not to take things too seriously.

This is in fact an illusion, isn't it?

- Life is but a dream. - Yeah.

♪

♪

Pelela Pass, the gateway to Central Bhutan.

Here, nomadic herders and their yaks

come down from higher elevations

to spend the winter months.

And from the yak you get meat?

- Meat. - The fur?

The fur. Milk. Cheese.

- Butter? - Yeah.

This is butter tea.

- Yak tea? - Yeah, with yak butter.

- Have you had this before? - Never.

You're either gonna love it

or you're not gonna love it

That was very unique.

Ooh.

♪

So yak jerky.

Yak meat and some spinach.

You'll like these greens, man.

They are spicy as f... Do I have yak?

Is this yak meat here? Yeah, that's yak meat.

Okay, I got to avoid the yak meat.

And then these are dried chilis

which are boiled.

Ah, the yak cheese with boiled dried chilis.

Yeah, I'm all over that.

This is excellent. Yeah.

Excellent. Really good.

So yak herding is dying, we're starting to hear. It's...

- People are giving it up. - Why?

Better opportunities I suppose.

Yak herding is a difficult life.

She herself has given up now.

So she has given all her yaks to her sisters

So she's now... she has a shop

and she's gone up the ladder.

♪

Yeah, she is in charge of the business

and she makes the decisions for the family.

In Bhutan, women are the boss.

Women inherit whatever the parents own.

It's not the sons.

Always? All inheritance goes to the woman?

Yes, women.

- What is this? - Wow.

This is ara, with some Cordyceps in it.

- What? That is a Cordycep? - Right there.

- That is the Cordycep. - Which is?

Essentially, the Cordycep is a fungus

which infects the larvae of the ghost moths.

A caterpillar that has been invaded by fungus.

Essentially takes over the whole larvae,

kills it, sort of mummifies the whole thing.

Then in the spring, it protrudes out again.

Is there any caterpillar left at the end or is it fo...

Sort of like fossilized? It's just a fossil.

Meaning it is not meat.

It is vegetarian.

Right.

Cordyceps are the new profit center for a culture

that used to revolve almost entirely around the yak.

Wow, so this stuff costs how much a kilo?

Um, on average, it's about, uh, 20,000.

- 20,000 U.S.? - Dollars.

- Oh, that's a lot. - May I?

Yes, please.

What does this do for you?

Supposed to increase your virility.

It's supposed to kill piles.

You know, even hepatitis. Really?

- Hepatitis? - Yeah.

- Piles, eh? - What is piles?

- Hemorrhoids. - Oh.

And the Chinese athletes have been taking it

for quite some time. So they're doping on, uh...

- They're doping on fungus. - They're doping on fungus.

Yeah.

It's pretty tasty.

Yeah, it also says that you produce more semen.

I don't know how far is true, but...

So what about the... What's his name?

The Divine Madman.

Maybe the guy was, you know,

eating a lot of Cordyceps.

Exactly.

♪

It's getting hot in here.

Well, no it's not, actually. It's you. It's you, man.

What happens if you eat too many?

♪

♪

♪

We are here on the East-West Highway.

After this pass, we are actually entering

the Black Mountain Forest.

Some of the most pristine forest in Bhutan.

But also supposed to be connected

to a lot of evil spirits.

With the last remnants of sun still with us

and the views spectacular,

enthusiastic amateur mixologist Darren

suggests a pit stop...

- This is a cool spot, no? - Yeah.

To fortify ourselves against the reputed horrors ahead.

So our main alcohol... Ara, is that what it's called?

- Take a whiff. - Oh, jeez.

Oh, Jesus.

Oh, we have this, which is a bitter.

Yeah, okay. It's like aftershave.

Exactly.

Should we put some orange in there?

We do have oranges.

Ever done that spin in the air?

Catch in the other hand.

Hello, ladies.

Oh, oh, hold on. Hold on. What?

Hold on. Hold on. Dude.

It needs a yeti in it. The boot needs pepper.

No, no, no. Go for it.

No... really want the seeds in?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Do it. Do it.

Let's do it. Let's try it.

It has a bite. Did you get, like...

Did you get a little sting?

Oh, I'm getting it. I'm getting it.

Actually, this is pretty good.

Yeah, I could really... I could drink a lot of these.

♪

We decide, as travelers through demon-infested

forests at night all too frequently do,

to stop by a welcoming roadhouse,

where a conversation with

Gara Durji, our government rep,

does little to steel us for the journey ahead.

What are we drinking tonight? Uh, we are drinking K5.

- Called K5 because... - K5.

The whiskey is dedicated to the present king.

He is fifth king in line.

Do they still make K4? Or no more?

Uh, no, you don't have K4, just K5.

- Good, thank you. - Okay.

♪

Most of the guys brought in from India?

Ah, yeah. Most are from India.

Where do these guys live?

They have small huts built at the construction site.

In the mythology of the area,

much of it likely predating even Buddhism,

demons inhabit these forests, nasty demons.

Buddha had 1,000 lives.

In one of his 500 good lives,

he was exiled to Bhutan

because this was the most dreaded place...

Maybe that's why you were never invaded.

Yeah.

One of the evil spirit is called Nyaladim,

and she's supposed to be the commander in chief

of all in the evil spirit.

One of the most terrifying things

you could ever see is her face.

If you see her, you die... You drop dead instantly.

You drop dead.

So if Darren has to, like, take a piss

and, you know, go out in the woods,

that would... not advisable? Ah, no.

It's not advisable to go out at night.

And no lumbering. No one's cutting down trees here.

No one. For as long as we know,

the whole mountain range is virgin.

Right, but what about putting the road through?

I mean, maybe that's why you hire Indian guys.

The road is on the other side of the mountain.

We build it purposefully that way.

Really? So, like, nobody's got a house or...

No, nothing. Nothing. There's nothing like that.

Even if people loses cattle, whatever,

they don't go into there. Still?

Still even to this day.

♪

♪

♪

Here in the mist covered valleys and imposing peaks,

it's easy to imagine what this place looked like

before Bhutan first opened the door to outsiders.

♪

♪

Bumthang is the end of the road for us,

the spiritual heartland of Bhutan.

♪

♪

Archery is the national sport,

an important community event that binds

remote villages together in fierce competition

and in a rollicking good time.

♪

Thank you very much.

Today's the day of a match between

Trongsa and a rival village.

But first, food.

Okay, you have to, you know? No, no, this...

- Bigger. - See this way?

Ah, right. Okay.

No, yours too big. Too big.

- Too big? Too... - Yeah, okay.

- That's okay? - See, when you put it

in the mouth, you have to put it this way.

Oh, okay.

No, it's not bulging. Is it bulging?

- Oh, not bulging. - It should not bulge.

No bulge.

♪

Oh, yeah, I'm down with that, man.

- That's pork? - Mm-hmm.

Why is it translucent?

They braise it rather than fry it.

So it becomes clear. Mmm.

This is like unbelievable.

We eat everything.

We don't throw it out. This is the bone.

- Bone. - On the leg.

Chop it and boil it.

Mmm. That's good, man.

- Yeah. - That's just so good.

- I'm going with the pepper. - Ooh.

♪

Ooh, that's setting my hair on fire.

- Exactly. - This is dried turnip leaves.

Oh, turnip greens.

Turnip leaves is a delicacy in Bhutan.

A little bit of butter.

And milk.

- Mmm. - Now this is a yak, no, leg.

Yak leg.

♪

So does meat eating go all the way back

or were people vegetarian... All the way back.

All the way. In fact,

the Bhutanese were considered cannibals.

Say that again.

Bhutanese were considered cannibals.

The only vegetable we had was potato and radish.

That's it, nothing else. Wow.

People don't kill, but they would eat,

you know, one another if somebody dies.

We are not supposed to eat each other.

You're not supposed to eat yak.

No, no, we are not supposed to eat meat.

You're not supposed to eat meats.

Buddhism, I mean, the hard-core Buddhism.

But culturally, because of terrain,

we had no choice. Right.

Ooh, is that bete nut?

- Yeah. - Betel nut.

- Oh, can I try? - Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not having it.

- Have you done it? - Yes, yes, I have.

You asked for it. And you chew up the green?

Yeah, everything chewed together...

Like cud.

Whoa. Oh man.

Getting a buzz?

My whole mouth is numb.

I got to do something about this.

Totally high off of that thing.

♪

Ah, jeez, just stepped into a fresh loaf of shit.

Ugh.

♪

Whee!

Ah, right here. Ah, yeah.

Whoa, jeez. It's a serious distance.

The rules are simple.

Shoot your arrow the length of 1 1/2 football fields

high in the air, in this case across

the East-West Highway, all the way, hopefully,

into a small target.

Good luck with that. That's like...

You would need a .50 caliber to hit that target.

I could barely see it flying through the air.

Can you see the arrows? No.

Yeah!

Wow, close.

What's interesting is the other team

is often standing by the target,

and hanging out looking cool for as long as possible

as an arrow flies in your general direction

is standard practice.

Yeah, yeah!

Whoo!

When points are scored, there's singing and dancing

and a fair amount of what can only be called

playful taunting.

- Yeah! - Whoo!

The Bhutanese version of "In your face!"

Brag dance.

- They're drinking that. - Yeah.

What could possibly go wrong?

One-in-a-million shot.

Doonk!

I love the little kid over there with the juice box,

ten feet from the line of fire.

Ah!

Whoa, hey.

Whoa!

What are they screaming?

Why?

- So they're anti-cheerleaders. - Yes.

What are they saying, though?

Oh, the short guy, he can't hit, so...

They calling him short?

Yeah. All the bald head and everything.

♪

♪

Whoa!

Whoa.

♪

♪

♪

♪

This is very religious site.

It's called the Burning Lake.

Burning Lake or Burning River?

The Burning Lake, but I think it's actually a river.

I see people are leaving prayer flags

and these things.

These are called sasas, these offerings.

Sometimes they're made out of clay,

and sometimes they're made out of

actually the ashes of the dead.

Whoa.

Wow, that's pretty awesome.

It's beautiful.

A little pile of incense.

♪

Where do you think this country is headed?

Honestly, I don't know what I believe.

I don't know... I don't know if it's good or bad.

It seems like Shangri-La.

Like, for the place that invented

Gross National Happiness, they're content

at under $2 a day. Yes.

I don't want my child herding yak,

and I don't know that a lot of parents do, even here.

Having a fully paved road across

this entire country, this country's gonna be

a very, very different place in five years.

The question is, do they stay committed to happiness

and not to consumption? Ooh.

Getting off the plane when we got here,

there were many flat-screen TVs.

First comes electricity, then comes the television,

then come pop stars and materialism.

But maybe that's arrogant. Maybe that's just,

you know, easy for me to say. I don't know.

A lot of the people we talked to,

there's a tremendous amount of respect of what they have.

We're finally seeing the effects of climate change

in a terrifying way,

which they're all gonna be able to witness

on their flat-screen TVs.

You know, I think people are gonna really hold on

to treasures like this.

I know it's beautiful.

I'm glad it hasn't been [...] up yet by the world.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪ Let's go

♪

♪

♪

You're supposed to put them somewhere

where they'll last for a while, and, uh...

make a prayer.

♪