The Bhutanese Leading the way.
By Dorji Dhradhul
Something extraordinary is unfolding in Bhutan this October and November. High in Laya, the ninth Royal Highland Festival will celebrate the highlands and highlanders. The third Snowman Race will challenge athletes across the fragile Himalayan wilderness, culminating in a Climate Conclave dedicated to climate action in Bumthang. On 1 November, Project 108 will raise 108 Jangchub Chortens in Gelephu Mindfulness City. And on 11 November, Bhutan will conclude the year-long celebrations of the 70th birth anniversary of His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, honouring a visionary monarch whose leadership transformed Bhutan’s development philosophy.
At first glance, these are different occasions: a cultural festival, an endurance race, a spiritual undertaking and a national commemoration. Yet they share something profound. They demonstrate how mindfulness, imagination and collective creativity can transform our values into action. Together, they invite us to ask: Are we merely celebrating extraordinary achievements, or are we learning to build upon them?
The Highlands: From Remoteness to Relevance
For generations, Bhutan’s highland communities have lived in some of the world’s most demanding environments. Their lives require resilience, resourcefulness and an intimate understanding of nature. Yet remoteness is often described primarily as a disadvantage: difficult access, limited markets, inadequate services and declining populations. These challenges are real. But what if we also recognised the extraordinary value of highland knowledge, rangelands, yak-based livelihoods, culture and community traditions?
The Royal Highland Festival, initiated in 2016 under His Majesty The King’s vision, offers precisely this opportunity. This year’s theme, “Rangeland for Life, Empowering Herders,” carries an important message. Rangelands are not merely grazing areas. They are living ecosystems that support biodiversity, livelihoods, cultural traditions and the resilience of mountain communities. Empowering herders, therefore, means protecting their natural resources, strengthening their voices, expanding economic opportunities and making highland life attractive to future generations.
The question is not simply how to preserve highland traditions, but how to make highland livelihoods sustainable, prosperous and meaningful. That requires creativity.
From Highland Festival to Himalayan Cooperation
Two important initiatives at this year’s festival signal an exciting evolution in its purpose. The first is the launch of the Himalayan Yak Herders’ Network Secretariat, bringing together Bhutan, India and Nepal. The second is the declaration of 23 October as National Yak Day. These initiatives carry significance far beyond ceremonial recognition.
Across the Himalayas, yak herders share common challenges: changing climatic conditions, pressures on rangelands, limited markets, difficult access to services and uncertainty about the future of traditional livelihoods. Yet they also possess invaluable indigenous knowledge, distinctive cultural traditions and generations of experience living sustainably in fragile mountain environments.
The Himalayan Yak Herders’ Network creates an opportunity to transform these shared challenges into shared solutions. It can facilitate knowledge exchange, strengthen cooperation, promote yak-based enterprises and amplify the voices of herders in regional discussions on climate resilience and sustainable mountain development.
National Yak Day, meanwhile, offers an annual opportunity to recognise the yak’s contribution to Bhutan’s economy, ecology, culture and highland identity. It should also inspire efforts to improve the lives and prospects of herders. That is how the Royal Highland Festival is evolving from an annual celebration into a lasting platform for highland transformation.
When Culture Becomes a Creative Economy
Consider a traditional highland costume. To an ordinary observer, it may be a beautiful garment. To a mindful observer, it represents generations of knowledge, craftsmanship and identity. To a creative entrepreneur, it may inspire contemporary fashion, ethical textiles, cultural storytelling and international collaboration.
This thinking underlies the inaugural Global Highland Fusion Ramp Walk at this year’s festival. By bringing together participants from Himalayan highland communities, the event celebrates traditional attire while strengthening cultural connections. Similar opportunities exist in highland cuisine, yak products, traditional crafts and immersive cultural experiences. Women and young herders, in particular, should be empowered to transform these possibilities into sustainable enterprises. A young highlander should not have to choose between preserving cultural identity and pursuing economic opportunity.
Preservation protects our inheritance. Creativity makes that inheritance relevant to the future.
The Snowman Race: From Endurance to Climate Action
The Snowman Race is another powerful example of creativity with purpose. Born out of His Majesty The King’s deep concern about climate change and the urgent need for global action, the race transforms an extreme sporting competition into a compelling call to protect our planet. As athletes traverse the fragile Himalayan landscapes, the race draws global attention to the threats facing glaciers, biodiversity and highland livelihoods. Its culmination in a Climate Conclave in Bumthang takes this mission further, providing a platform for dialogue, collaboration and concrete climate action. The Snowman Race tests human endurance. The Climate Conclave tests humanity’s resolve to act.
Project 108: When Imagination Becomes Collective Action
Then comes Project 108. On 1 November, Bhutan is preparing to raise 108 Jangchub Chortens in Gelephu Mindfulness City through an extraordinary mobilisation of volunteers and resources, with participation extending beyond Bhutan’s borders. Rooted in Bhutan’s spiritual traditions, yet carrying global relevance and inviting international participation, Project 108 demonstrates how mindfulness, spirituality, creativity and collective action can transcend national boundaries and unite humanity around a shared purpose.
Its significance lies not merely in constructing 108 chortens in a single day, but also in demonstrating how thousands of people, each making a small contribution, can collectively achieve something extraordinary. Project 108 is more than a Bhutanese spiritual initiative. It is a global invitation to turn mindfulness into action and encourage individual contributions towards greater world peace and harmony.
Honouring the Great Fourth: A Legacy of Creative Leadership
November brings an especially meaningful national milestone. On 11 November, Bhutan will conclude the year-long celebrations of the 70th birth anniversary of His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Singye Wangchuck. His Majesty’s introduction of Gross National Happiness represents one of Bhutan’s most profound contributions to global development thinking. At a time when much of the world measured progress primarily through economic growth, His Majesty offered a different vision: development should ultimately serve human happiness and well-being. This was mindfulness at the level of national leadership, recognising what truly matters. It was also creativity of the highest order: challenging conventional assumptions and imagining an alternative development paradigm.
The Royal Highland Festival, Snowman Race, Project 108 and Gelephu Mindfulness City can be understood within this continuing tradition of thinking differently. The most meaningful way to honour visionary leadership is not merely through remembrance, but also through the courage to continue imagining differently.
From Celebrating Creativity to Democratising It
These national initiatives reveal an important truth. Mindfulness is not merely meditation or personal reflection. It is also the ability to recognise what matters, notice overlooked opportunities and understand our responsibilities. Creativity helps us act on those insights. A mindful festival recognises the value of highland communities. Creativity transforms that recognition into opportunities. A mindful sporting event recognises climate vulnerability. Creativity turns that awareness into advocacy and action. A mindful national project recognises the power of collective service. Creativity mobilises that potential towards extraordinary achievements.
What if every school were encouraged to help solve some of the problems facing its community? What if every gewog invited young people to propose improvements? What if every institution rewarded thoughtful experimentation? I call this Creativity 2.0—the democratisation of creativity. It begins with the conviction that everyone can learn to imagine, improve, contribute and create value.
From a Mindful Nation to a Creative Nation
Gross National Happiness challenged the world’s understanding of progress. Gelephu Mindfulness City now invites us to imagine new possibilities for prosperity guided by mindfulness, spirituality, sustainability and innovation. The events unfolding this October and November offer practical expressions of that larger aspiration. Our small size need not limit our imagination. Our traditions need not prevent innovation. Our spirituality need not remain separate from economic transformation.
Indeed, these may be our greatest strengths. We must become a nation that not only admires creativity but also practises it—in our classrooms, farms, families, offices, businesses, villages and everyday decisions. Let mindfulness help us recognise what truly matters. Let creativity help us imagine what could be better and enable us to become a truly creative nation.
The Creativity Catalyst, author of Creativity Time to Crown Again: Critical Competency for the 21st Century and Cosmos
