48/20
Amber, an Agent of Contentment, travels the Bhutanese Himalayas to investigate people’s happiness. During his remote mountain trek, he seeks contentment. Not sure if that should be called “Agent of Contentedness” instead? Not content, as in barely having enough, but truly content with one’s lot in life. That’s what Amber tries to find out as he travels the breadth of this small Himalayan kingdom twice a year, trying to find out how its citizens feel about things. Using a combination of tools, he talks to residents old and new, urban and rural, traditional and more modern – all with a view to finding out how the population feels and feeding that back to a government that wants to listen and learn about those attitudes to help people stay in a good place – mentally and physically. This documentary introduces us to a group of people whose aspirations vary greatly – sometimes depending on age, ability, location, education/professional skills – but mostly you are left with the feeling that they appreciate their surroundings. Although their livelihoods may be seen by the West as more basic, agrarian, undeveloped; their own perception of their existence high in the mountains with beautiful scenery, clean air and the blessings of their gods upon them seems to offer that elusive sense of less is more and contentment. Obviously not everyone is insanely happy, but there is a distinct lack of "crying" for change, as a respect for the king and the status quo seems to permeate all demographics, screaming that it ain’t broke, so don’t fix it. There are quite a few characters here, some fun and a few downright humble, and Amber sometimes has a hard time trying to get meaningful answers to her questions so she can extrapolate the data usefully. In a society that hasn’t really evolved technologically, it still seems to give everyone access to the internet and has a proud tradition of educating everyone to empower them to make decisions – and yet they still, by and large, feel that magic word. Happy. It seems that owning cows helps too!