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That attitude served her well throughout her visit. The rigorous demands of the Akers’ research project left little time for sight-seeing and relaxation. So in a traffic jam in the capital it only seemed natural to do what the natives do when brought to a standstill by a construction zone – smile and contemplate the scenery. With its towering glaciated peaks, pine- and rhodendrum-filled river gorges and cliffside red-roofed monasteries, northern Bhutan resembles the Shangri-la depicted in Lost Horizon.

Sometime in early 2008, the first referendum in the history of the country will be held. In a practice election last spring, the majority of the people voted to retain the king, even though that wasn’t one of the four choices. The switch from hereditary to constitutional monarchy with political parties and an elected National Assembly was the king’s idea. At age 26 he inherited the monarchy after his father’s voluntary abdication. A year later, at his insistence, the draft of the constitution that was circulated throughout the country for commentary and support gives the assembly the right to vote him out of office if he loses its confidence.

The date of the referendum and of the expected constitutional-signing ceremony, which promises to be a mind-blowing affair with chanting monks and blowing horns, hasn’t been announced yet, but the preparations are proceeding anyway because of the anticipated onslaught of foreign dignitaries and reporters. Skeletons of partially completed hotels jag the skyline of a capital with no manufacturing plants, or mechanized industry of any kind. Road improvement crews wield mallets on boulders, creating long lines of stalled cars.

The king and his ministers hope to better the lot of their people without succumbing to the ills that have befallen their neighbors: religious strife in India, a brutal occupation of Tibet, an unresponsive, besieged monarchy in Nepal.

Rural villages in Bhutan were not consulted before the government embarked on its rural development plan. The Akers expected to hear some complaints. An elderly man, who hobbled about on a cane and served butter tea and spicy fried delicacies as they asked questions through their interpreter, said, “I appreciate what the king has done for us, but if I do not prosper, that is my kharma.”

At their hotel in Thimpu, Nepalese waiters pointed at the portraits of all five Bhutanese kings, which are displayed everywhere, and said in English, “We love our king. He looks out for the people.” They worried about corruption. Would a more democratic form of government be trustworthy? In America the political parties “were unfriendly with each other.” “But if the king thinks the change is a good idea, we should support it.”

At the Bangkok airport, as the Akers awaited their flight to Bhutan, two graduate students returning from a year abroad in Australia looked astonished when Adrienne asked them about their plans after graduation. With their education, they could get high-paying jobs in affluent countries. They said they wouldn’t think of living anywhere but Bhutan, the most beautiful country in the world.

After two trips to Bhutan, Jim Akers wouldn’t mind living there himself. Shangri-la may be a figment of hyperactive western imaginations, but as long as there are cliff-side monasteries and rhodendrum-scented forests in Bhutan, that isolated kingdom may be as close as it gets to nirvana on Earth. —Jane Koerner ’77AT

Photos by Jim Akers ’93MS ’96PhD