Kuzu zampo la, y’all!

With New York Fashion Week in the rearview mirror, Milan Fashion Week wrapping up, and the first ever Bhutan Fashion Week approaching at the end of October, the students’ Environmental Law Club seized the moment to present Trashion 4 Happiness on Wednesday, featuring elaborate fashion designs constructed of discarded materials.

For the fashion show, students transformed part of the ordinarily cavernous and drab dining hall into an intimate, nightclub-like runway, with desk lamps as spotlights and the fashion designer judges at the end.

In addition to bragging rights, the competition offered significant cash prizes for first and second prize winning classes.

The event was part of the months’ long celebration in honor of the upcoming 70th birthday of His Majesty the Fourth King on 11 November.

Known as a great champion of environmental conservation, the Fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, for whom the law school is named, is widely revered as The Great Fourth and the architect of Gross National Happiness (GNH), Bhutan’s guiding development philosophy.

During his reign, stretching from 1972, when the Third King died, causing the then Crown Prince to become the world’s youngest monarch at 16, to 2006, when the king decreed that Bhutan would become a parliamentary monarchy and abdicated the throne to his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (the present Fifth King), the Fourth King did much to modernize Bhutan while conserving biological diversity, presiding over the construction of roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals; establishing Bhutan’s parks, protected areas, and wildlife corridors; and connecting Bhutan with international institutions and conventions.

Bhutanese oral tradition recalls the newly crowned Fourth King asserting the primacy of Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product in the early 1970s.

Journalistic reports place the Fourth King in Bombay, on his return from the Non Aligned Summit in Havana in 1979, responding to Indian journalists asking about economic development in Bhutan with the quip, “We care about Gross National Happiness,” or “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.”

By the early 2000s, the Bhutanese government was working to transform this witty epithet into a viable alternative development mechanism built on Bhutanese Buddhist foundations that would recognize the imbrication of humanity with ecological processes.

GNH was developed into a philosophy seeking to promote holistic well-being in human and ecological systems through its interwoven “Four Pillars:” economic development, good governance, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation.

These pillars are further elaborated into nine domains – ecological diversity and resilience, living standards, health, education, cultural diversity and resilience, community vitality, time balance, good governance, and psychological wellbeing – analyzed in surveys conducted every five years by the Centre for Bhutan and GNH Studies, and incorporated into the GNH Index.

The student designers in the Trashion 4 Happiness competition were tasked with translating these four pillars of GNH in their styles.

Each class was to present a look for each of four categories reflecting the four pillars of Gross National Happiness:

1) Wealth in Waste Sustainable & Equitable Socio-Economic Development

2) Nature Reborn Environmental Conservation

3) Threads of Tradition Preservation & Promotion of Culture

4) Crown of Responsibility Good Governance

In acknowledgement of the predominantly female student body, each team had to incorporate at least one male model and one design for men.

In addition, guidelines specified what could be incorporated into the designs:

The designs were astonishingly creative, referencing both global fashion trends and traditional Bhutanese styles. The plethora of new ways for working with castoff materials revealed a prodigious wellspring of ingenuity.

When I shared this thought with the Director of Student Affairs, also a former member of Parliament, seated next to me, he responded that this is Bhutan’s security and future, the only way forward for a tiny country crushed between giants, with India and China lurking on either side of the Himalaya.

Indeed, this idea of Bhutanese uniqueness and ingenuity being essential to its survival was woven into the sixth Five-Year Plan of 1987, which states:

Nearly forty years on, Bhutan has continually and insistently embraced its own traditions, even as they morph and meld with international currents.

While students love making TikTok videos, they do so in the traditional dress of Bhutan — the kira for women, the gho for men — which must be worn in temples, government offices (including JSW during the school day) and other official occasions.

Conferences and official events, including the recent AI, Mindfulness, and Law conference held at JSW, begin with a traditional marchang ceremony that invites the protection and support of the deities.

This firm foundation in traditional culture and values — such that everyone knows the central values of Bhutan — seems to provide a powerful launch pad for the future, allowing students and policymakers to think in unexpected and creative ways, even as they enact beliefs and practices extending back centuries.

May you find new uses for that which seemed undesirable until next time,

Tashi delek!