Bhutan Chose Happiness. Who Gets Counted?

Bhutan's constitution says at least 60% of the country must stay under forest, for all time. It sells river power to India and measures progress in Gross National Happiness. So does the happiness promise hold up? We test Bhutan's forests, its hydropower exports (Tala) and its citizenship history, including the Lhotshampa refugee story. Each government's position is attributed to that government (Bhutan, India, China on Doklam) or to Human Rights Watch on the refugee record. No predictions, no casualty counts. Chapters: 0:00 1. The Happiness Wager 3:57 2. A Kingdom Assembled 7:04 3. Test One: The Forest 9:51 4. Test Two: The River Customer 13:13 5. Squeezed Between Giants 16:20 6. The People Outside the Count 20:23 7. What the Survey Can't Count Next on Mapsodic: Britain Couldn't Beat the Gurkhas, So It Hired Them:    • Britain Couldn't Beat the Gurkhas, So It H...   Sources (checked 27 Oct 2026): Constitution of Bhutan (2008), articles 5 and 9: https://www.constituteproject.org/con... GNH Centre Bhutan: http://www.gnhcentrebhutan.org/ , http://www.gnhcentrebhutan.org/the-4-... Human Rights Watch, "Last Hope: The Need for Durable Solutions for Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal and India" (16 May 2007): https://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/bhut... Reference pages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_N... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tala_Hy... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan%... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Ch... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelephu... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutane... Where governments differ (Doklam, the refugee history) each position is attributed to that government or to HRW. Full fact ledger with a source for every number is kept with this episode. #mapsodic #bhutan #gnh #himalaya #geography