NANGKHA NANGDRIK IN THE
LAND OF THE THUNDER DRAGON
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James Duffy
Queensland University of Technology
INTRODUCTION
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The Kingdom of Bhutan is a country on the move
In July 2008, Bhutan transitioned from an absolute
monarchy to a constitutional monarchy
The Constitution and a number of pieces of national
legislation make specific reference to alternative dispute
resolution.
An alternative dispute resolution Bill will come before the
Bhutanese parliament in early 2012.
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WHY IS BHUTAN INTERESTED IN ADR?
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The Courts are dealing well with workflow
Having a matter heard in Court is not incredibly expensive
Villages are geographically spread and sometimes quite
isolated; cost and time associated with travel to courts.
Adversarial nature of court system conflicts with Buddhist
principles of compromise, social harmony and preservation
of relationships.
There is a strong tradition of mediation in Bhutan
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CAPACITY BUILDING OF MEDIATION IN
BHUTAN
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Psychologist and educator Col McCowan OAM, Professor
Melinda Shirley and James Duffy travelled to Bhutan in
September 2011 and taught a course on facilitative
mediation to lawyers in government departments.
Deliver similar course to Bhutanese judiciary in February
2012.
If we are going to teach (and promote) the facilitative model
of mediation, we need to justify why that model is
appropriate for Bhutan.
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DRAWING CONNECTIONS
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Facilitative mediation should be developed in
Bhutan because it is consistent with government
policy of Gross National Happiness, psychological
understandings of happiness and Buddhist
values.
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A GRAPHICAL CONNECTION
Happiness
Psychology
Gross
National
Happiness
Buddhism
Facilitative
Mediation
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GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS
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In the late 1980s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck stated
‘Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross
Domestic Product’
From a legal perspective, due to the uniqueness of this
policy concept, international attention has now focussed on
the ability of Bhutan to promulgate laws (and a legal
system) that are consistent with Gross National Happiness.
How can facilitative mediation be said to promote
happiness?
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WHAT DOES THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY
TELL US ABOUT HAPPINESS?
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The field of Positive Psychology has focussed on the
meaning of happiness and how it might be increased.
Many different definitions for happiness, but they fall
under two categories
 Hedonistic Happiness
 Eudaimonic Happiness
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HAPPINESS
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Hedonistic Happiness refers to high levels of positive affect
and low levels of negative affect. (Hefferon, 2011)
Eudaimonic Happiness refers to the feelings that
accompany behaviour in the direction of, and consistent
with, one’s true potential
(Waterman 1984)
According to Eudaimonism, happiness is more than simple
pleasure and satisfaction. Whilst pleasure is certainly
incidental to happiness, happiness is better viewed as a
way of living (actualisation of human potential), not a
transient state that comes and goes.
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EUDAIMONIC HAPPINESS
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Eudaimonic happiness is the goal of Bhutan’s GNH policy
Bhutan’s 2020 Vision document, states that one of the
main objectives of Gross National Happiness is to
‘maximise the happiness of all Bhutanese and to enable
them to achieve their full and innate potential as human
beings.’
Facilitative mediation has the potential to promote
eudaimonic happiness, because the goals and by-products
of facilitative mediation represent key components of
eudaimonic happiness. Self determination and party
autonomy are both identified as foundation values of
facilitative mediation and contributors to eudaimonic
happiness.
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SELF DETERMINATION THEORY
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Self Determination theory posits that human beings ‘strive
to be self governed, where their behaviour is volitional,
intentional and self caused or self initiated.’ (Wehmeyer
and Little, 2009)
Ryan et al have suggested that self determination promotes
psychological health when an individual’s needs for
autonomy, competency and relatedness are satisfied.
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SELF DETERMINATION THEORY
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The need for autonomy refers to a sense of choice and
volition in the regulation of behaviour. The need for
competence concerns the sense of efficacy one has with
respect to both internal and external environments. The
need for relatedness refers to feeling connected to and cared
about by others.
Facilitative mediation promotes these needs better than
other models of mediation
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THE BUDDHIST OVERLAY
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As the last [Buddhist] Mahayana kingdom, Bhutan has
inherited a philosophy of life which is deep rooted in its
religious traditions and institutions. Basic values like
compassion, respect for life and nature, social harmony,
compromise, and prevalence of individual development over
material achievements have had direct impact on policy
making. Achieving a balance between spiritual and
material aspects of life, between Peljor Gongphel (economic
development) and Gakid (happiness and peace) is both a
cultural imperative and a political objective.
(Mathou, 2000)
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THE BUDDHIST OVERLAY (2)
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Buddhist teachings suggest that in times of conflict, an
individual’s need to be right, to be in control, to win an
argument at the expense of another all ‘spring from an ego
that has not yet learned the disciplines of nonattachment
and nonaggression.’
(Harvey Cox et al, 1992)
As Buddhism is a non-theistic religion, it teaches the
individual to take full responsibility for their being and the
conduct of their life.
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THE BUDDHIST OVERLAY (3)
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Facilitative mediation encourages individuals to overcome
conflict/craving in a self determining fashion. It provides a
forum where individuals can autonomously engage with a
conflict, truly understand what they are seeking/what is
making them unhappy and develop options that might end
their conflict.
The facilitative model has arguably stronger connections
with Buddhism (than other mediation models), because of
its emphasis on self determination and individual
responsibility. The qualities of compassion, empathy,
tolerance and material detachment fostered by interest
based dialogue, are the same qualities that are linked to an
individual’s path to enlightenment/Nirvana.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
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Just like the contrast between Gross National Happiness
and Gross Domestic Product, it is important to remember
that the means to an end are often just as important as the
end itself.
This is certainly true with respect to the way conflict is
managed and potentially resolved.
This presentation has suggested that a greater focus on
process based facilitative mediation would be a meaningful
advancement to alternative dispute resolution in Bhutan.
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