Bhutan Cultural and Humanitarian Adventure – Buddhism 101

“In 2003, I traveled to Bhutan to hike and meet with Bhutan adventure travel outfitters, hoping to set-up our first trip to that country. Tucked into the eastern Himalayas between China and India, the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan is a modern-day Shangri-La of awesome beauty and friendly people. Culturally and spiritually, it is a profoundly rich country where human relations and Buddhist beliefs outweigh economic indicators – where “gross national happiness” is promoted by the King of Bhutan as a measure of his enchanting country’s progress.

Buddhists believe in preserving nature and giving more back to the earth and the culture than one has taken. So as part of our customized itinerary, I decided to make this trip our second “humanitour” (Vietnam was the first in 2004), where we had the opportunity and privilege to “give back” to the people of Bhutan with three special humanitarian projects that we integrated into our adventure. It was wildly successful, and we have repeated this Bhutan adventure travel trip many times. It feels good to give back!” – Susan Eckert