Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck | Monarch with a mission

On a cold but sunny day last December, Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the fifth King of the current line of Dragon Kings, stepped up onto the stage at Thimphu’s Changlimithang stadium to address the nation, the first such public address since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the plans, powering his ‘Desuung’ programme for youth volunteers, a new educational curriculum called the Bhutan Baccalaureate, a slew of governance and bureaucratic reforms, bolstering Bhutan’s environmental agenda with a new Tourism policy that imposes $200 a day sustainable development fee, and plans for a new connectivity and digital technology hub along Bhutan’s southern borders with India in a town called Gelephu, where its second international airport is coming up. While much about the royal family speaks of tradition and reverence for history, the Bhutanese King was educated in the ways of the modern world — after high school in Bhutan, he went to the U.S. to complete his schooling and then went to college at Oxford University in the U.K. For about a year in 2005, as Crown Prince of Bhutan, he took courses at the National Defence College in Delhi, learning lessons in statecraft and warfare — a period that was significant, as it preceded his father’s decision to step down and hand over power to him. Above all, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck’s task will be in ensuring a strong GDP and a strong GNH, so that as his country opens its doors wider, its people aren’t buffeted by both internal and external winds.