Dreams Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture

'This is a journey to reveal the architecture of our dreams.

'Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.

'In the Yemeni desert,

'making mud into a city of towers.

'Bhutan, the hidden kingdom in the Himalayas,

'where time almost stands still.

'And in America, dreams of redemption that turn to nightmare.'

This is the Yemeni desert

on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsular.

A place rooted in the past

but which dreamt of the future.

This mythic and ancient land was home to buildings created way ahead of their time.

Striking, visionary architecture.

Here they reached for the sky.

These were the first sky scrapers.

This is Shibam, known as the Manhattan of the desert.

There's been a city here for 2,500 years.

Constructed on a raised plateau, Shibam sits within a fertile oasis.

Beyond, there's only desert and mountains.

The city hasn't changed much since the 16th Century.

Every time one of these towering houses becomes derelict it's rebuilt in traditional manner.

There are around 500 of these houses within the city wall.

This is the only gate into the city.

It's very well fortified.

The tall central arch was for camels and I suppose caravans

and the small one for donkeys and humans, pedestrians.

Shibam appears timeless, almost biblical,

and the city rises high with ancient structures because of its peculiar location.

When more homes were needed Shibam couldn't expand horizontally.

Building outside the city walls and off the raised plateau would have made the new buildings vulnerable

to attack, to floods and also would have used up valuable fertile land.

So when all the building plots in the town had been built upon the only way to go was upwards.

Each tower is lived in by one family

but unlike the modern high rise these towers are not made

of concrete and steel but are built with a more modest material.

Mud.

Bricks are made on the edge of town just next to palm groves and this is a brickworks.

It's an amazing timeless scene.

Bricks have been made like this in the Middle East for, well, 10,000 years at least.

Here we have rich alluvial soil dug from around the palms

being mixed with hay and wheat chaff and with water to make this...

wonderful mud.

The only thing that's changed around here is the fact that there's a petrol pump over there getting

water from a well. Up until recently that was being done using a donkey.

Well, how

long

does it take for bricks to dry in the sun?

-Three days.

-Three days. Three days.

How many bricks can your team make in one day?

-SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE Three thousand.

-Three thousand.

That's an awful lot. Can I try making one?

Yeah, me. This is one of those great experiences.

I'm doing something that man has done for thousands of years.

Incredibly moving. This is what my ancestors have done.

Oh, it's quite difficult actually to fill it properly.

There's a skill. There's definitely a skill.

And of course incredibly satisfying

getting one's hands dirty making sort of mud pies.

Oh, dear, I'm going to ruin the team's reputation.

Not a natural born brick maker. Well, I knew that anyway.

Um, how have I done?

HE LAUGHS

You don't have to tell the truth. Just lie. Say they're great.

OK. I'll do better next time.

Oh, well he's leaving them. OK.

I've done it.

They're not rejected. How amazing.

After three days in the sun the mud bricks are dry and ready to be used in the city.

And here's one of the bricks, tile-like.

Lovely thing, dried in the sun.

I shall give it to the master bricklayer here.

Rainfall is a great enemy of these buildings

so the vulnerable bricks are covered with an extra layer of mud

and occasionally painted with lime wash to protect them from the rain.

This finish, combined with simple cube-like forms, gives the houses a marvellous and minimal look.

The elevation to the individual buildings are very similar,

giving architectural coherence, a uniformity to the whole city.

It's a very good example in front of me.

It's very robust, very functional, utilitarian.

In times of war or siege these buildings functioned as fortresses.

That's why the door is so small.

Also why there are virtually no windows on the ground floor, just these little slits.

Behind these blank walls were storage rooms so the family inside could keep itself fed for months.

I've been invited to visit a typical Shibam house.

I'm intrigued to see how a modern Muslim family lives in one of these ancient buildings.

THEY EXCHANGE ARABIC GREETINGS

Yes, here we go, storerooms on the ground floor. Here's the door.

So in the past get tools, animals, corn, dates. Another storeroom here.

So we're going from the ground floor up to first floor.

Some light coming through lovely lattice windows and, um...

here a recess for a candle to light the stairs.

In front of me on the first floor still more storerooms.

Um, storerooms begin to mix now with,

ah, inhabited rooms and this is a storeroom certainly because things are still stored in here.

The staircase wraps around this huge brick-built pier column

and this is a main internal structure.

Here are the load-bearing external walls,

here is a pier, between the two run the beams and joists.

You can see them up there.

And, ah! Now, I've reached the family part of the house.

I'm on the second floor.

It's where the family resides and so I take off my shoes

and I'll go inside and...

meet my host.

-Ah... As-Salamu Alaykum.

-As-Salamu Alaykum.

-Shukran.

Ah, weapons.

Oh, what a wonderful room.

Wonderful plasterwork.

Ah Shukran, hello, salaam, salaam.

Um, golly, now, um,

how is this room used? How was it used and how is it used today?

HE SPEAKS ARABIC

What's it like to maintain a house built of mud bricks?

Is it very difficult, very expensive to maintain?

Can I please see more of the house?

OK. Shukran.

OK.

It's quite an open plan interior. Very modern with,

the very structured and beams and joists being carried on these columns.

It's like a sort of 20th Century frame structure

and what's incredible is, you have these windows.

Originally these would have been open. It's got glass put in now but this is for ventilation.

Cool air comes in at the low level through the windows and pushes the hot air out through these openings.

All the houses have this very nice sort of sensible natural form of ventilation. Very brilliant.

Fascinating.

So the cooking takes place here.

You... Oh, I say.

So what's behind that partition over there, what's behind it?

Oh, gosh. Let's have a look.

Oh, there we go. Ah yes, it's a shower and also a lavatory because there's a little place to

stand on the floor and I suppose there's a chute so,

straight down into, I suppose, some sort of cesspit.

Gosh, a shower and a loo in the kitchen.

Oh, a lot of people.

Hello.

Oh, lovely. How very comfortable on this lovely terrace.

Shukran. Oh, this is wonderful. Marvellous.

What a wonderful view of nature over there.

Aha, shukran.

Lovely chai. Mmm...

delicious, pungent, sweet, very restorative.

What a chap needs in the evening.

Shibam's a marvellous historic city but it's no arid museum piece.

It's full of vitality, authenticity, wonderful sense of life.

Here we are on the terrace gathered together in the evening drinking tea.

And there's wonderful sort of aromas.

Frankincense, myrrh and, of course, the sheep and goats, and terrific noises, sounds, music.

This really is a living dream.

I absolutely love it here.

HAUNTING ARABIC MUSIC PLAYS

'Among the islands of the Caribbean lies the Dominican Republic.

'It may look like a sleepy tropical paradise but 500 years ago

'this small island would become one of the most influential places on earth.'

I'm on my way to see the first European-founded city in the New World

to see how dreams of empire transformed an entire continent.

It's a city on which imperial dreams, imperial aspirations are etched in the very fabric.

It's a city that changed the world.

'The story begins with Christopher Columbus's voyage to the Americas in 1492.

'He set off in search of a new route to the East but he and his crew landed instead on this island.'

It was no easy task putting down roots in an alien and dangerous land.

In fact in the early years the colonists suffered terribly.

The first settlement, just down the coast from here, was destroyed, probably by the islanders.

No-one's quite sure but when Columbus returned the people

he'd left behind the people had gone, disappeared.

They were never heard of again.

'A second wave of colonists clung on in a temporary settlement, ravaged by malaria and yellow fever.

'But they nursed greater ambitions.'

Columbus's men hadn't found a route to the East but they had found

a new land and they were determined to make it theirs.

They wanted to make their mark on the landscape, to build

a great city to make it clear that they were here to stay, their presence was permanent.

What they created was Santo Domingo.

Founded in 1501, the city's now a bustling metropolis of over two million people.

But extraordinary traces of the original city remain.

This is sensational.

It really is a forgotten, hidden gem.

This house must date from the 1540s.

What a fantastic door surround. Stone. And look at this.

It has these tremendous, gnarled, weathered medallions.

I suppose Roman emperors.

And at the very heart of the city sits Santo Domingo's most important building,

the first cathedral of the Americas.

This is the main entrance to the cathedral, the West Front.

It's designed in a rather mannered, classical style known as plateresque

because its detail's inspired by the design of silver plate.

Now, the horizontal carved frieze up there is very intriguing.

It shows the trials and tribulations faced by the Spaniards as they sailed here.

There are frightful sea monsters there and in that corner what I am told are wanton nymphs.

And inside the building's gothic with it's rib vaults and pointed arches. And look at the scale of it.

Just imagine how impressive this would have been when new,

this religious architecture of the Old World

suddenly arriving here in the New World, in a strange and alien land.

And being stone vaulted it would have been a tremendous sort of

sacred vessel, a sounding board for the masses chanted by the priests.

But the real significance of Santo Domingo lies not in its individual buildings,

it lies in the very layout of the city.

The layout is like a coded diagram of the beliefs and ideals of the men that created it.

GRANDIOSE MUSIC PLAYS

'Spreading out from the cathedral's square is a right-angular grid

'dividing the city into neat plots.

'Its inspiration lay in ancient Roman and Greek town planning, as rediscovered in the Renaissance,

'and its rational geometry was intended to express order and control.

'The virtues of the grid plan spread across the Americas through a set of rules called the Laws of the Indies.

'It would become the most important planning document in human history.'

The conquest of the Americas was launched from here, spreading Spanish influence and the grid plan.

It may seem extraordinary but Santo Domingo provided the blueprint for a new civilisation.

'But the colonists' dream of order and prosperity was a nightmare for others.

'This is the Alcazar de Colon, the viceroy's fortified palace.'

This is the great chamber.

Incredible to think that from this room

for some years the Spanish empire of the New World was ruled.

This was the epicentre of Spanish power.

This is a beautiful piece of architecture but it's also the monument to the power

of one people over another and that relationship was present even during construction.

The designers were Spanish master masons.

The workforce was over a thousand local islanders

and to realise this design they were virtually enslaved.

And when the islanders started dying in droves, labour was shipped in from Africa.

The transatlantic slave trade began here.

Tobacco was another native resource exploited by the Spanish.

Now cigars are one of the country's most famous exports.

-Hi.

-Hola.

Franklin, hi. How are you?

-OK, so, can I have a go?

-Yes. Sit down.

-Right, put it all in here.

-OK.

-Yeah?

-Yes.

-That's kind of not too bad so far.

Push it down.

-Yes, OK. And pull that.

-Pull that over.

Then hold it like that.

Not... Ah, to there.

OK, I hold that there.

-To finish.

-Right to the end?

-Yes.

-OK.

-And now back.

OK, ooh.

That's looking kind of almost there, isn't it?

And then I stick it in the guillotine and cut my finger off.

Little bit odd this cigar.

Rather eccentric. Novel cigar but, damn it, it's mine.

So, what do people here now think of Columbus.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

'So what are we to make of Columbus's troubled legacy?'

The Spaniards were like the horsemen of the apocalypse.

They brought death and disease

and, as with all imperial powers,

hell did follow after them.

But it's very curious, isn't it,

because if he hadn't come, if Spain hadn't been here, none of this would exist.

This is now a fusion of cultures, a mix of people,

and it seems to be a very healthy, very lively, very tolerant one.

MERENGUE MUSIC PLAYS

'This is merengue,

'a mixture of Spanish and African musical influences all here in the Dominican Republic

and tonight I'm going to experience a little cultural fusion first hand...

'Santo Domingo is the realisation of a ruthless dream.

'But it's also a model of civilisation, a city that continues to be an inspiration to the world.'

'This is Philadelphia, on the east coast of America,

'a city that once dreamed of constructing society anew.

'The American Declaration of Independence was adopted here in 1776

'In the years that followed these streets were awash with revolutionary fervour.

'But of all the buildings to emerge from this time of heady idealism

'the biggest, the boldest and the most impressive

'was a prison.

'Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829.'

This wasn't just a building but expression of a mission, a mission to solve society's ills.

The castle-like exterior may look intimidating, severe and daunting,

but surprisingly for those who created the prison it was to be a place of hope,

an expression of a belief that goodness lurks in even the darkest of souls.

The century before prisons had been brutal and violent places.

They were overcrowded, corrupting and disease-ridden.

Beating and physical punishment were the norm.

Abuse was rife.

New prisoners would be robbed by existing prisoners and if the

new prisoners didn't have any money they'd be relieved of their clothes and end up virtually naked.

But in Eastern State there would be order and solitary confinement.

The prison's now an amazingly evocative ruin.

A stabilised ruin I'm told but quite how one stabilises decay like this I'm not sure.

Time and rot are taking their toll.

I've never seen anything like this really.

It's incredibly picturesque, incredibly romantic.

It really is one of the most powerful places I've been to.

The inner cell block has a cathedral-like quality.

It's like being in a nave.

I guess religion's a key to understanding this prison.

Its creators had strong Quaker beliefs and they thought

that through architecture they could achieve a moral reform.

They thought prisoners here, isolated, would become

introspective, turn to God and see the error of their ways.

'These reformers believed in the essential goodness of mankind.

'Their dream was to create a machine for saving souls.

'They didn't see this as a place of punishment but somewhere where

'prisoners would achieve redemption through solitude and reflection.

'The first prisoners arrived in the autumn of 1829, amongst them Charles Williams,

'an 18-year-old farmer found guilty of stealing a gold watch.

'Beginning his solitary confinement he was led to his cell in a hood

'to keep him free from the contamination of other inmates.'

And here he spent the next two years.

This cell's a modern reconstruction and it makes a very powerful impression.

Williams would have been alone for month after month after month.

He wasn't allowed to see other prisoners.

He was forbidden visitors, not even his family could see him.

There was no reading matter apart from the Bible,

a book he would have got to know very well indeed.

He was allowed a certain amount of honest labour, making chairs,

carpentry, mending shoes, and there was virtually no daylight.

The light coming through this grill wouldn't have been there in his time.

It would have been open door beyond.

All he had was a little porthole.

Through that he would have measured time.

The prisoners called that porthole the eye of God.

Behind each cell and connected via the metal grill door was a high-walled,

pen-like exercise yard and into this space a prisoner

would be released twice a day, each period of exercise lasting a mere half and hour.

He would from here get a view of the sky but

each cell has its own individual exercise yard so even here the prisoner would have been alone.

'Architecture was central to the success of the new penal system.

'Long corridors ensured immense sight lines.

'Discipline was to be enforced not through beatings but through a world of constant observation.

'And at core of Eastern State was its radial plan with buildings arranged like the spokes of a wheel.

'Never before had a prison embraced the science of reform on such a large scale.'

Surveillance was of prime importance.

From this central observation tower radiate a series of cell blocks and guards down below here

could monitor movement in each block by looking down the corridors that run through the centre of each one.

So this represents a new rational theory about the housing

and treatment of prisoners and that made Eastern State Penitentiary of intense interest at the time.

It was greatly admired and became the most influential prison in the world.

'But what was intended to make men good often simply made them mad.'

In 1842 Charles Dickens visited the prison.

He was horrified by the effects of solitary confinement on its inmates.

He wrote in his American notes for general circulation

that he found the slow and daily tampering

with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body.

As far as he was concerned the penitentiary was hopeless, cruel and wrong.

Solitary confinement is now recognised as a way

of breaking down human resolve, of causing loss of identity,

disorientation,

and in jails today it's regarded as a very severe form of punishment.

One does wonder what the authorities were thinking about here originally.

Many of the inmates must have been very mentally fragile.

Even if the authorities' intentions were good,

they clearly must have caused immense psychological damage.

'Gradually at Eastern State attitudes to incarceration softened.

'But one prisoner who arrived in 1958 still found it an awful place.'

One day I made a mistake.

-I robbed.

-Yeah.

I was the hooded bandit.

That's what they called me.

The hooded bandit steal 7,000 payroll with money to burn.

And we're in this cell because this was your first cell?

My first cell, yeah, 18 cell here on ten block.

What did it make you feel like, living in a room without a proper window?

It was enclosed, you don't, so you went out of your mind.

You block out all of it... You're just confined.

Did you know everybody who lived on your block, so to speak?

I knew everybody who lived on this block here.

Oh, so who lived in this cell, for example?

-Stumpy.

-Stumpy?

Yeah. From Harrisburg.

Right, so what was he in here for?

-Homicide.

-Oh, really?

Another life, long one.

What was the atmosphere like at night on the block

-after the lights had been turned off?

-It was very quiet.

The only thing you could hear at night sometimes somebody crying out for mama or praying.

Lord, I didn't mean it, but he had done it so you had to do your time, you come in here.

You could hear different inmates crying at night.

You might think they were grown men but they cried like babies.

'Eastern State shut in 1971.

'During the 19th Century it changed the form of prisons all over the globe

'but today it stands as a monument to the tyranny of ideals.'

'The kingdom of Bhutan, tucked away in the Himalayas,

'is a secret land isolated from the modern world.

'Here the king has a dream, to embrace the past,

'and he's using architecture to achieve his vision.'

The king's dream for Bhutan should produce a sort of Utopia I'd like to live in where conserving

the past is more important than the implementation of the ruthless demands of modernisation.

But to realise such a bold dream has involved some very strict

enforcement and I'm going to go and see how it all works.

'I'm on the road to Thimpu, the capital city of Bhutan.

'As I travel, the mountains and valleys all around me are full of glorious traditional architecture.

'Thimpu is one of the smallest capitals that I've visited

'and certainly the only one without any traffic lights.

'With only one main street Thimpu is certainly modest.

'But on the outskirts there's an architectural glory.'

This is the most important building in Bhutan.

It's called the Taschichho Dzong which means the fortress of glorious religion.

It's where the king, the government and the chief abbot are based

which means that all matters secular and religious are decided

and controlled from this powerhouse.

And within the mighty wall is this huge courtyard.

What a glorious space.

Over there are the quarters occupied by the king and the government

and this side is monastic and indeed I can hear these horns of monks at their morning prayer.

You can tell the monastic buildings

because they have these deep red stripes painted on them.

Golly! And all round one has nature, the hills now topped with clouds.

It's wonderful.

But not all is as it seems.

The greatest secret of this building is its age.

It looks ancient and, in fact, there was a dzong built on this site in the late 18th Century but virtually

everything you see now dates from the 1960s. It's incredible.

It reveals so much about Bhutan.

'History is so revered here that all modern buildings must pay tribute to the past.

'And not just their exteriors but their interiors too.'

This is the assembly hall for the monks and is rather obviously under repair.

It's an incredible room.

Carvings everywhere and beautiful paintings, and in front of me

the great, giant image of the Buddha,

the main image of the Buddha in this fortress monastery.

The Dzong was just a start.

In the 1980s the king issued a set of architectural rules

that would keep ancient building traditions alive.

Such respect for the past would, decreed the king, increase gross national happiness.

To help implement these new architectural policies

nearly 400 artisans were trained in traditional building techniques

and issued with pattern books showing acceptable details such as cornices and windows.

And in each district the king ordered that a prototype house

be built that people could see how they ought to build their own homes and this is one of the prototypes.

Nice details, good timber, lovely cornice, I suppose taken from the pattern book

and let's see, yes, the ground floor is indeed built traditionally on beaten earth.

'And dotted around Thimpu are buildings that evoke the old Bhutan with startling accuracy.

'And it didn't stop with buildings.

'The king also decreed that everyone should wear national costume.

'I decided I had to get myself kitted out.'

How much will I have to take off in this rather public place?

Whatever you like. HE LAUGHS

It seems surprisingly easy. I thought it was going to

be more, ah, it seems like it's too big.

Oh, I see, you're pulling down the sleeves of the shirt.

-Turn round.

-This is it. This is the frightful moment when my girth gives me away.

So what happens in a public place one doesn't wear this but wears Western clothes?

Is one fined by the police or something like that?

-Only to enforce the rules among the younger people.

-Yeah.

It was fined about seven dollars.

Seven dollars? For wearing jeans in public?

Ah, yeah in public. But now it is normal.

-Oh.

-It doesn't happen.

It was just to reinforce the rule.

-Yeah?

-Nice legs.

Long time since someone said that to me.

We also want modernisation to happen but not at the cost of...

-Yes.

-At the cost of this...culture.

It seems to me perfect this, isn't it? Emblematic.

Here we are, the fabric's made here, it's your style of clothes and, um

it's very comfortable. It's not old or new, it's just a functional garment and amazingly comfortable.

-It looks well on you.

-Thank you. Does it?

-Yes.

-Thank you very much.

It looks very well on you.

'In the evening downtown Thimpu is a bit tamer than your average western city.

'The most popular pastime is karom,

'a sort of complicated shove ha'penny.

'Surprisingly, in 1999, the king decided television

wouldn't threaten the country's cultural identity.

'More recently Bhutan held its first democratic election.

'Even so the nation continues to embrace the past,

'especially in the mountains where I'm heading tomorrow.

'Next morning I take a five hour drive away from the capital.'

Well, I finally arrived at the village of Shengan after a long and bumpy ride

and there is a welcoming committee for me.

My goodness, I didn't expect this.

DEEP NOTES FROM HORNS

I join on behind the children.

These chaps all the time blowing their massive horns.

CLANGING

SINGING AND CHANTING

SINGING AND CHANTING

WHOOPING AND SQUEALING

Thank you.

I suppose this is the house I've come to see. That's why the procession led me here.

That little ceremony was to appease a local deity,

to protect the house, the inhabitants and me, which is very thoughtful of them, isn't it?

The building is amazing. Very big. It certainly looks its age.

I've been told it's between 200-300 years old.

Obviously the house originally of a rather well-to-do farmer

and I suppose somewhere here is my host and hostess who will be entertaining me later on.

But a beautiful building I must say.

Beaten earth construction.

Timber above.

All the detail exposed because the paint has flaked off.

However, the first thing is before going inside, have a little look at the building from afar.

Go up there and inspect it in the landscape.

When this house was built, indeed until recent years, architecture was an alien idea in Bhutan.

People created their own architecture. They created the buildings they needed.

Information would be passed by word of mouth from generation to generation,

from craftsman to craftsman. There were no textbooks, no drawings.

People had simply had learned the best way to build to suit their needs,

to suit the landscape, which gives these buildings a timeless beauty.

They make them, I don't know, just look absolutely perfect in their setting.

Originally the house would have been painted

white with a lime wash and on that images, normally Buddhist images

or images to dispel evil spirits.

A popular image around here is a great phallus.

That was meant to be a very sort of beneficial image to have plastered outside one's home.

The traditional Bhutanese home is perfectly tailored to the needs of the local farmers.

The ground floor is occupied by their cattle

who retire into the house at night, safe from mountain tigers.

It's rather like clambering aboard a ship this, up this rickety staircase

and there's the front door over there.

And, ah! Well, the painted phalluses may fade on the outside of the building but here above the door

is a phallus, in fact four in wood forming a cross.

Of course it's there to ward off evil spirits but never the less I will go inside.

This very dark first floor contains nothing but storerooms

and light up here seems to be leading me to the living quarters.

This house only got electricity eight months ago.

Imagine how gloomy it was before that.

Hello, hello, hello.

Can I have a little look at your house please?

Is that all right if I have a wander round? Then I believe I'm joining you a little bit later for a meal.

Over, the stair's over here, is it?

Golly, staircase is one way of putting it.

This is simply a plank, virtually half a tree just with a...

foot and hand hold just cut out of it.

It's not too bad actually. Hmm.

Well, what could this room be.

Ah, here we are. Of course, it's like the family chapel.

Here's a Buddhist shrine.

The people of Bhutan remain very religious and most houses have their own shrines. This one is

very well appointed, very beautiful.

This house is four storeys but there's a fifth level, a flat area just below the pitched roof.

I'm going up there to inspect it.

Climbing this astonishing device, this sort of thing, it's really...

Well, my feet are too big for the rung things. Oh, lord, um...

Ah, sort of, am I getting the hang of it? Not really.

Ah... This fifth level, open to the elements, is also largely given over to storage.

Over there I can see wheat and up there wheat drying.

Walking into this house is absolutely breathtaking.

It's like stepping into the past and the Middle Ages.

What's clear is that rural Bhutan is a place frozen in time.

I return. Hello.

Having inspected your wonderful, ancient house. I'll sit here.

Thank you. You're... Oh, thank you.

Keeping my shoes on.

Oh.

So...

these are all the local farmers are they?

Yes, they are all farmers from the village.

They are all cousins, relatives and member of the family.

Yes, and how many people actually live in this house?

There are seven of them.

Father, mother and children.

-Seven of them.

-Right. And they all live, sleep in this big room?

So the beds come out at night, after this, and everyone goes to sleep?

-Yes.

-Incredible. The main living room also the kitchen I see.

People are happy with this then?

You know the continuity with the traditional ways of life going on and on?

Yes. People are happy, very happy with the life that we lead here

-because once in a while they do get to go out to the urban city and they see the chaos life there.

-Yes.

And they are very happy with the life here.

It is truly a very Buddhist sentiment to live a very basic life.

You make do with what you have and you make do with what is enough.

Speaking of the rice.

I really want to get my... Rice, yes.

'Bhutan is a fascinating experiment.

'A radical attempt to keep the past alive in a modern and often alarming world.

'I know it wouldn't suit everyone but to me it seems admirable.

'This is my dream of architecture.'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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