♪

>> you think animals are sentient? >> i think pain is pain. if you don't respond to that, there's something seriously wrong with you. >> it's very buddhist of you, i think. >> look, when i worked in cape cod, my job is to load this steamer with lobsters, and they don't scream. but you know you hear them scratching against it. i have dreams i'm in a sauna and i look through the window and there's a giant lobster like, you know, a bib with a chef on it, you know. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la ♪ >> bhutan, a remote, relatively rarely visited kingdom of myth and legend, high in the himalayas, known as land of the thunder dragon. one of the reasons it's not on the tourist trail is it's hard to get to.

flying in, you hang on to your seat as the plane negotiates some alarming maneuvers through narrow mountain passes, before dropping into the country's only international airport, said by some to be the most dangerous in the world. located between india and tibet, bhutan, about the size of switzerland, is caught between the old world and the new. thimphu is bhutan's capital and largest city.

it has a rapidly growing population of 100,000, as bhutanese have begun the inevitable move away from a rural agrarian lifestyle. tourism was only allowed starting in the 1970s. the amount of foreign visitors each year is strictly limited to protect bhutan's culture and environment. there are no starbucks, no kfcs, no king or clown. basically, they don't want you to come here, at least on mass. >> watch your head. >> you all right? >> wow. >> what do you think of the altitude? >> i'm here because of this guy, my friend, the film director darren aronofsky, fresh off the unjustifiably horrified reaction to what i think is his masterpiece, mother. >> but i know you've studied the effects of high altitude, you know, your blood gets thicker

and thicker, so it's like freaking marmalade. >> all right. >> you'll be dying slowly. >> awesome. >> mother is an angry and thinly veiled warning that we are destroying our planet. and policy-wise, bhutan is something of an environmental wonderland. >> we want to protect the country from being overly influenced by foreign value culture, you know, all the bad stuff that happens with tourism. has anyone made a film here? >> i don't know. it's got to be hard to work here. >> yeah. >> plus, talk about contaminating the values of the local culture, i mean, i don't think that'll work. >> well, you know, hollywood doesn't do that. >> our first meal becomes our go-to favorite for the rest of the trip. if i'm not on camera, chances are i'm somewhere eating these bad boys. >> momo. >> momos, plump, flavorful, often quite spicy dumplings filled with meat, cheese, or veg. did i mention darren is a vegetarian? >> oh, god, these look good.

>> they are really good. >> right, chili cheese momo. >> pardon? >> chili cheese momo. >> cheese momo? >> chili cheese. >> wow, everything's fine. >> good thing to do. >> okay. >> all right, here we go. >> mmm. that's excellent. >> yeah. >> that's spicy. >> that is. yeah, i'm feeling that. mmm. >> i feel it in the back of my head. >> it's enlightenment. it's your third eye opening, man. >> i can't even tell what we're talking about. i'm like so high from the altitude . >> morning in bhutan's capital, a kingdom that has existed contentedly in a state of self-imposed isolation for centuries.

>> in some forms of buddhism, you're very much -- this life does not matter at all. it's about the next. >> next. >> on the other extreme, it's all about today, right now. >> the form of buddhism practiced here is the middle path. >> middle path. >> mahayana, tantric buddhism. >> buddhists consider the next life. >> yes. and always your karma. >> and karma. >> whatever tragedies fall on you, death in the family, karma. it's all about an attitude. pick up and move on. >> once, his holiness the dalai lama told me, every day when you rise up, you try and be as good a human being as possible. that's more important than being religious.

>> beautiful day today? >> winter days are normally like this every day. in good old days, we used to have snowfalls about four or five times a year. but over the last decade or so, it's decreased a lot. >> noticeably. >> some glacial lakes have disappeared completely. >> dasho benji dorji is known as bhutan's godfather of environmental conservation. >> and in tantric buddhism, is there a respect for nature? >> there is a lot of respect. >> you don't mess with nature. >> yeah, you don't mess with nature. >> this is a traditional welcome drink. it's an ara.

it's a raw alcohol. the normal toast is tashi delek. >> tashi delek. >> tashi delek. may good fortune be with you. i'm a retired alcoholic, so i will not join you. >> okay. >> pretty good. >> yeah. >> kind of a warm sake, but made out of wheat. >> yeah. >> yes. >> could you tell us a little more about the chef? >> oh, she and her husband are both colonels in the royal bhutan police. >> oh, wow. >> we have to use the finger, touch, so that the flavors come out. >> these recipes, where do they come from? >> they come from the farmers, from all the local houses. just passed down. >> these nine grains have a very historical and spiritual significance. there was one saint called drukpa kunley. he's known as the madman. >> the divine madman. >> yes, of course. >> so when he came to bhutan, he carried the nine grains. this is the hide, the yak hide. >> yes. >> hot sichuan pepper. lots of tomatoes to tone down the pepper.

this is the yak hide. it's a delicacy. and then this is, the green one is the orchid flower. >> i always think it's very exotic, the orchid. but they say it's good for your health. >> good. >> that's really amazing. can you tell us about the famous gross national happiness? >> well, you have in your constitution the pursuit of happiness, the right of every individual. >> sure. >> yeah, but we don't actually believe that. but please proceed. >> i do believe in gross national happiness, good governance, human rights, justice for all, education, health. >> it is not a wealthy country. the average daily wage is very low. >> yes. >> but would you say the average person living in bhutan is reasonably happy and content? >> most people, yes. bhutan is a good welfare state where the health of people are taken care of, and taken care of

very well.

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♪ it's a 2.5-hour drive from the capital to the picturesque mountain village of punakha.

this is a must-see destination and one-time home to bhutan's revered and beloved drukpa kunley, known as the divine madman. >> beep, beep. >> beep, beep. >> beep, beep. >> okay, here you go. >> wow. >> i really kind of got nothing to say. >> now, dear viewer, bhutan is a very devoutly buddhist country. and in such circumstances, i always do my very best to be respectful and restrained, shying away from my usual toilet humor. never in the history of television has a host faced a greater challenge. how to talk about what's happening without -- well, without making the obvious joke.

>> god, give me strength as we wander through the valley of the low-hanging jokes. >> i'm trying to be respectful of a five-century religious tradition here. >> for centuries, bhutan has celebrated the phallus. >> i'm not sure about the teeth. >> this is the necklace. >> oh. i'm trying to think of a circumstance you could wear that around your neck. >> you see them everywhere here. >> oh, geez, it's a [bleep]-a-lanche. >> you can make a chess set out of them, though. >> really? >> exactly. that's right. >> that's a little -- >> that's making a statement of something. >> yeah, it is, it is. >> all right, i'm going to go

for the sad one. >> you're going for a sort of -- it's a rainbow, rainbow -- >> five, six. i want to see this appearing on the budget, by the way. >> exactly. how do you write this off? do i add a little tip? >> do we have a bag? can i pass this along? i'm not walking around with it. >> i mean, i'm holding tips. >> i feel like i'm not -- >> so what do they -- tell me what they represent. >> embarrassment? >> all right. >> all this is the legacy of drukpa kunley, a lama and holy man who lived 500 years ago and spread the tenets of buddhism along with a healthy skepticism for the institutions of power. >> we are sitting just below the chimi lhakhang, which is a temple built in the honor of drukpa kunley. the temple is also known as the temple of fertility. >> he reveled unapologetically in casual sex, the copious use of spirits and seduction, spiting demons and making frequent friends with what is referred to as his flaming thunderbolt of wisdom, which is a term you and i are unlikely to get away with. >> people from all over the world come here to buy wooden penises and to hear the stories of the divine madman. >> yeah. you can get blessings from the palace, the phallus palace. >> the phallus palace. >> they bless you with a -- >> with a phallus? >> yeah. >> kunga su tenjin dorji is a

journalist and radio host who knows a few things about the divine madman. >> the phallus has been a symbol in vajra and buddhism long before drukpa kunley came around. it's just that because he was such a character, it's come to be associated with him. >> the divine madman was a rebel, questioned his own religion, his fellow monks. >> so the monks hated him, of course. >> right. >> the establishment hated him. but the people took readily to him because he was a guy who came to your house. it didn't mean that, you know, like other monks, you had to prepare a special meal for him. he probably wanted your latest batch of ara, you know, the local rice wine. and maybe he'd hit on your daughter and your wife as well in the process. so you could imagine in 16th. century bhutan, a person who was known to have performed miracles would strike the fancy of anyone. >> what were his miracles? >> well, things like shooting an arrow all the way from tibet and landed in a house that's about a few kilometers from here. >> but he did exist, right? >> yeah, yeah. then the first thing he did when

he got to the house where the arrow had landed was to hit upon the lady of the house. >> yeah, that wouldn't fly these guys. >> this is one of the most difficult things to understand about drukpa kunley because he breaks our own, our notions about what is right and what's proper. >> this man was essentially saying, we should make love, we should drink, we should feel pleasure. >> oh, well, not necessarily that. i think what he was trying to say is that, you know, all these things that you hold dear to your heart, such as, you know, your wife and your kids and your house and all of this, in the end it doesn't really matter. >> so you're saying the divine madman was bringing people towards enlightenment? >> yes. >> so should i be getting drunk more and having more casual sex? will i be more enlightened? >> not just because of that, i'm sure not. >> oh. >> until about 15 years ago, the

east-west highway was the only road in bhutan. bisecting the country, it twists through some pretty gnarly mountain passes with at times crumbly cliff face on one side. >> wow. >> and a harrowing freaking drop-off on the other. the road is undergoing a major expansion, with plans to have it fully paved by -- well, soon. >> just carving this out of the side of the mountain. >> unbelievable. >> how many workers they say work here? >> 40,000. >> respect for the natural world is fundamental to bhutan's spiritual identity. more than half the country is off limits to development or timbering. a whopping 50% of bhutan's gdp comes from hydropower. >> amazing, huh? >> so where are we? what is this place? >> this is the punatsangcchu hydropower dam. so this is one of the biggest hydropower dams in bhutan. it's about 1,200 megawatts. >> how much is that?

>> that's a lot of refrigerators. i heard there's going to be a second -- >> second dam further down. so they're going to capture power twice? >> if you have already destroyed one river, you know, might as well use it. >> get the most out of it. >> yeah, get the most out of it. >> dr. nawang norbu is the director of the school for field studies bhutan program. >> and what country is building this? >> mostly india. >> do the indians build it and then get the power to pay it? >> they get the power. >> we sell it to them, and then we sort of liquidate the loans away. we have five such dams which are operational. >> five. >> and i think six being constructed at the moment. you know, obviously there's a lot of destruction. it will stop some of the fishes from migrating up and down. you're also talking about a lot of transmission lines. but obviously for bhutan, i think when we started on the path of development, i think we were left with few other options, and i think this was the best thing for us to do. >> the water that comes through this dam, is it an inexhaustible supply? >> it's all glacial water. >> we hope so. there are many studies which are showing that the himalayan glaciers will disappear in about 50 to 60 years. >> whoa, whoa, whoa.

that's soon. >> yeah. >> yeah, but nobody knows for sure. i mean, the science is debatable. >> are we talking about the difference between 50 years and 100 years? >> maybe. >> or are we talking about whether it's happening at all? >> no, it is happening. there's no doubt about it. >> there's no doubt. >> and you're not only talking about energy production, but you're also talking about agriculture. you know, you have less snow means you have less water to feed. so climate change is going to have a serious impact.

♪ as we head further and further east, the road conditions get sketchy.

>> whoa. >> whoa. caught in a landslide. that whole thing collapsed. >> that's not encouraging. what if our car had been there? that's a big freaking -- >> shoot, he's going to have to move that whole thing? >> i think we're going to freeze out here like rats tonight. >> whoa.

>> he's going after the big one. here he goes. >> whoa. whoa. >> hey, he's through. >> i think that's it. >> saddle up. >> the best song about the road. it's almost having west virginia's blue ridge mountains. >> country roads. >> john denver? >> that's where my head went first. >> wow .

>> it is considered enlightening and therapeutic to think about death for a few minutes a day. >> yes. you are reminded time and again not to take things too seriously. this is in fact an illusion, isn't it? >> life is but a dream. >> yeah.

>> pelela pass, the gateway to central bhutan. here, nomadic herders and their yaks come down from higher elevations to spend the winter months. >> and from the yak you get meat? >> meat. >> the fur? >> the fur, milk, cheese. >> butter? >> yeah. >> this is butter tea. >> yak tea? >> yeah, with yak butter. >> have you had this before? >> never. >> you're either going to love it or you're not going to love it. >> it's very unique. >> it's a yak jerky. >> yak meat and some spinach. >> you'll like these greens, man.

they are spicy. >> do i have yak meat? is this yak meat? >> yeah, that's yak meat. >> okay, i got to avoid the yak meat. >> and then these are dried chilies which are boiled. >> the yak cheese with boiled, dried chilies. >> yeah. i'm all over that. this is excellent. >> yeah. >> excellent. really good. >> so yak herding is dying, we're starting to hear. >> people are giving it up. >> why? >> better opportunities, i suppose. yak herding is a difficult life. she herself has given up now. so she has given all her yaks to her sisters. so she is now, she has a shop and she has gone up the ladder. >> she is in charge of the business and she makes the decisions for the family. in bhutan, women are the boss. women inherit whatever the parents own. it's not the sons. >> always, all inheritance goes to the women.

>> women. >> what is this? >> this is ara with some cordyceps in it. >> what? that is a cordyceps? >> that is the cordyceps. >> which is? >> essentially, the cordyceps is a fungus which infects the larvae of the ghost moths. >> a caterpillar that has been invaded by fungus? >> essentially, it takes over the whole larvae, kills it, sort of mummifies the whole thing. then in the spring, it protrudes out again. >> is there any caterpillar left at the end or is it sort of like fossilized? >> it's just a fossilized. >> meaning it is not meat, it is vegetarian. >> right. >> cordyceps are the new profit center for a culture that used to revolve almost entirely around the yak. >> this stuff costs how much a kilo? >> on average, it's about 20,000. >> 20,000 u.s. >> dollars. >> that's a lot. >> may i? >> yes, please. >> what does this do for you? >> it's supposed to increase your virility.

it's supposed to kill piles, you know, even hepatitis. >> really? hepatitis? >> yeah. >> piles, eh? >> what is piles? >> hemorrhoids. >> oh. >> and the chinese athletes have been taking it for quite some time. >> so they're doping on fungus. >> yeah. >> it's pretty tasty. >> yeah. it also says that you produce more semen. i don't know how far it's true. >> what about the -- what's his name? >> the divine madman. >> maybe the guy was, you know, doing a lot of cordyceps. >> exactly. ♪ >> it's getting hot in here. >> well, no, it's not, actually. it's you, man. >> what happens if you eat too many ?

(patrick) it took a few years, i started to notice that i couldn't go as long. (renee) every half a block i'm stopping to try to catch my breath. (ray) if it's under 20 degrees out, i can't go outside my house because it feels like i'm inhaling broken glass. (terry) [coughing] -excuse me. (ted koppel) sounds familiar? (taini) the fish being out of the water, gasping for air, well, i feel worse than a fish. (ted koppel) 30 million americans have copd, half don't yet know it. (bill) when the doctor told me you have copd...what's that? (ted koppel) it's a lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (joyce) i thought i was good at breathing until i wasn't. (ted koppel) right now, people struggling with copd are especially vulnerable to covid-19. (rhonda) it cut my life in half, that's what it did. (ted koppel) if we can't find them, we can't help them.

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we are here on the east-west highway. after this pass, we are actually entering the black mountain forest, some of the most pristine forests in bhutan, but also supposed to be connected to a lot of evil spirits. >> with the last remnants of sun still with us and the views spectacular, enthusiastic amateur mixologist darren suggests a pit stop. >> this is a cool spot, no? >> yeah. >> to fortify ourselves against the reputed horrors ahead. >> so our main alcohol -- ara, is that what it's called? >> oh, geez. >> oh, we have this, which is a bitter. >> yeah, okay, it's like aftershave. >> should we put some orange in there? >> we do have oranges. >> let that spin in the air, catch with the other hand. hello, ladies.

>> oh, oh, hold on. >> what? >> hold on, hold on, hold on. dude, it needs a yeti in it. the bhutanese pepper. no, no, no, go for it. >> you really want the seeds in? >> do it, let's do it, let's try it. it has a bite. did you get a little sting? >> i'm getting it, i'm getting it. >> actually, this is pretty good. >> yeah, i could drink a lot of these. >> we decide, as travelers through demon-infested forests at night all too frequently do, to stop by a welcoming roadhouse for a conversation with garab dorji, our government rep. it does little to steel us for the journey ahead. >> what are we drinking tonight?

>> we are drinking k5. >> called k5? >> k5. the whiskey is dedicated to the present king. he is the fifth king in line. >> do they still make k4, or no more? >> no, we don't have k4, just k5. >> good, thank you. >> okay. >> are most of these guys brought in from india? >> most are from india. >> where do these guys live? >> they have small huts built at the construction site. >> in the mythology of the area, much of it likely predating even buddhism, demons inhabit these forests, nasty demons. >> buddha had 1,000 lives. in one of his 500 good lives, he was exiled to bhutan because this was the most dreaded place. >> maybe that's why you were never invaded. >> yeah. >> one of the evil spirits is called loro duem, and she is supposed to be the commander-in-chief of all the

evil spirits. one of the most terrifying things you could ever see is her face. if you see her, you die instantly. >> you drop dead instantly. >> you drop dead. >> so if darren has to like take a -- you know, go out in the woods, that be would not advisable? >> no, it's not advisable to go out at night. >> and no lumbering? no one's cutting down trees here? >> no one. as long as we know, the whole mountain range is virgin. >> but what about putting the road through? i mean, i guess you could hire indian guys. >> the road is on the other side of the mountain. we built it purposefully that way. >> really? >> so like nobody's got a house? >> no, nothing, nothing. that's nothing on that. even if people lose their cattle, whatever, they don't go into that. >> still? >> still, even to this day .

(ted koppel) the only thing worse than being a target for covid-19... (ray) if it's under 20 degrees out, i can't go outside my house because i feels like i'm inhaling broken glass. (ted koppel) ...is not knowing you are one. (renee) every half a block, i'm stopping to try to catch my breath. (taini) you know the fish being out of the water, gasping for air? well, i feel worse than a fish. (ted koppel) 30 million americans have copd, half of them don't yet know it. (terry) [coughing] excuse me. (ted koppel) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (joyce) i thought i was good at breathing until i wasn't. (ted koppel) people with copd are especially vulnerable to covid. (rhonda) people are dying every day from this- and it's not going to go away.

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valleys and imposing peaks, it's easy to imagine what this place looked like before bhutan first opened the door to outsiders . >> bumthang is the end of the road for us, the spiritual heartland of bhutan. archery is the national sport, an important community event that binds remote villages together in fierce competition and in a rollicking good time.

today is the day of a match between trongsa and a rival village. but first, food. >> you have to, you know. this way. >> oh, right, okay. >> no, it's too big, too big. >> too big? >> yeah, okay. >> it's okay? >> when you put it in the mouth, you have to put it this way. >> oh, okay. >> no, it's not bulging. is it bulging? >> oh, not bulging? >> it should not bulge. >> no bulge. oh, yeah, i'm down with that, man. >> that's pork? >> why is it translucent? >> they braise it rather than fry it so it becomes clear. this is like unbelievable. >> we eat everything. we don't throw it all. this is the bone on the neck. chop it and swallow it. >> that's good, man. that's just so good.

>> i'm going with the pepper. >> oh, that set my hair on fire. >> this is like turnip greens. >> oh, turnip greens. >> turnip leaves is a delicacy in china. a little bit of butter and milk. now, this is yak leg. >> yak leg. >> so does meat eating go all the way back or were people vegetarian? >> all the way back, all the way. in fact, the buddhists were considered cannibals. >> say that again. >> buddhists were considered cannibals. the only vegetable we had was potato and radish. that's it, nothing else. >> wow. >> people don't kill, but they would eat one another if somebody dies. we are not supposed to eat, actually. >> you're not supposed to eat yak? >> no, we are not supposed to eat meat.

>> you're not supposed to eat meat? >> buddhism, i mean, the hardcore buddhism. >> but culturally, because of the terrain, we had no choice. >> right. >> oh, is that beetle nut? >> yeah. >> beetle nut. >> oh, can i try? >> yeah, yeah. >> i'm not having it. >> have you done it? >> yes, yes, i have. you asked for it. >> you chew up the green? >> yeah, everything chewed together. >> like cud. >> whoa. oh, man. >> you having a buzz? >> my whole mouth is numb. i got to do something about this. totally high off of that thing. ♪ >> ah, geez, just stepped into a fresh load of --

>> right here. >> oh, geez. it's a serious distance. >> the rules are simple. shoot your arrow the length of 1.5 football fields, high in the air, in this case across the east-west highway, all the way, hopefully, into a small target. >> good luck with that. >> it's like you need a .50 caliber to hit that target. >> i can barely see it flying through the air. >> can you see the arrows? >> no. >> close. >> what's interesting is the other team is often standing by the target, and hanging out looking cool for as long as possible as an arrow flies in your general direction is standard practice.

when points are scored, there's singing and dancing in a fair amount of what can only be called playful taunting. the bhutanese version of in your face. >> brag dance. >> you're drinking, man. >> yep. >> what could possibly go wrong? >> one in a million shot. >> i love the little kid over there with the juice box ten feet from the line of fire . >> what are they screaming? why?

>> not hitting the target. >> so they're anti cheerleaders. >> yes. >> why are they saying that? this short guy, he can't hit. >> they're calling him short? >> yeah. and a bald head and everything. >> whoa.

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♪ >> this is a very religious site. it's called the burning lake. >> burning lake, or burning river. the burning lake, but i think it's actually a river. >> i see people are leaving prayer flags and these things. >> these are called tsa-tsas, these offerings. sometimes they're made out of clay and sometimes they're made out of actually the ashes of the dead. >> whoa. >> wow, that's pretty awesome. >> it's beautiful. >> a little pile of incense. where do you think this country is headed? >> honestly, i don't know what i believe. i don't know if it's good or bad. it seems like shangri-la.

look for the place that invented gross national happiness, but they're content at under $2 a day. >> yes. >> i don't want my child hurting yak, and i don't know that a lot of parents do, even here. >> having a fully paved road across this entire country, this country is going to be a very, very different place in five years. the question is, do they stay committed to happiness and not to consumption? >> ooh. >> getting off the plane when we got here, there were many flat screen tvs. >> first comes electricity, then comes the television, then come pop stars and materialism. but maybe that's arrogant. maybe that's just, you know, easy for me to say. >> i don't know. a lot of the people we talk to, there's a tremendous amount of respect of what they have. we're finally seeing the effects of climate change in a terrifying way, which they're all going to be able to witness on their flat screen tvs. you know, i think people are going to really hold on to treasures like this. >> i know it's beautiful. i'm glad it hasn't been stopped yet by the world .

♪

>> you're supposed to put them somewhere where they'll last for a while and make a prayer. hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from the united states and all around the worl