Synopsis The volume is the result of two extended field studies of the Bhutanese style of democracy and modernisation by the author and interviews with numerous Bhutanese from the village level right up to the topmost layer of political, economic and cultural institutions and persons manning them. What emerges in the volume is not a Shangri-La, but a vibrant developing country nestling on the bosom of the mighty Himalayas, crafting a participatory democracy suited to its present phase of evolution, looking confidently to a future of sustained growth and development, a multi-cultural tolerant people enriched by recreation of its ancient heritage of social harmony and moral values, absorbing the fruits of modernisation without getting polluted by the dark byproducts of elitism, consumerism, segmentation of society in blind pursuit of wealth and power in the hands of a few at the cost of the many.