A comparison of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) index and Subjective Well-being (SWB) scores with the 2022 GNH survey has shown that monastic communities fare significantly better than the general population in several key areas of life.
The data from the survey report was revealed by the Centre for Bhutan and GNH Studies (CBS) last month. The survey saw that from various perspectives, the results highlight a GNH index of 0.856, along with a mean Flourishing Scale (FS) score of 7.17, a life satisfaction score of 7.23, and a happiness score of 7.6. These metrics, evaluated on a 0-10 scale (except for the GNH index, which ranges from 0 to 1), reflect a strong sense of well-being.
It revealed that there are high scores in each of the human flourishing measures. This only indicates that individuals in monastic communities are leading fulfilling and flourishing lives. What does the high score in each human flourishing measure indicate? It indicates that people in monastic communities are leading happy and flourishing lives.
Human Flourishing is a concept that is receiving increasing attention globally, and there are various ways to measure it.
In this report, “Human Flourishing in The Monastic Communities in Bhutan”, the CBS studied using three main approaches—GNH Index, FS, and SWB. The report, funded by Templeton World Charity Foundation, interviewed 1,612 individuals, constituting monks (83.3%), nuns (9.8%), and gomchens (7%), residing in monastic institutions around the country. The FS presented above is considered a part of subjective happiness or vice versa.
The SWB refers only to the life satisfaction and happiness scale, which asks a person to rate his or her life on a 0–10-point scale, where 0 indicates the most unsatisfied or unhappy life and 10 indicates the most satisfied or happy life. The data shows that over 92.2 percent of people report satisfaction levels above 5 on a 0-10 scale, and 86 percent report happiness scores above 5.
Raising important questions about the monastic education system, it is noteworthy that the participants scored the lowest mean (6.8) in terms of wisdom associated with creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, and perspective. Higher modern education is associated with increased flourishing. Another interesting finding showed that Gomchens sleep longer hours compared to monks and nuns. In contrast, nuns sleep for shorter durations on average.
Regarding social time, data was gathered to understand their behaviour patterns, which revealed that individuals living a monastic lifestyle are engaged in social interactions, as indicated by their use of social media. The most widely used social media platforms, in order of usage rates, are Facebook (80.8%), Messenger (79.8%), YouTube (66.4%), WeChat (60.5%), Telegram (58.4%), TikTok (40.5%), Instagram (29.4%), and WhatsApp (27.8%).
The majority of participants possess five or more social media accounts. Monks are the most engaged on these platforms, followed by gomchens. Over half of the respondents dedicate over an hour to social media each day (54%). Almost 30% of individuals spend between 30 minutes and one hour on social media daily (28.8%).
When it comes to SWB against health, only about one in every 10 individuals reported their health condition as either poor or fair. However, about one-fourth of the respondents reported diseases like gastritis, hypertension, obesity, or diabetes. The prevalence of gastritis was higher among nuns (25.3%). It is recommended to promote lifestyle changes in monastic communities. A survey found that 30 percent of the respondents were inactive when it came to physical activity, including over 50 percent of nuns were reported to be inactive.
Only about three in 10 individuals residing in monastic institutions (30.4%) are vegetarians, compared to the national average of 13.9%. Nuns are far more vegetarian than monks (28.7%) and gomchens (17.9%), accounting for roughly half of them (51.9%). “This could indicate that one’s religious or spiritual beliefs and/or practices influence one’s eating choices.”
Political participation in terms of staying informed about what is going on around them is primarily achieved through chats with friends, as well as through the internet and television. More than 70 percent of the monastic community does not use newspapers or radios. More than half of the monks (57.1%) use the internet weekly and communicate with their friends (51.2%) about what is going on in the country.
When it comes to discrimination, approximately nine percent of respondents reported experiencing it, with the most common forms of discrimination mentioned being against physique and ethnicity. Nuns experienced such discrimination at a high rate (10.8%). The survey advised the implementation of appropriate measures, particularly for younger members of the monastic community.
In an attempt to analyse monastic communities’ social attitudes, the survey found that a significant percentage of respondents (71.2%) would not want to live next to a drug addict as neighbours, and nearly two-thirds (65.3%) say the same about heavy drinkers. This could be owing to the hazards of antisocial behaviour caused by their intoxication. Approximately 43 percent shared they do not want people of different religions as neighbours. Similarly, 38.2 percent do not want homosexuals, 27.3 percent do not want HIV/AIDS patients, and 23.5 percent do not want immigrants as neighbours.
Nuns are, on average, more accepting of homosexuality than men. Monks, on average, are more tolerant of parents beating their children and less tolerant of divorce, prostitution, and husbands abusing their wives than nuns or gomchens. Gomchens are marginally more accepting of divorce, prostitution, and men beating their wives than monks and nuns.
However, when it comes to mental health, the report showed that approximately 91 percent of the monastic community experience “normal mental wellbeing.” Around two percent fall in the “severe psychological distress” category, while 6.7 percent have “some distress.” This would possibly be linked to individuals who engage in meditation, regardless of frequency, tend to experience higher levels of flourishing.
Contributed by
Yangchen C Rinzin
Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies