Balloons of Bhutan

Artist Jonathan Harris  talks about the  Balloons for Bhutan project, his effort to capture “a portrait of happiness in the last Himalayan kingdom”:

Instead of "Gross National Product", Bhutan uses "Gross National Happiness" to measure its socio-economic prosperity, essentially organizing its national agenda around the basic tenets of Buddhism. Bhutan's fourth king, Jigme Singe Wangchuck, invented the idea in 1972, to give his tiny country some international clout and guard against potential future invasion by its two mighty neighbors (India and China).
Given the seriousness with which this topic is treated, I thought it would be fun to do something a little bit silly, so in late 2007, I traveled to Bhutan and spent two weeks handing out balloons.

Balloons of Bhutan Via Brain Pickings