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His Majesty knew how deeply he was loved by his people and loved them back and mingled freely with them and worked constantly for their welfare. While royalty in neighboring Nepal took junkets to sunny Greek isles, became embroiled in international gold smuggling rackets and scurried wealth away in secret Swiss Bank accounts, his Majesty lived a quiet and simple life rarely ever venturing outside the country, more apt to be found poring over stacks of documents for Bhutan's Five Year Development Plans. He personally directed and finessed proposed projects for the construction of rural roads, improved health and sanitation services for remote villages, and education for all Bhutanese children irrespective of their backgrounds. On the tours I took with what I like to call His Majesty's "government-on-the-road", he made sure every privileged government officer and department head traveled with him to each and every district of Bhutan to personally articulate their organization's goals and visions to every farmer and villager in the land. This was his way of keeping his officials and planning team on their toes, and holding them accountable. He placed heavy demands and rigorous schedules on himself and expected nothing less from those around him.
Often, in some far flung valley or humble little village, as the entire entourage settled in for the night after the long day's deliberations like a carnival shutting down, the last lamp to go off would be the one in the modest guest house or tent reserved for His Majesty. Once, on one of these tours to Bhutan's largest and most economically challenged districts, several particularly demanding issues were raised for discussion by both the people's representatives and general members of the population.
His Majesty could have easily told the people that they would receive a formal response once he had returned to the capital and moved on to an easier topic before concluding the meeting to leave for the next district. He was already maintaining a very rigiorous schedule and everyone would have understood. But instead His Majesty extended his stay in the valley and brainstormed plans with senior ministers and young government strategists for the next three days to prepare initiatives that would adequately address the people's concerns. On the fourth day, before the meeting, I received some instructions from His Majesty's bleary-eyed senior ADC—a strapping bear of a man—who could barely stand on his feet because he had not slept a wink the three previous nights (which meant that the king almost certainly had not caught any sleep in the previous three nights as well). I also saw, first-hand, His Majesty cover hundreds of kilometers on these tours, stopping to speak to each villager who stood and waited by the road to petition him. Often, watching him from the press car in the rear of the convoy I thought to myself, "he must certainly be tired or impatient, this is the umpteenth time he has had to stop in the past two hours!" But I never caught a glimmer of irritation, or saw him hurry. By now, having attended private school in India and received professional training in the west, I was acutely aware that nowhere in the world would a leader conduct the business of running a nation in such a personal way. What this achieved, in effect, was to reduce the power and any possibility of corruption or nepotism among senior officials as the people always had direct access to the highest authority in the land. This knowledge gave the people in Bhutan's rural outposts power, pride and the belief to speak up for their rights. They knew they counted, and that they were important. That, in the eyes of their King, they were as important contributors to the task of nation-building as any bureaucrat who stood behind a desk.
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