The Quiet Kingdom

The sign at the trailhead says three hours to the viewpoint. Our guide, Kinley, said four, 'because we are not in a hurry, and neither is the mountain.' That sentence is Bhutan's entire tourism policy in miniature.

Taktsang — the Tiger's Nest — was built in 1692 on a cliff face 900 metres above the Paro valley, at the site where Guru Rinpoche is said to have arrived on the back of a flying tigress. Looking at it, you cycle through explanations: engineering, faith, and finally the only one that fits — some things are built because a place demanded a building, not the reverse.

Inside: butter lamps, a monk of about eleven topping them up, the smell of juniper, and windows framing two kilometres of air. We were the only visitors for an hour. Bhutan limits its tourists on purpose; the quiet you buy here is the quiet of policy, not accident.

On the way down, Kinley pointed out a black-necked crane's wintering ground across the valley, and described the festival in Phobjikha where the whole village greets the cranes' arrival with song. 'They come every year,' he said, 'so we sing every year.' The kingdom runs on that kind of contract. It is working.