Bhutan: Dispatch from the Hermit’s happy hills

“What is pertinent in the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint,” says Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the Day. “It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own sense of greatness, and feels no need to shout it.” I could not help thinking likewise while walking in south-western Bhutan, my home for the last few days.

The serene kingdom is nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, perched perilously between its colossal continental neighbours – India to its south and Tibet to its north. For starters, south Bhutan is…