Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

You think animals are sentient?

I think pain is, you know...

- Pain... - Pain is pain.

If you don't respond to that,

you're doing something seriously wrong.

That's very Buddhist of you, I think.

Look, when I worked in Cape Cod,

my job was to load this steamer with lobsters.

And they don't scream, but, you know,

you hear them scratching against the thing.

I'd have dreams, and, I mean, I'm in a sauna

and I look through the window

and there's this giant lobster,

like a... you know, a bib with a chef on it, you know.

Bhutan,

a remote, relatively rarely visited

kingdom of myth and legend high in the Himalayas,

known as Land of the Thunder Dragon.

One of the reasons it's not on the tourist trail

is it's hard to get to.

Flying in, you hang on to your seat

as the plane negotiates some alarming maneuvers

through narrow mountain passes...

Before dropping into the country's

only international airport,

said by some to be the most dangerous in the world.

Located between India and Tibet,

Bhutan, about the size of Switzerland,

is caught between the old world and the new.

Thimphu is Bhutan's capital and largest city.

It has a rapidly growing population of 100,000,

as Bhutanese have begun the inevitable move away

from a rural, agrarian lifestyle.

Tourism was only allowed starting in the 1970s.

The amount of foreign visitors each year is strictly limited

to protect Bhutan's culture and environment.

There are no Starbucks, no KFCs, no King or Clown.

Basically, they don't want you to come here...

at least en masse.

- Watch your head. - Yeah, right? Wow.

What do you think of the altitude? How you feeling?

I'm here because of this guy,

my friend, a film director, Darren Aronofsky,

fresh off the unjustifiably horrified reaction

to what I think is his masterpiece, "Mother!"

I don't know if you've studied the effects of high altitude.

You know, your blood gets thicker and thicker

until it's like freakin' marmalade.

- All right. - We'll be dying slowly.

Awesome.

"Mother!" is an angry and thinly veiled warning

that we are destroying our planet.

And, policy wise, Bhutan is something

of an environmental wonderland.

You want to protect the country from being overly influenced

by foreign values, culture, you know,

all of the bad stuff that happens with tourism.

Has anyone made a film here? I don't know.

It's got to be hard to work here.

Yeah, plus talk about contaminating

the values of a local culture, I mean, I don't... that'll...

What, we are... Hollywood doesn't do that.

Our first meal becomes our go-to favorite

for the rest of the trip.

If I'm not on camera, chances are I'm somewhere

eating these bad boys.

- Momo! - Momos.

Plump, flavorful, often quite spicy dumplings

filled with meat, cheese, or veg.

Did I mention Darren is a vegetarian?

- God damn, these are good. - They are really good.

- Try chili cheese momo? - Pardon?

- Chili cheese momo. - Cheese momo?

- Chili cheese. - Hot, very hot.

- Wow, everybody's smiling. - The thing to do.

- Okay. - All right, here we go.

- Mmm. - That's excellent.

Yeah.

That's spicy.

That is... yeah, I'm feeling that.

Mmm. I feel it in the back of my head.

It's enlightenment.

It's your third eye opening, man.

I can't even tell what we're talking about,

I'm, like, so high from the altitude.

Morning in Bhutan's capital.

A kingdom that has existed contentedly

in a state of self-imposed isolation for centuries.

In some forms of Buddhism you're very much...

This life does not matter at all, it's about the next.

Next.

But on the other extreme,

it's all about today, right now.

The form of Buddhism practiced here is the Middle Path.

Middle Path. Mahayana Buddhism.

Buddhists consider the next life.

Yes, and always is your karma.

And karma.

Whatever tragedies fall on you,

that's the family of karma.

It's all about an attitude, pick up and move on.

Once, his holiness the Dalai Lama

told me, "Every day when you rise up",

"you try and be a good a human being as possible.

That more important than being religious."

- Beautiful day today. - Winter days...

- Yeah. - Are normally like this

every day.

In the good old days, we used to have

snowfalls about four, five times a year.

- Mm-hmm. - But over the last decade

or so, it's decreased a lot. Noticeably, really?

Some glacier lakes have disappeared completely.

Dasho Benji Dorji is known as

Bhutan's godfather of environmental conservation.

And in Tantric Buddhism, is there a respect for nature?

- There is a lot of respect. - You don't mess with nature.

Yeah, you don't mess with nature.

This is a traditional welcome drink, is an ara.

It's raw alcohol.

The normal toast is "tashi delek."

- Tashi delek. - Tashi delek.

May good fortune be with you.

I'm a retired alcoholic, so I will not join you.

Okay. Mmm.

- Pretty good. - Yeah.

Kind of a warm sake but made out of wheat.

- Yeah. - Yes.

If you could tell us a little more about the chef.

Oh, she and her husband are both colonels

in the Royal Bhutan Police. Oh, wow.

We have to use the finger.

Touch, so that the flavors come out.

These recipes, where do they come from?

They come from the farms, from all the local houses.

Just passed down.

These nine grains have a very historical

and spiritual significance.

There was one saint called Drukpa Kunley,

he's known as the Madman. The Divine Madman.

Yes, of course.

So when he came to Bhutan, he carried the nine grains.

This is the hide, the yak hide. Mm. Yes.

Hot Sichuan pepper.

Lots of tomatoes to tone down the pepper.

This is the yak hide.

It's a delicacy.

And then this is... the green one is the orchid flower.

- Oh... - I always think

it's very exotic, the orchid. Mm.

They say it's good for your health.

- Mmm, good. - I know, it's really amazing.

Can you tell us about

the famous Gross National Happiness?

Ah, well, you have in your Constitution

the pursuit of happiness, the right of every individual.

It's true. Yeah, but, we don't...

We don't actually believe that, but please proceed.

I do believe in Gross National Happiness.

Good governance, human rights,

justice for all, education, health.

It is not a wealthy country.

The average daily wage is very low.

- Yeah. - But would you say

the average person living in Bhutan

is reasonably happy and content?

Most people, yes.

Bhutan is a good welfare state where

the health of people are taken care of,

you know, and taken care of very well.

It's a 2 1/2-hour drive from the capital

to the picturesque mountain village of Punakha.

This is a must-see destination

and one-time home to Bhutan's revered and beloved

Drukpa Kunley, known as the Divine Madman.

- Beep, beep! - Beep, beep.

Beep, beep.

It's... Okay. Here you go.

Wow.

- Uh... - So, I mean, we...

I really kind of got nothing to say.

Now, dear viewer,

Bhutan is a very devoutly Buddhist country,

and in such circumstances, I always do my very best

to be respectful and restrained,

shying away from my usual toilet humor.

Never in the history of television

has a host faced a greater challenge.

How to talk about what's happening without, uh...

well, without making the obvious joke.

God, give me strength, as we wander through

the valley of the low-hanging dick jokes.

I'm trying to be respectful

of a five-century religious tradition here.

For centuries, Bhutan has celebrated

the, um... phallus.

Uh, I'm not sure about the teeth.

This is the necklace ones. Ooh.

I'm trying to think of a circumstance

that you could wear that around your neck.