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Radio Shangri-la

What I Learned in the Happiest Kingdom on Earth
Apr 05, 2011
"Restless professionally and disappointed romantically, Lisa Napoli, a journalist in her mid-40s, takes a temporary leave from her job as a public radio reporter in Los Angeles and relocates to Bhutan, a secluded and peaceful Himalayan kingdom that is just opening its doors to the outside world. “I was tired of sleep-deprived, stressed-out, too-busy people who shirked downtime in the service of making money,” she writes in RADIO SHANGRI-LA: What I Learned in the Happiest Kingdom on Earth, her affectionate portrait of life in a slower-paced, high-altitude society. Napoli settles into an apartment in Thimphu, the sleepy capital, where she has signed on as an unpaid consultant to Kazoo FM, an English-language radio station established by the Bhutanese monarch as part of a drive to modernize his kingdom. There she encounters a tiny band of West-infatuated D.J.’s who organize Larry King-style call-in shows and Valentine’s Day singing contests. She copes with the less-than-welcome attentions of a spoiled and materialistic Buddhist monk, has a near romance with a charismatic expat and tries, without success, to develop a liking for emadatse, the “yak-cheesy, fiery-hot chili stew” that locals consume three times a day. Napoli inevitably falls under the spell of a country “guided by intense spirituality” yet seduced by the ­accouterments of the modern world: A.T.M.’s, fast-food restaurants, nightclubs, the Internet. “The most exciting experiences I had were with start-up ventures, companies where we made it all up as we went along,” she observes in this absorbing, often touching memoir that unfolds on the eve of Bhutan’s first democratic elections. “In many ways, Bhutan was a start-up too — an ancient, once-­secluded kingdom transitioning now at warp speed.” NYT