Bhutan - Disneyfied!

First of all, I would like to share my view on Disneyfication as a whole. In my opinion, Disneyfication leads to the inevitable loss of culture. As the process of Disneyfication brings about the growing influence of themed environments, many natural heritage present in the country would have to make way. With the immense success of Disneyland, it is extremely difficult for a country’s economy to resist such a lucrative force of development and progression. Yes, Disneyfication will severely dilute a country’s culture and tradition; but on the hindsight, many 3^rd world country especially in the Asia region has to adopt it in order to compete for a share of the massive tourism market. Hence, I feel that instead of repressing Disneyfication in a society, people should accept the fact that the continuous effects of globalization in a country will eventually bring about Disneyfication.

In the case of Bhutan, the country can be considered as an emerging nation after centuries of isolation. The Government and people realise that globalization within the country has to take place now in order for them to be placed on the world map and eventually lead them out of poverty. En route their road-map towards global recognition, they have to tap into many different diversity of industries to support their economy, and the tourism industry plays a massive role. Although the country still pursues tourism without having to dilute their natural culture and heritage, signs of Disneyfication is beginning to creep in.

Firstly, while most of the resort and hotels in Bhutan still subscribe to the unique Bhutanese architectural aesthetic, an emerging concern to conservationists is the loss of traditional building technologies and that of mass scale concrete ‘replication’ of traditional architectural forms paying somewhat of a ‘lip service’ to the original architecture of the region. This means that while the new buildings appear to be traditional, they are becoming mere concrete replicas of traditional stone and wooden architecture, resulting in a gradual loss of material authenticity as part of ‘Disneyfication’ of historic settlements. An example would be in mid-town Thimphu, where in the downtown market area, concrete columns are painted over in traditional imagery to imitate old timber architecture.

Library of Bhutan in Thimphu :

Secondly, a classic display of Disneyfication is on one of the communication methods of Bhutan - postage stamps. Pictures of Disney characters are plastered on Bhutan postage stamps shown below. This is an example of how Bhutan is theming its stamps in a narrative (Disney characters) that is largely unrelated to the country’s culture and beliefs. Merchandising is prominent here as well because it is selling goods that bear that copyright images of Walt Disney.