Independent Lens

Happiness

Pyanki is a nine-year-old monk living in Laya, a Bhutanese village perched high in the Himalayas. The nearest road is a three-day walk distant, and Pyanki has never even left his village. In 2012, however, the world will come to him: Laya will at long last be connected to electricity, and the first television will flicker on before Pyanki's eyes. He will have access to 46 television stations for 13 hours every day. How will these images shape a child so isolated from commerce, materialism and celebrity? By Thomas Balmes.