Hello and thank you for downloading Witness from the BBC World Service with me Ashley Byrne.

Today we're going back to 1999 and the moment when the Tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan

got its own television station for the first time.

The first time

That is the

television gillerim

situated between India and China just east of Nepal, but TAN measures its citizens prosperity

by how happy rather than how productive they are, and is often characterized as having a slow

laid back in traditional Buddhist way of life.

It had resisted TV for almost the whole of the 20th century, but all that changed in June 1999.

I remember we had an early supper that was a supper that day and the whole family gathered around we were anxious and at the same time

very excited to see Bhutan's television being launched. We put on the

television that television started, so the image started coming out very slowly.

And the first thing that came on was the National Anthem of Bhutan.

And I remember my whole family clapping.

The authorities in Bhutan had banned TV out of a fear it would damage their

delicate social structure and gentle way of life.

But it was finding its way into the capital Tim Poole during big international sporting moments.

Dow Penja was a school boy growing up in Bhutan in the 80s and 90s and remembers this well.

The only place that you could watch television was diplomatic establishments or some of the embassies or units of India which would have

offices here and they were allowed.

I remember going to watch the World Cup in those places. My cousin, he sneaked me in with him.

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