Within the next few weeks, they'll be connected to the electricity grid; there are plans to build a local school, and there is even talk of building a road to connect them to the one that runs along the valley below them.

Talk to the villagers of Tempakha about the Bhutanese government's policy of preferring gross national happiness to gross domestic product (GDP), and they are all in favour.

King Jigme Singye Wangchuck has absolute power, and it was his idea that the way for his country to develop was not to go all out for economic growth.

Sustainable development, environmental protection, and the preservation of Bhutan's unique culture are the ingredients, he says, that go to make up gross national happiness.

But talk to young Bhutanese in the capital, Thimphu. Since TV was finally allowed seven years ago, they have learned rapidly what life is like in other countries.

The vice-principal at Yangchengphug High School, Pema Wangdi, says modernisation has brought huge benefits to Bhutan - many of her students, she says, are much happier than their parents were at their age.

For Buddhist teachers, like the young lama Drupa Rimpoche, who is said to be the reincarnation of an earlier lama, happiness means inner happiness, a refusal to be seduced by the joys of a luxury limousine or a brand new television set.

For the king, living in the modern world means accepting both the good and the bad from outside Bhutan: not only TV, but mobile phones and the internet.

And in two years' time, he will hand over his powers to them. A new constitution has been drawn up, turning Bhutan into a constitutional monarchy, in which a directly-elected parliament will be granted full powers.

The king will abdicate in favour of his son, the Crown Prince - all future kings will, under the constitution, have to abdicate when they reach their 65th birthday.

So are Bhutan's 630,000 people ready for democracy? The minister for home and cultural affairs, Lyonpo Jigme Thinley, says they're being well prepared.

There are already elections at the local level, and the king and Crown Prince have been touring the country to prepare their people for the change.

But back in the village of Tempakha, on the slopes above the fast-flowing River Phochu, carpenter Thinley, who sits on the village committee, tells me that at their last meeting, they decided to ask the king not to hand over his powers.

The people of this tiny kingdom, perched high in the Himalayas between India and Tibet, hope they can have the best of both worlds: retaining their Buddhist traditions but adopting modern technology - and democracy - at the same time.

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