Thousands build Buddhist monuments for Bhutan’s ‘mindfulness’ city
What happened
More than 40,000 volunteers built 108 Buddhist stupas along a riverbank in Bhutan on Nov. 1 to mark the start of the planned Gelephu Mindfulness City.
Each tower stands 15m tall, and together they stretch along 12km near the Indian border, according to the Straits Times.
The Hindu reports that the work ran from 3 a.m. to noon, while crowds chanted a Tibetan Buddhist mantra a billion times.
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck dedicated one stupa to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, thanking India for its support of the project.
Organisers put the cost at an estimated US$21 million, and Bhutan wants the city to lift its economy and keep young people at home.
The city is meant to draw investment in green technology, education, tourism and finance, with an international airport due to open in 2029.
“I was worried that raising 108 stupas in a single day might not succeed”
Straits Times
Summary written by AI from 2 independent sources (Straits Times, The Hindu) and checked automatically against them for copied text and numbers that are not in the sources. How we work
Open on the live globe →Who reported it
- 2026-11-01 10:30 UTCStraits Times · straitstimes.com ↗
- 2026-11-01 13:30 UTCSCMP via AFP · scmp.com ↗
- 2026-11-01 16:37 UTCThe Hindu · thehindu.com ↗
- 2026-11-01 17:22 UTCTimes of India · timesofindia.indiatimes.com ↗
- 2026-11-02 01:31 UTCAl Jazeera · aljazeera.com ↗