The newest addition to the Bhutanese royal family got quite the welcome: 108,000 saplings were planted in honor of the prince’s birth.

 

Trees are an integral part of Bhutanese culture as they are known as the provider of life, offering nourishment and symbolizing traits such as longevity and compassion. On the same day that the country planted 108,000 trees, the Ministry of Tourism also opened a Happiness Garden with the hopes of having foreign visitors to Bhutan plant a tree to represent their country. Bhutan is famous for its Gross National Happiness principle, which seeks to strike a balance between economic growth, environmental stability, and general well-being of the country’s citizens.

 

The environmental aspect is held especially sacred in Bhutan with constitutional rules for keeping 60% or more of the country under forest cover and a Guinness Book of World Records title earned last year when 100 volunteers planted almost 50,000 trees in under an hour! (inhabitots)