Finding our location a different way prt.2

[Yeynari]

As I wrote, Bhutan is only a dream, and probably not anywhere near a reasonable choice for location. But here goes:

Bhutan is a really tiny country that lies in southeastern Himalaya between India and China. The name in Bhutanese (Gruk Yul) means Land of the Thunder Dragon. It's ruled as a constitutional monarchy, being one of the most isolated countries in the world, and the only country in the world to measure development through Gross National Happiness (instead of Gross National Product). Basically, if the people is happy, then the country is doing well, like a modern Shangri-La The Happy Planet Index estimates that the average level of life satisfaction in Bhutan is within the top 10 percent of nations worldwide, for as of yet unknown reasons. It's also one of few countries where suits are banned as formal wear, instead promoting the national dress. The population is mainly Vajrayana Buddhist, with a Hindu minority. The national sport is archery. The landscape and geography is very diverse, ranging from subtropical plains in the south to the Himalayan heights in the north, with some peaks exceeding 7,000 metres (23,000 ft).


View over the mountains marking the border to China:



The capital:



Haa valley:



The international airport:



Takin, the national animal:

[Swokéyan]

Wow... that looks pretty awesome!

[Esmond]

It's ruled as a constitutional monarchy, being one of the most isolated countries in the world. The population is mainly Vajrayana Buddhist, with a Hindu minority. The national sport is archery. The landscape and geography is very diverse, ranging from subtropical plains in the south to the Himalayan heights in the north, with some peaks exceeding 7,000 metres (23,000 ft).

I am practically sold. By the looks of that "enormous" airport, I'm guessing we should have no problems with outside intervention.

I think Bhutan is an amazing option. Better do more research on it.

[Predict]

I agree, from what you've shown Bhutan looks fantastic.

[Jasiri]

Looks great as a dream to pass the time, but a waste of time to consider. According to a little research, maybe one reason that the happiness index is so high is that immigration is not allowed. You can't even go there as a tourist except on a government-approved group package tour.

[Yeynari]

I know, it's next to impossible to get into the country unless you have a handwritten letter from the king.

[Predict]

That is unfortunate, otherwise it's perfect . I guess it wouldn't be the same place if it weren't that way.
Somehow I don't see us getting a handwritten letter from the king for 100 or so immigrants coming to start a tribe...

[Yeynari]

No, but he seems like a cool guy. He had his hand in bandages for a week after an anniversary of some kind a few years ago, apparently it got strained after shaking hands with 200 000 or so celebrants...

Anyway, OT. Any other locations?

[Predict]

Wow, that is one cool monarch.
Hmm, location. I do think we need to decide on the climate, does anyone have any experience with the tropics? I only moved from Australia a year ago but that was at most sub-tropical, more temperate. Didn't get the extremes of rainfall that are the main issue.

[Esmond]

I live in Malaysia. Well, the only things I can comment about being in here is that you either get lots of rain or lots of sun. I dunno about Caucasians but the sun is not much of a problem to us, we only need to deal with the heat. Also, if we're living in dense rainforests, be prepared for a lot of nights of itch. The mosquitoes that live in the wild are very aggressive. We don't have malaria here but we have dengue fever. However, while I was in National Service (our camp was beside a wetland) I was probably bitten more than I've been bitten at home and I didn't get the fever. I had the fever once but that was when I was young and I was at home most of the time.

I don't know much about other diseases. We still have a lot of ethic groups here who live in forests (search Sabah & Sarawak) and they are doing fine.

[Predict]

Yeah, mosquitoes are a big downside. They're enough of a pain without the tropical diseases as well. Realistically you get used to them (it was always funny to have British relatives over, they'd always seem to get bitten 10x as much as anyone ) what you don't get used to is malaria, or most of the other diseases they are vectors for.
Funny thought, next time I'm in Australia I'll be one of those British tourists.

[Und3adwarrior]

I haven't seen anyone post this but another thing to take into consideration would be Herbology and natural medicines. So it would be helpful to find a good climate necessary to grow helpful ferns and shrubs.

[Tonbogiri]

I've been researching other tribal cultures still around today.
There are very few, they are in small groups, and struggle from a lack of land (this may be an issue for another thread).
But anyway, most of these tribal groups live in either African scrubland or rainforests or in the Himalayas. One common feature is this - those that are stationary (i.e. not nomadic) live near either a source of water or the sea. Having our tribe near a rich tropical ocean would make food production and perhaps transport much easier. Hence, my suggestion is a humid/dry location on a tropical/subtropical coastline.

But that's just my opinion

[Txon Taronyu]

No thats true we really only have a few options

1. stay in a smaller area in one spot and farm
2. stay in a small area in one spot and fish
3.stay in a large area and hunt

in a small area we will run out of game too fast

[Rwctt]

The most sucessful Native American tribes lived near some body of water. I'm thinking the tribe should be located in an area near the junction of a fresh water stream and an ocean. This way we get drinking water and a source of salt to preserve meats.

[Txon Taronyu]

nice idea 

[Fnua Atxkxe]

I think it's pretty certain that to function well, we will definitely need to be near water. Without that it would be far more complicated/almost impossible to achieve what we want.

[sezawte]

There's still the option of having the tribe move around, so we use all the readily available resources in one spot, move on and just continue to move around

[Esmond]

I agree, like any ancient settlement, we have to close to a reliable water source. It makes life a lot easier.

What we could do is have a permanent settlement but change our hunting and food gathering spots so that we don't over exploit the resources.

[Yeynari]

Some measure of moving around would be neccessary no matter what, especially if you want to hunt (meat, leather for clothes, bone and horn for tools etc). Mainly because animals are not stupid, they'll learn very fast to avoid a certain area if you hunt there too often.