The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Thimphu

The secluded Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was on its way to becoming the world's newest democracy Monday, as voters cast ballots to select a parliament and end more than a century of absolute monarchy.

But like much else in this mountainous land - long known as quirky holdout from modernity, allowing television and the Internet only in 1999 - Monday's vote came with a twist: It was the king, not the people, who pressed for democracy. "His Majesty is like our father. We all prefer our father," said Karma Tsheweng, a 35-year-old mechanic who was waiting to cast his ballot in Thimphu, the capital.

The election for a 47-seat National Assembly is the latest step in Bhutan's slow engagement with the world, which began in the early 1960s. Back then Bhutan was a medieval society with no paved roads, no electricity and no hospitals. Goods were bartered rather than bought, and almost no foreigners were let in.

But across the Himalayas, other isolated Buddhist kingdoms like Tibet and Sikkim were coming under the sway of foreign powers, and Bhutan - sandwiched between Asian giants India and China - decided it needed to change to survive. And it did. The tiny country of about 600,000 people now has a cash economy that is slowly lifting many people out of poverty and nearly everyone has access to schools and hospitals.