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Experiencing Bhutan’s ancient and wondrous traditions
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl reported from Bhutan, a small, remote country tucked away in the Himalayan mountains.
The Buddhist kingdom is known for its awe-inspiring mountains, pristine forests, beautiful temples and spirituality.
“I am not a spiritual person. But I had all kinds of emotional reactions to the beauty of Bhutan,” Stahl told 60 Minutes Overtime.
“Snow-capped mountains, lush forests…it’s charming, absolutely charming.”
Stahl arrived at Paro International Airport on a small plane from New Delhi, landing on a runway flanked by steep mountains.
“As you look out the window, you can see yourself coming down these steep mountain slopes. It’s hair raising. It’s also one of the most beautiful sights ever,” Stahl said.
Buddhism is the state religion in Bhutan, and it is practiced by most of its citizens.
On any given day, many people, young and old, can be seen at temples spinning prayer wheels, large cylinders made of wood, as they walk past.
Stahl spoke with Dr. Lotay Tshering, a former prime minister of Bhutan, in the center of the town of Gelephu, and he explained how the prayer wheels work.
Tshering told her they are filled with millions of written prayers, and people spin them, wishing for longevity in life or the well-being of the world.
As the wheel is turned clockwise, the devotee mentally recites a wish that they hope will come true.
“Even now, I’m making my wish,” he told Stahl.
“Whatever reasons why 60 Minutes is making this…running this project, let it come to fruition. That’s my prayer, wish for the day. So, yes, these are very significant in our lives.”
While the team was in the country’s capital, Thimphu, they saw a festival called the Thimphu Drubchen, with ceremonial dances, known as cham, that take place every year.
Masked dancers perform precisely choreographed dances to a packed audience of Bhutanese to celebrate the female deities that they believe offer them protection.
Watching from a balcony overlooking the courtyard of the Tashichho Dzong, a fortress-like monastery and administrative center where the festival is held, Stahl spoke with Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay.
“This particular ceremony in Thimphu has been going on… uninterrupted, every year, for more than 400 years,” he told Stahl.
He told Stahl that while the spectacle is entertaining and enjoyable, bearing witness to it has a sacred religious purpose.
“Just by witnessing these dances…we believe that we receive blessings to protect us for a whole year.”
In a grassy field in Thimphu, Stahl watched an archery match with Rabsel Dorji, who works for Bhutan’s government.
Two teams of archers, using traditional bows and arrows made of bamboo, took aim at a target roughly 145 meters away, the length of a football field and a half.
“[The target] is quite far away and quite small. It’s only about three feet high and… one foot wide. So, it’s a difficult task,” Dorji told Stahl.
Dorji explained that, depending on where the arrow hits, the team is awarded one or two points. The first team to 25 points wins a game. The team that wins the best out of three games wins the match.
But points can be deducted from a team if the opposing team hits the target afterward.
“The game can go very, very long into a whole day…or a whole two or three-day affair,” Dorji said.
Stahl reacted with surprise when she saw a team singing and dancing after they hit a target.
Dorji explained that it’s the equivalent of an end-zone dance. “It’s a Bhutanese version of it,” he said, laughing.
Stahl told Overtime that throughout her travels it was visibly apparent that Bhutan was still firmly connected to its ancient past.
“A lot of countries in the world have [become] so Westernized that they’ve lost their character. Here, they have kept their old traditions… they’ve kept their old architecture. They wear old-fashioned clothes,” she said.
But Bhutan is facing an economic challenge that has made its future uncertain: young people are leaving the country for higher-paying jobs in countries like Australia.
Stahl and the 60 Minutes team were given a rare audience with the king of Bhutan, who described his plans to build a new city, the Gelephu Mindfulness City, in the country’s south, near the border with India.
The king hopes the new city will provide job opportunities that will bring these young people back.
“The king’s concept is that there will be a modern city, but it’ll be Bhutanese. Buddhism will be at the heart of it. Clean air, clean water,” she told Overtime.
The king hired renowned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to design the new city. Ingels showed Stahl renderings for several projects, including a massive, colorful dam that will be used to generate hydroelectric power.
“And in the middle of the dam is a temple, right in the middle of the dam,” Stahl said.
“You have to hope that this little country can succeed in holding on to its character, its spirituality.”
The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It was edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger.
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Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, paid accuser to save job at Fox News, his lawyer says
Fox News host Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as defense secretary, paid a confidential financial settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault out of concern that the allegation would lead to his firing from the cable news giant, his lawyer told CBS News.
Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Palatore, said the Army veteran reached a confidential settlement agreement to deter his accuser from going forward with a lawsuit, maintaining that he is innocent and the sexual encounter was consensual. Hegseth denies any wrongdoing.
“The reality is that, had they filed [a lawsuit], civil process takes quite a while, and so Fox News likely would have fired him based on the allegation,” said Palatore, adding that the woman and her attorney “knew that simply filing it would cause an immediate horror storm for [Hegseth].”
Fox News did not respond to an inquiry about when the network found out about Hegseth’s settlement agreement.
Trump’s transition team spoke with Palatore after Hegseth was named as Trump’s nominee defense secretary, the attorney said. He said that he “explained this fully” to them but that he did not know what prior conversations Hegseth had with the transition team, or if they had been informed about the sexual assault allegation and settlement agreement before the announcement of his impending nomination for defense secretary.
“This should have nothing to do with the confirmation process,” he said.
John Lamparski / Getty Images
Trump has indicated that these revelations have not deterred him from Hegseth’s selection as defense secretary. After reports surfaced of the sexual assault accusation, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said, “President Trump is nominating high-caliber and extremely qualified candidates to serve in his Administration. Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed.”
The alleged sexual assault took place after midnight on Oct. 8, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. The woman, whose identity has been kept confidential, filed a complaint with the Monterey Police Department four days later alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by Hegseth. The city of Monterey confirmed the 2017 investigation into Hegseth and said in a statement that investigators found the woman had “contusions” on her right thigh. No charges were filed, Palatore said.
The Washington Post, which first reported the financial payment, obtained what it referred to as a memo that it said was sent to the Trump transition team by a friend of the accuser alleging Hegseth raped a conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at the hotel bar. According to the Post, the memo states that the day after the incident, the accuser “had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack.”
CBS News has not seen the memo and cannot verify its contents.
Palatore told CBS News that there is eyewitness testimony and video surveillance footage that allegedly shows the accuser was the “aggressor” in a consensual sexual encounter. “[Hegseth] was intoxicated. She was sober. She was the one grabbing him by the arm and leading him out of the bar to take him upstairs,” he said.
When asked if CBS News could view the footage, Palatore said, “No.” He also declined to share the names of any eyewitnesses.
CNN reported that it spoke with the alleged victim last week, who “became visibly distraught at the mention of Hegseth’s name.” CNN says she declined to be interviewed at the time and then stopped responding.
Palatore would not share the exact timing of the settlement payment to the woman. He said it occurred “a couple years ago,” emphasizing that it was “well before Trump was even nominated [for the presidency], let alone had named Pete to this position.”
He also declined to disclose the amount of the settlement, only saying it was “far, far less than what she wanted.” He characterized it as “essentially an extortion and blackmail.”
Two years after the alleged incident, Palatore said that Hegseth was informed the woman was making what they called “false claims” against him and was threatening to sue him. Palatore said that she had lost her job and claimed she needed money. In February of 2020, he sent her a cease-and-desist letter. She went “quiet for a year” before he learned she had found an attorney for her case.
Trump’s selection of Hegseth has been plagued with controversy. The announcement that the Fox News personality was his choice for secretary of Defense took many in Washington by surprise. “Wow,” responded Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski upon learning he had been picked to lead the Defense Department. “I just said, wow,” she repeated when asked for her thoughts.
Even Hegseth’s tattoos have attracted scrutiny, specifically the “Deux Vult” tattoo on his inner bicep. The symbolism of that tattoo, which has been tied to extremist groups and the Christian Crusaders, alarmed a member of Hegseth’s National Guard unit, who warned superiors that Hegseth was a potential “insider threat” before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. He was removed from guarding the inauguration.
After The Associated Press reported Hegseth had been flagged as a threat, Vice President-elect JD Vance defended him on social media, accusing the outlet of “attacking Pete Hegseth for having a Christian motto tattooed on his arm.” Hegseth then shared Vance’s tweet, commenting, “They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD.”
The news of Hegseth’s financial settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause may ring familiar to Trump. The president-elect’s own troubles related to a nondisclosure agreement with adult film star Stormy Daniels led to the New York trial in which he became a convicted felon, as well as the first former (and now future) president to be criminally prosecuted.
Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to an alleged cover-up of the payment to Daniels. He has argued that the verdict should be overturned and the indictment dismissed on the basis, among other things, of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
and
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