It's the last secret of the Hidden Kingdom in the Himalayas—Bhutan is now the hippest playground on this side of the world for Hollywood A-listers, rock stars, Euro royalty, fashionable eco-trippers, style arbiters . . . you name it.

Only the other day, it was Cameron Diaz, cooing on a television channel, ‘‘My favourite thing about Bhutan is they measure their country’s wealth, not based on the dollar amount, but on gross national happiness.’’ She was not being cute, the mandate of the modern Bhutan state is: Gross National Happiness—economic development leads to happiness.

Last week, the fashion director of the London-based Daily Telegraph, Hilary Alexander, was in the country for a fashion shoot—the 17th century Rinpung Dzong fort, brimming with burgundy and yellow, the haute colours for Fall/Winter 2006, was the perfect backdrop for the gold taffeta Bruce Oldfield gown.

Mick Jagger has been there, so has Prince Charles. Richard Gere, Uma and Robert Thurman, Keanu Reeves, Vogue, National Geographic, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez, Orlanda Bloom, Princes of Japan and Thailand, Donna Karan, Queens of Norway and Sweden, Kenneth Branagh—it is a list any tourism board would kill for.

Brad Pitt has planted trees to conserve Bhutan’s forests—it’s the latest hip trend for celebs: carbon neutrality. Brad is one of the thronging supporters of a UK conservation company which calculates a star’s total emissions of carbon dioxide (everyone is now petrified of global warming) for a year and plants the number of trees required to absorb the CO2, thus nullifying their effect on the atmosphere.

... contd.