from A Journey in Ladakh, by Andrew Harvey, at p.41 (the author recounting a converstation with a fellow traveler):

"It is strange for a cynical psychologist to spend every day with people that seem, as far as I can judge, to have little interest in deceiving or impressing you ... And it is strange for me too to be among people who for the most part are happy. Don't get me wrong -- this is a harsh land. It is hard to get the crops to grow here on the rocky mountainsides, it is had to survive the solitudes of the winter and the lonely places ... But most of these people live simply and unsentimentally, they live with few needs, few prides, few vanities. They are tolerant to their old people, to their children, to each other. You know what they are taught by their priests? They are taught that every living thing has been their mother in a previous incarnation, and so they must respect it as their mother. I have seen very little cruelty. ..."

It is easy to idealize life in traditional, pre-industrialized societies, yet there seems to be something to this. Buddhism seems to be the key to creating such a content and kind society, but I suppose that Christianity (at least real Christianity, not what passes for Christianity in the U.S.) would produce the same results. Be content and frown upon pride and vanity. Treat other people and living things well. Pretty simple rules but they depend upon a rational and calm mind. Living here in the "land of the free", it is hard to imagine that an entire culture could ever achieve such a thing.