More Bhutan-like hermit kingdoms

OTL the Bhutanese monarchy managed to survive largely problem-free along the Cold War by keeping itself largely isolated from the outside world, only keeping some contact with India, it's backer, and then starting a very controlled opening process from the 90's onward (television only arrived there in 1999).
So the question I put is: Could other traditional regimes worldwide have taken this course and keep themselves as hermit kingdoms, keeping themselves largely isolated of the outside world alonf the Cold War, and only starting to take small steps to open themselves after the end of it?

Note: As I said, my point here is to debate traditional regimes (mostly monarchies, but conservative republics may also count) taking this strategy, so I'm not thinking here of communist/socialist autarkic states.
 
The medieval-level Oman & Muscat (that banned sunglasses and operated an army of feudal levies) under Said bin Taimur could be a good contestant for a surviving hermit kingdom - though you'd need to butterfly the 1970 UK-backed coup by his son.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Sikkim and Tibet if either/ both are able to keep their independence. Maybe Nepal too?

If Tannu Tuva can keep their independence they'd probably be something like that (though they'd of course be officially Marxist until the 90s).

One could make an argument that North Korea at least partially is that.
 
You could have more radical traditionalism in Africa. There were many regimes which had a traditionalist element to them, but perhaps go all the way in the post-colonial era. The best ones are Equatorial Guinea (Macías Nguema had a traditionalist sense to his insanity) and anything landlocked. I like Rwanda and Burundi in particular since they were monarchies and in theory might be able to rally behind a "let's go back to before Europeans ruled here" sort of way.

But mostly this is would take a pre-WWI POD to achieve, leaving a few regions in Africa uncolonised (i.e. Wadai). An 1800 POD would give a lot of options.

Tibet if China had left it alone?

Tibet would've had a huge communist movement if it weren't careful. Communism is a huge problem for any traditionalist regime as Nepal found out. They already had a KMT-backed political party in OTL, and some regional divides to exploit. So I don't think politics would have allowed Tibet to be a hermit kingdom.

Korea would be possible but you would need pre-1900 POD.

Korea's a lot bigger and has a ton of resources that even if its neighbours left it alone, so it would be impossible for Korea to be like Bhutan. Koreans would know to utilise the situation to their advantage, even as they are squeezed between China and Japan.
 
Plenty of small, land-locked countries could become isolationist: Luxembourg, Leichtenstein, Andorra, Albania, Mustang, etc. Isolation is easier if there are no railroads or trade routes.
Helps if the royal family is still alive and maintains control.

Similarly, island nations could remain isolated especially if they are off trade routes.
 
Top