"IN THE THUNDER DRAGON KINGDOM, adorned with sandalwood, the
protector who guards the teachings of the dual system; he, the precious
and glorious ruler, causes dominion to spread while his unchanging
person abides in constancy, as the doctrine of the Buddha flourishes,
may the sun of peace and happiness shine on the people." These few
words--the text of the national anthem of Bhutan--sum up much about the
spirit and culture of a society that sprang from an aboriginal people
and was enriched by Tibetan, Mongol, and Indo-Burman migrants. Buddhism
has been a pervasive influence in Bhutan throughout most of its history
and has long been the state religion and source of civil law. Unified
Bhutan has had two forms of monarchy: from the sixteenth century to the
early twentieth century, a dual system of shared civil and spiritual
rule; and since 1907 the hereditary monarchy of the Wangchuck family.
Once one of the many independent Himalayan kingdoms and
principalities, Bhutan, like Nepal, is situated between two Asian
powers, India and China, which, at best, have had an uneasy standoff
politically and militarily for nearly half a century. Bhutan's
independence has long been at issue in the geopolitical maneuverings
between Tibet (and later China) and India. In the late twentieth
century, Bhutan has fended off this external threat with conscientiously
planned economic development. A serious internal threat to Bhutan's
traditional identity started peacefully in the 1950s and 1960s among the
growing Nepalese minority, which represented 28 percent or more of the
population in the early 1990s and emerged as a violent
"prodemocracy" movement in the late 1980s. The 1990s promised
to be a crucial period for the monarchy as it continued to foster
economic and administrative reform amid efforts to retain traditional
culture and to assuage minority unrest.
Bhutan - GEOGRAPHY
The Land
Landlocked Bhutan is situated in the eastern Himalayas and is mostly
mountainous and heavily forested. It is bordered for 470 kilometers by
Tibet (China's Xizang Autonomous Region) to the north and northwest and
for 605 kilometers by India's states of Sikkim to the west, West Bengal
to the southwest, Assam to the south and southeast, and Arunachal
Pradesh (formerly the North-East Frontier Agency) to the east. Sikkim,
an eighty-eight-kilometer-wide territory, divides Bhutan from Nepal,
while West Bengal separates Bhutan from Bangladesh by only sixty
kilometers. At its longest east-west dimension, Bhutan stretches around
300 kilometers; it measures 170 kilometers at its maximum north-south
dimension, forming a total of 46,500 square kilometers, an area
one-third the size of Nepal. In the mid-1980s, about 70 percent of
Bhutan was covered with forests; 10 percent was covered with year-round
snow and glaciers; nearly 6 percent was permanently cultivated or used
for human habitation; another 3 percent was used for shifting
cultivation (tsheri), a practice banned by the government; and
5 percent was used as meadows and pastures. The rest of the land was
either barren rocky areas or scrubland.
Early British visitors to Bhutan reported "dark and steep glens,
and the high tops of mountains lost in the clouds, constitut[ing]
altogether a scene of extraordinary magnificence and sublimity."
One of the most rugged mountain terrains in the world, it has elevations
ranging from 160 meters to more than 7,000 meters above sea level, in
some cases within distances of less than 100 kilometers of each other.
Bhutan's highest peak, at 7,554 meters above sea level, is north-central
Kulha Gangri, close to the border with China; the second highest peak,
Chomo Lhari, overlooking the Chumbi Valley in the west, is 7,314 meters
above sea level; nineteen other peaks exceed 7,000 meters.
In the north, the snowcapped Great Himalayan Range reaches heights of
over 7,500 meters above sea level and extends along the Bhutan-China
border. The northern region consists of an arc of glaciated mountain
peaks with an arctic climate at the highest elevations. Watered by
snow-fed rivers, alpine valleys in this region provide pasturage for
livestock tended by a sparse population of migratory shepherds.
The Inner Himalayas are southward spurs of the Great Himayalan Range.
The Black Mountains, in central Bhutan, form a watershed between two
major river systems, the Mo Chhu and the Drangme Chhu (chhu
means river). Peaks in the Black Mountains range between 1,500 meters
and 2,700 meters above sea level, and the fast-flowing rivers have
carved out spectacular gorges in the lower mountain areas. The woodlands
of the central region provide most of Bhutan's valuable forest
production. Eastern Bhutan is divided by another southward spur, the
Donga Range. Western Bhutan has fertile, cultivated valleys and terraced
river basins.
In the south, the Southern Hills, or Siwalik Hills, the foothills of
the Himalayas, are covered with dense deciduous forest, alluvial lowland
river valleys, and mountains that reach to around 1,500 meters above sea
level. The foothills descend into the subtropical Duars Plain. Most of
the Duars Plain proper is located in India, and ten to fifteen
kilometers penetrate inside Bhutan. The Bhutan Duars has two parts. The
northern Duars, which abuts the Himalayan foothills, has rugged,
slopping terrain and dry porous soil with dense vegetation and abundant
wildlife. The southern Duars has moderately fertile soil, heavy savanna
grass, dense mixed jungle, and freshwater springs. Taken as a whole, the
Duars provides the greatest amount of fertile flatlands in Bhutan. Rice
and other crops are grown on the plains and mountainsides up to 1,200
meters. Bhutan's most important commercial centers-- Phuntsholing,
Geylegphug, and Samdrup Jongkhar--are located in the Duars, reflecting
the meaning of the name, which is derived from the Hindi dwar
and means gateway. Rhinoceros, tigers, leopards, elephants, and other
wildlife inhabit the region.
<>Climate
affected by monsoons that bring between 60 and 90 percent of the
region's rainfall. The climate is humid and subtropical in the southern
plains and foothills, temperate in the inner Himalayan valleys of the
southern and central regions, and cold in the north, with year-round
snow on the main Himalayan summits.
Temperatures vary according to elevation. Temperatures in Thimphu,
located at 2,200 meters above sea level in west-central Bhutan, range
from approximately 15� C to 26� C during the monsoon season of June
through September but drop to between about -4� C and 16� C in January. Most of the central portion of the country
experiences a cool, temperate climate yearround . In the south, a hot,
humid climate helps maintain a fairly even temperature range of between
15� C and 30� C year-round, although temperatures sometimes reach 40�
C in the valleys during the summer.
Annual precipitation ranges widely in various parts of the country.
In the severe climate of the north, there is only about forty
millimeters of annual precipitation--primarily snow. In the temperate
central regions, a yearly average of around 1,000 millimeters is more
common, and 7,800 millimeters per year has been registered at some
locations in the humid, subtropical south, ensuring the thick tropical
forest, or savanna. Thimphu experiences dry winter months (December
through February) and almost no precipitation until March, when rainfall
averages 20 millimeters a month and increases steadily thereafter to a
high of 220 millimeters in August for a total annual rainfall of nearly
650 millimeters.
Bhutan's generally dry spring starts in early March and lasts until
mid-April. Summer weather commences in mid-April with occasional showers
and continues through the premonsoon rains of late June. The summer
monsoon lasts from late June through late September with heavy rains
from the southwest. The monsoon weather, blocked from its northward
progress by the Himalayas, brings heavy rains, high humidity, flash
floods and landslides, and numerous misty, overcast days. Autumn, from
late September or early October to late November, follows the rainy
season. It is characterized by bright, sunny days and some early
snowfalls at higher elevations. From late November until March, winter
sets in, with frost throughout much of the country and snowfall common
above elevations of 3,000 meters. The winter northeast monsoon brings
gale-force winds down through high mountain passes, giving Bhutan its
name-- Drukyul, which in the Dzongkha language mean Land of the Thunder
Dragon.
Bhutan - River Systems
Bhutan has four major river systems: the Drangme Chhu; the Puna Tsang
Chhu, also called the Sankosh; the Wang Chhu; and the Amo Chhu. Each
flows swiftly out of the Himalayas, southerly through the Duars to join
the Brahmaputra River in India, and thence through Bangladesh where the
Brahmaputra (or Jamuna in Bangladesh) joins the mighty Ganges (or Padma
in Bangladesh) to flow into the Bay of Bengal. The largest river system,
the Drangme Chhu, flows southwesterly from India's state of Arunachal
Pradesh and has three major branches: the Drangme Chhu, Mangde Chhu, and
Bumthang Chhu. These branches form the Drangme Chhu basin, which spreads
over most of eastern Bhutan and drains the Tongsa and Bumthang valleys.
In the Duars, where eight tributaries join it, the Drangme Chhu is
called the Manas Chhu. The 320-kilometer-long Puna Tsang Chhu rises in
northwestern Bhutan as the Mo Chhu and Pho Chhu, which are fed by the
snows from the Great Himalayan Range. They flow southerly to Punakha,
where they join to form the Puna Tsang Chhu, which flows southerly into
India's state of West Bengal. The tributaries of the 370-kilometer-long
Wang Chhu rise in Tibet. The Wang Chhu itself flows southeasterly
through west-central Bhutan, drains the Ha, Paro, and Thimphu valleys,
and continues into the Duars, where it enters West Bengal as the Raigye
Chhu. The smallest river system, the Torsa Chhu, known as the Amo Chhu
in its northern reaches, also flows out of Tibet into the Chumbi Valley
and swiftly through western Bhutan before broadening near Phuntsholing
and then flowing into India.
Bhutan - Glaciers
Size, Structure, and Settlement Patterns
When Bhutan's first national census was conducted in 1969, the
population officially stood at 930,614 persons. Before 1969 population
estimates had ranged between 300,000 and 800,000 people. The 1969 census
has been criticized as inaccurate. By the time the 1980 census was held,
the population reportedly had increased to approximately 1,165,000
persons. The results of the 1988 census had not been released as of
1991, but preliminary government projections in 1988 set the total
population at 1,375,400 persons, whereas UN estimates stood at 1,451,000
people in 1988. Other foreign projections put the population at
1,598,216 persons in July 1991. It is likely, however, that Bhutan's
real population was less than 1 million and probably as little as
600,000 in 1990. Moreover, the government itself began to use the figure
of "about 600,000 citizens" in late 1990.
The annual growth rate in 1990 was 2 percent. Although the wide
variation in population size makes all projections flawed, experts
believe that the population growth rate is valid. The birth rate was 37
per 1,000, and the death rate was 17 per 1,000. In 1988 UN experts had
estimated Bhutan would have a population of 1.9 million by 2000 and 3
million by 2025. The average annual population growth rate was estimated
at 1.9 percent during the period from 1965 to 1970 and 1.8 percent
during the period 1980 to 1985. Rates of change were projected to
increase to 2.1 percent by 1990 and 2.3 percent by 2000 and to decrease
to 1.41 percent by 2025. Total fertility rates (the average number of
children born during a woman's reproductive years) have declined since
the 1950s, however. The rate stood at 6.0 in 1955 and 5.5 in 1985 and
was expected to decline to 3.7 by 2005 and 2.5 by 2025. The infant
mortality rate was the highest in South Asia in 1990: 137 deaths per
1,000 live births. Despite the declining population growth most of
Bhutan's people were young. By the late 1980s, 45 percent of the
population was under fifteen years of age. However, the greater number
of female infant deaths resulted in one of the world's lowest malefemale
ratios (97.2 females to 100 males).
Life expectancy at birth had increased significantly since the 1950s,
when it stood at only 36.3 years. By the early 1980s, life expectancy
had reached 45.9 years. In 1989 the UN projected that life expectancy at
birth in Bhutan would reach 55.5 years by 2005 and 61.8 years by 2025,
still low compared with other South Asian countries and with the other
least developed nations of the world.
Overall population density was thirty-one persons per square
kilometer in the late 1980s, but because of the rugged terrain
distribution was more dense in settled areas. The regions in the
southern Duars valleys and eastern Bhutan around the fertile Tashigang
Valley were the most populous areas. As was common among the least
developed nations, there was a trend, albeit small, toward urbanization.
Whereas in 1970 only 3 percent of the population lived in urban
settings, the percentage had increased to 5 percent in 1985. UN
specialists projected the urban population would reach 8 percent by
2000. With the exception of Tuvalu, Bhutan had the lowest urban
population of any country among the forty-one least developed nations of
the world.
Thimphu, the capital, the largest urban area, had a population of
27,000 persons in 1990. Most employed residents of Thimphu, some 2,860
in 1990, were government employees. Another 2,200 persons worked in
private businesses and cottage industries. The city advanced toward
modernization in 1987 with the installation of meters to regulate water
consumption, the naming of its streets, and the erection of street
signs. The only other urban area with a population of more than 10,000
residents was Phuntsholing in Chhukha District.
<>Ethnic Groups
Bhutan's society is made up of four broad but not necessarily
exclusive groups: the Ngalop, the Sharchop, several aboriginal peoples,
and Nepalese. The Ngalop (a term thought to mean the earliest risen or
first converted) are people of Tibetan origin who migrated to Bhutan as
early as the ninth century. For this reason, they are often referred to
in foreign literature as Bhote (people of Bhotia or Tibet). The Ngalop
are concentrated in western and northern districts. They introduced
Tibetan culture and Buddhism to Bhutan and comprised the dominant
political and cultural element in modern Bhutan.
The Sharchop (the word means easterner), an Indo-Mongoloid people who
are thought to have migrated from Assam or possibly Burma during the
past millennium, comprise most of the population of eastern Bhutan.
Although long the biggest ethnic group in Bhutan, the Sharchop have been
largely assimilated into the Tibetan-Ngalop culture. Because of their
proximity to India, some speak Assamese or Hindi. They practice
slash-and-burn and tsheri agriculture, planting dry rice crops
for three or four years until the soil is exhausted and then moving on.
The third group consists of small aboriginal or indigenous tribal
peoples living in scattered villages throughout Bhutan. Culturally and
linguistically part of the populations of West Bengal or Assam, they
embrace the Hindu system of endogamous groups ranked by hierarchy and
practice wet-rice and dry-rice agriculture. They include the Drokpa,
Lepcha, and Doya tribes as well as the descendants of slaves who were
brought to Bhutan from similar tribal areas in India. The ex-slave
communities tended to be near traditional population centers because it
was there that they had been pressed into service to the state.
Together, the Ngalop, Sharchop, and tribal groups were thought to
constitute up to 72 percent of the population in the late 1980s.
The remaining 28 percent of the population were of Nepalese origin.
Officially, the government stated that 28 percent of the national
population was Nepalese in the late 1980s, but unofficial estimates ran
as high as 30 to 40 percent, and Nepalese were estimated to constitute a
majority in southern Bhutan. The number of legal permanent Nepalese
residents in the late 1980s may have been as few as 15 percent of the
total population, however. The first small groups of Nepalese, the most
recent major groups to arrive in Bhutan, emigrated primarily from
eastern Nepal under Indian auspices in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Mostly Hindus, the Nepalese settled in the southern
foothills and are sometimes referred to as southern Bhutanese.
Traditionally, they have been involved mostly in sedentary agriculture,
although some have cleared forest cover and conducted tsheri
agriculture. The most divisive issue in Bhutan in the 1980s and early
1990s was the accommodation of the Nepalese Hindu minority. The
government traditionally attempted to limit immigration and restrict
residence and employment of Nepalese to the southern region.
Liberalization measures in the 1970s and 1980s encouraged intermarriage
and provided increasing opportunities for public service. More
in-country migration by Nepalese seeking better education and business
opportunities was allowed.
Bhutan also had a sizable modern Tibetan refugee population, which
stood at 10,000 persons in 1987. The major influx of 6,000 persons came
in 1959 in the wake of the Chinese army's invasion and occupation of
Tibet. The Tibetan expatriates became only partially integrated into
Bhutanese society, however, and many were unwilling to accept
citizenship. Perceiving a lack of allegiance to the state on the part of
Tibetans, the government decided in 1979 to expel to India those who
refused citizenship. India, after some reluctance, acceded to the move
and accepted more than 3,100 Tibetans between 1980 and 1985. Another
4,200 Tibetans requested and received Bhutanese citizenship. Although
Bhutan traditionally welcomed refugees--and still accepted a few new
ones fleeing the 1989 imposition of martial law in Tibet--government
policy in the late 1980s was to refuse more Tibetan refugees.
More about the <>Population
of Bhutan
.
Bhutanese speak one or more of four major, mutually unintelligible
languages. Traditionally, public and private communications, religious
materials, and official documents were written in chhokey, the
classical Tibetan script, and a Bhutanese adaptive cursive script was
developed for correspondence. In modern times, as in the past, chhokey,
which exists only in written form, was understood only by the well
educated. The official national language, Dzongkha (language of the dzong),
has developed since the seventeenth century. A sophisticated form of the
Tibetan dialect spoken by Ngalop villagers in western Bhutan, it is
based primarily on the vernacular speech of the Punakha Valley. In its
written form, Dzongkha uses an adaptive cursive script based on chhokey
to express the Ngalop spoken language. Ngalopkha is spoken in six
regional dialects with variations from valley to valley and village to
village; Dzongkha, however, through vigorous government education
programs, was becoming widely understood throughout Bhutan by the 1970s.
The other languages include Sharchopkha, or Tsangla, a Mon language
spoken in eastern districts; Bumthangkha, an aboriginal Khen language
spoken in central Bhutan; and Nepali, or Lhotsam, predominantly spoken
in the south. Seven other Khen and Mon languages also are spoken in
Bhutan. Hindi is understood among Bhutanese educated in India and was
the language of instruction in the schools at Ha and Bumthang in the
early 1930s as well as in the first schools in the "formal"
education system from the beginning of the 1960s.
Along with Dzongkha and English, Nepali was once one of the three
official languages used in Bhutan. Dzongkha was taught in grades one
through twelve in the 1980s. English was widely understood and was the
medium of instruction in secondary and higher-level schools. Starting in
the 1980s, college-level textbooks in Dzongkha were published, and in
1988 a proposal was made to standardize Dzongkha script. Sharchopkha,
Bumthangkha, and Nepali also were used in primary schools in areas where
speakers of those languages predominated. In 1989, however, Nepali was
dropped from school curricula.
Part of the government's effort to preserve traditional culture and
to strengthen the contemporary sense of national identity (driglam
namzha--national customs and etiquette) has been its emphasis on
Dzongkha-language study. The Department of Education declared in 1979
that because Dzongkha was the national language, it was "the
responsibility of each and every Bhutanese to learn Dzongkha." To
aid in language study, the department also published a Dzongkha
dictionary in 1986.
More about the <>Population
of Bhutan
.
