Thimphu is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's dzongkhags, the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city of Punakha was replaced by Thimphu as capital in 1955, and in 1961 Thimphu was declared as the capital of the Kingdom of Bhutan by the 3rd Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.
The music of Bhutan is an integral part of its culture and plays a leading role in transmitting social values. Traditional Bhutanese music includes a spectrum of subgenres, ranging from folk to religious song and music. Some genres of traditional Bhutanese music intertwine vocals, instrumentation, and theatre and dance, while others are mainly vocal or instrumental. The much older traditional genres are distinguished from modern popular music such as rigsar.
Tshering Choden is an archer from Bhutan who competed at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics.
World Archery is the governing body of the sport of archery. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is composed of 156 national federations and other archery associations, and is recognised by the International Olympic Committee.
Losar also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various dates depending on location tradition. The holiday is a new year's festival, celebrated on the first day of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar, which corresponds to a date in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. In 2024, the new year commenced on 10 February and celebrations ran until the 12th of the same month. It also commenced the Year of the Male Wood Dragon.
The Prince Claus Fund is an independent foundation dedicated to culture and development.
Changlimithang Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Thimphu, Bhutan, which serves as the national stadium. It is predominantly used for football matches and is the home of the Bhutan national football team, other national selections and a number of Thimphu-based football clubs. The stadium also regularly plays host to women's football, archery tournaments, minifootball and some volleyball matches. The stadium was initially constructed in 1974 for the coronation of the fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, but was completely refurbished in 2007 in advance of the coronation of Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Floodlights were added to the football pitch in 2009 and an evergreen turf laid in 2012, to coincide with the start of the first season of the National League. Located 2,300 meters (7,500 ft) above sea level, the stadium is one of the highest in the world. It has raised numerous controversies in footballing circles, as its significant altitude affects the absorption of oxygen in the human body, offering considerable advantage to the home teams who are more accustomed to such conditions.
The first Olympics that Bhutan participated in was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. From its first appearance in 1984 until 2008, Bhutan was only represented by archers at the Olympics. In the 2012 London Olympics, Bhutan sent its first non-archer to compete at an olympic games: Kunzang Choden, who competed in the women's 10m air-rifle event. The 2012 Bhutan team contained no men. Bhutan has never won an Olympic medal. In spite of being very mountainous, it has never competed in the Winter Games.
The German Shooting Sport and Archery Federation is the largest umbrella organization for sport shooters in Germany. It was founded in 1861 in Gotha and re-founded in 1951 in Frankfurt / Main. DSB was Germany's fourth-largest sports association in 2008, with 1,095,071 male and 357,400 female shooters.
The Bhutan Olympic Committee (BOC) was created on 23 November 1983 with the 4th King of Bhutan as its President, with its headquarters at Thimphu, Bhutan. Following this recognition, Bhutan participated for the first time in the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles when three men and three women archers represented Bhutan.
The national symbols of Bhutan include the national flag, national emblem, national anthem, and the mythical druk thunder featured in all three. Other distinctive symbols of Bhutan and its dominant Ngalop culture include Dzongkha, the national language; the Bhutanese monarchy; and the driglam namzha, a seventeenth-century code on dress, etiquette, and dzong architecture. Natural symbols of Bhutan are its national flower, the Himalayan blue poppy; its national tree, the Himalayan cypress; its national bird, the raven; and its national animal, the takin.
Public holidays in Bhutan consist of both national holidays and local festivals or tshechus. While national holidays are observed throughout Bhutan, tsechus are only observed in their areas. Bhutan uses its own calendar, a variant of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar. Because it is a lunisolar calendar, dates of some national holidays and most tshechus change from year to year. For example, the new year, Losar, generally falls between February and March.
Archery in Bhutan is the national sport of the Kingdom. Archery was declared the national sport in 1971, when Bhutan became a member of the United Nations. Since then, the popularity of Bhutanese archery has increased both inside and outside Bhutan, with a measure of government promotion. Bhutan also maintains an Olympic archery team. Previously, competitions were held only at dzongkhag and gewog levels, however modernly, archery tournaments and competitions are held throughout the country. Archery is played during religious and secular public holidays in Bhutan, local festivals (tsechu), between public ministries and departments, and between the dzonkhag and the regional teams. Archery tournaments and performances have also become a significant point of interest for tourism in Bhutan.
Sports in Bhutan comprise both traditional Bhutanese and modern international games. Archery is the national sport in Bhutan. Competitions are held regularly in most villages. Other traditional Bhutanese sports include khuru, soksom, pundo and digor.
Bhutan competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This marked the nation's eighth appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and the first in which the nation competed in a sport other than archery. The Bhutanese delegation included archer Sherab Zam and shooter Kunzang Choden. Zam was the flag bearer for both the opening and closing ceremonies. Neither of Bhutan's athletes progressed beyond the first round of their events. Bhutan was one of only two countries to have a female-only team at the 2012 Games.
The 2013 World Archery Championships was the 47th edition of the event. It was held in Antalya, Turkey from 29 September to 6 October 2013 and was organised by World Archery Federation (FITA). It was immediately preceded by the 50th World Archery Federation congress in the same location. Qualification and elimination rounds took place at the Papillon Sports Centre in nearby Kadriye, with the medal matches on 5–6 October on the beach of Belek.
Karma is a Bhutanese recurve archer from Trashiyangtse in eastern Bhutan and lives at Thimphu also in Bhutan.
Bhutan competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which was held from 5 to 21 August, 2016. The country's participation in Rio de Janeiro marked its ninth appearance in the Summer Olympics since its début at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The delegation included two female athletes, Karma in the women's individual archery tournament and Kunzang Lenchu in the women's 10 metre air rifle shooting contest. Both qualified for the Games through wildcard places because they did not match the required qualification standards. Karma was selected as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony while Lenchu held it at the closing ceremony. Karma was eliminated at the Round of 64 while Lenchu exited the competition after the shooting qualification round.
The 2017 World Archery Championships was the 49th edition of the event. It was held in Mexico City, Mexico from 15 to 22 October 2017 and was organised by World Archery Federation. Qualification and elimination rounds took place at the Campo Marte. The competition was preceded by the World Archery Federation Congress on 13–14 October.
Bhutan competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the nation's tenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics. After Karma's loss at the archery event, Bhutan's campaign ended on 28 July 2021.
