The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Bhutan:
Bhutan – landlocked sovereign country located in South Asia. [1] Bhutan is located amidst the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains and is bordered to the south, east and west by India and to the north by China. Bhutan is separated from Nepal by the Indian state of Sikkim. The Bhutanese call their country Druk Yul (land of the thunder dragon). [2]
Foreign influences and tourism in Bhutan are regulated by the government to preserve the nation's traditional culture, identity and the environment. in 2006 Business Week rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth happiest country in the world. [3] The landscape ranges from subtropical plains in the south to the Himalayan heights in the north, with some peaks exceeding 7,000 metres (23,000 ft). The state religion is Vajrayana Buddhism, and the population is predominantly Buddhist, with Hinduism being the second-largest religion. The capital and largest city is Thimphu. After centuries of direct monarchic rule, Bhutan held its first democratic elections in March 2008. Bhutan is a member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Administrative divisions of Bhutan
District | Former spelling | Bhutanese | Romanization used by the Dzongkha Development Commission |
---|---|---|---|
Bumthang | བུམ་ཐང་ | Bºumtha | |
Chukha | Chhukha | ཆུ་ཁ་ | Chukha |
Dagana | དར་དཀར་ནང་ | Dºagana | |
Gasa | མགར་ས་ | Gâsa | |
Haa | ཧད་ / ཧཱ་ | Hâ | |
Lhuntse | Lhuntshi | ལྷུན་རྩེ་ | Lhüntsi |
Mongar | མོང་སྒར་ | Mongga | |
Paro | སྤ་གྲོ་ | Paro | |
Pemagatshel | Pemagatsel | པདྨ་དགའ་ཚལ་ | Pemagatshä |
Punakha | སྤུ་ན་ཁ་ | Punakha | |
Samdrup Jongkhar | བསཾ་གྲུབ་ལྗོངས་མཁར་ | Samdru Jongkha | |
Samtse | Samchi | བསམ་རྩེ་ | Samtsi |
Sarpang | གསར་སྦང་ | Sarbang | |
Thimphu | ཐིམ་ཕུག་ | Thimphu | |
Trashigang | Tashigang | བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་ | Trashigang |
Trashiyangste | བཀྲ་ཤིས་གཡང་རྩེ་ | Trashi'yangste | |
Trongsa | Tongsa | ཀྲོང་གསར་ | Trongsa |
Tsirang | Chirang | རྩི་རང་ | Tsirang |
Wangdue Phodrang | Wangdi Phodrang | དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་ | 'Wangdi Phodrºa |
Zhemgang | Shemgang | གཞལ་སྒང་ | Zhºämgang |
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a member of: [1]
Jigme Dorji Wangchuck was the 3rd Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan.
Trashigang District is Bhutan's easternmost dzongkhag (district).
Mongar District is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. Mongar is the fastest-developing dzongkhag in eastern Bhutan. A regional hospital has been constructed and the region is bustling with many economic activities. Mongar is noted for its lemon grass, a plant that can be used to produce an essential oil. It also has a hydroelectric power-plant on the Kuri Chhu river. Mongar is notable for having the longest work time in all the dzongkhags of Bhutan.
Articles related to Bhutan include:
The Kheng people are found primarily in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, Bumthang, Dagana, and Mongar Districts of central Bhutan. They speak the Kheng language, a member of the extended Sino-Tibetan language family belonging to the East Bodish languages group; it is mutually intelligible with the Bumthang language and Kurtöp language to the north. The Kheng people are ethnolinguistically same as the Bumthang people and Kurtöp people of central Bhutan and are more closely related to Ngalop people of western Bhutan than to their neighbors in eastern Bhutan, who are primarily Sharchops and speak Tshangla language. SIL International estimates there are 50,000 Kheng speakers as of 2009.
Penlop is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as provincial governor. Bhutanese penlops, prior to unification, controlled certain districts of the country, but now hold no administrative office. Rather, penlops are now entirely subservient to the House of Wangchuck.
Jakar is a town in the central-eastern region of Bhutan. It is the district capital of Bumthang District and the location of Jakar Dzong, the regional dzong fortress. The name Jakar roughly translates as "white bird" in reference to its foundation myth, according to which a roosting white bird signalled the proper and auspicious location to found a monastery around 1549.
There are two dozen languages of Bhutan, all members of the Tibeto-Burman language family except for Nepali, which is an Indo-Aryan language, and the Bhutanese Sign Language. Dzongkha, the national language, is the only native language of Bhutan with a literary tradition, though Lepcha and Nepali are literary languages in other countries. Other non-Bhutanese minority languages are also spoken along Bhutan's borders and among the primarily Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa community in South and East Bhutan. Chöke is the language of the traditional literature and learning of the Buddhist monastics.
The Penlop of Trongsa, also called Chhoetse Penlop, is a Dzongkha title meaning "Governor of the Province of Trongsa (Chhoetse)". It is now generally given to the heir apparent of the Kingdom of Bhutan, but historically was an important title, for the governor of Trongsa and the surrounding area, and was the route by which the House of Wangchuck came to the throne.
The Khengkha language, or Kheng, is an East Bodish language spoken by ~40,000 native speakers worldwide, in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, and Mongar districts of south–central Bhutan.
Bodish, named for the Tibetan ethnonym Bod, is a proposed grouping consisting of the Tibetic languages and associated Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Tibet, North India, Nepal, Bhutan, and North Pakistan. It has not been demonstrated that all these languages form a clade, characterized by shared innovations, within Sino-Tibetan.
The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:
Gongduk or Gongdu is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in a few inaccessible villages located near the Kuri Chhu river in the Gongdue Gewog of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. The names of the villages are Bala, Dagsa, Damkhar, Pam, Pangthang, and Yangbari (Ethnologue).
The Dzala language, also called Dzalakha, Dzalamat, or Yangtsebikha, is an East Bodish language spoken in eastern Bhutan, in the Lhuntse and Trashiyangtse Districts.
Dzongpen is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as governor or dzong lord. Bhutanese dzongpens, prior to unification, controlled certain areas of the country, but now hold no administrative office. Rather, dzongpens are now entirely subservient to the House of Wangchuck.
Trongsa Province was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.
Punakha Province was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.
Bumthang Province was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.
Kurtoed Province was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.
Kurmaed Province was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.