Samtse ་བསམ་རྩེ | |
---|---|
Town | |
Coordinates: 27°2′N89°5′E / 27.033°N 89.083°E | |
Country | Bhutan |
District | Samtse |
Elevation | 417 m (1,368 ft) |
Population (2017) | |
• Total | 5,396 |
Time zone | UTC+6 (BTT) |
Samtse is a town and the headquarters of the Samtse District in Bhutan. The population of the town was 5,396 as of 2017. [1] The population of the Samtse district was 60,100 at the 2005 census. [2]
Samtse is close to the Bhutan–India border. Across the border is the Indian town of Chamurchi.
Samtse features a dry-winter humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa) with very heavy rainfall in summer.
Climate data for Samtse, 1996–2018 | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 21.3 (70.3) | 23.5 (74.3) | 26.6 (79.9) | 28.2 (82.8) | 28.6 (83.5) | 28.9 (84.0) | 28.5 (83.3) | 29.2 (84.6) | 29.2 (84.6) | 28.6 (83.5) | 25.9 (78.6) | 23.3 (73.9) | 26.8 (80.3) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 12.9 (55.2) | 15.1 (59.2) | 18.2 (64.8) | 20.4 (68.7) | 21.5 (70.7) | 23.2 (73.8) | 23.6 (74.5) | 23.9 (75.0) | 23.2 (73.8) | 21.1 (70.0) | 17.6 (63.7) | 14.7 (58.5) | 19.6 (67.3) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 20.1 (0.79) | 39.1 (1.54) | 147.7 (5.81) | 333.3 (13.12) | 635.6 (25.02) | 1,051.2 (41.39) | 1,213 (47.76) | 1,065.2 (41.94) | 669.9 (26.37) | 208.7 (8.22) | 21.2 (0.83) | 14.4 (0.57) | 5,419.4 (213.36) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.5 | 4.3 | 8.7 | 15.1 | 21.0 | 25.7 | 28.8 | 27.7 | 22.1 | 10.3 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 170.4 |
Source: World Meteorological Organization [3] |
Transport in Bhutan uses about 8,000 kilometres (5,000 mi) of roads and four airports, three of which are operational and interconnected. Paro Airport is the only airport which accommodates international flights. As part of Bhutan's infrastructure modernization programs, its road system has been under development since the 1960s. There are no railways, and as Bhutan is a landlocked country with no major waterways, there are no ports.
Chukha District is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. The major town is Phuentsholing which is the gateway city along the sole road which connects India to western Bhutan. Chukha is the commercial and the financial capital of Bhutan. With Bhutan's oldest hydropower plant, Chukha hydel, and Tala Hydroelectricity Project, the country's largest power plant, Chukha is the dzongkhag which contributes the most to the GDP of the country. Also located in Chukha district are some of the country's oldest industrial companies like the Bhutan Carbide Chemical Limited (BCCL) and the Bhutan Boards Products Limited (BBPL).
Samtse District is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It comprises two subdistricts (dungkhags): Tashicholing and Dophuchen. They are further subdivided into 15 gewogs. The Samtse district covers a total area of 1304 sq km.
The Royal Bhutan Army is a branch of the armed forces of the Kingdom of Bhutan responsible for maintaining the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty against security threats. The King of Bhutan is the Supreme Commander in Chief of the RBA. The Chief Operations Officer is Goonglon Gongma Batoo Tshering.
A gewog, in the past also spelled as geog, is a group of villages in Bhutan. The head of a gewog is called a gup. Gewogs form a geographic administrative unit below dzongkhag districts, and above Dzongkhag Thromde class B and Yenlag Thromde municipalities. Dzongkhag Thromde class A municipalities have their own independent local government body.
Jaigaon is a census town in Alipurduar subdivision under Kalchini Block of Alipurduar district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is located on the country's border with Bhutan, and Bhutan Gate separates the two countries. Phuentsholing is the Bhutan's nearest city to Jaigaon. Bhutan does not have domestic roads linking to all its towns, so uses roads passing through Jaigaon to reach such destinations as Samtse, Gomtu, Nganglam and Samdrup Jongkhar.
Trashigang, or Tashigang, meaning "fortress of auspicious mount," is a town in eastern Bhutan and the district capital of the Trashigang Dzongkhag (district).
Gomtu is a border town in south-western Bhutan near the border with India. It is located in Samtse District. Gomtu is a small industrial town by road only reachable via India. It lays at a distance of some 70 kilometers west of the large Bhutanese border town of Phuentsholing. There are two cement factories based on the Gomtu Industrial Estate, Penden Cement and Lhaki cement. Gomtu has a government Higher Secondary School and a government referral hospital. In the Pugli Hills around Gomtu the mineral dolomite is mined by the Jigme Mining Corporation Limited.
Sangbay or Sangbaykha Gewog is a gewog of Haa District, Bhutan. It is one of the western gewogs of the Haa district sharing borders with the Samtse District, India's Sikkim state and China's Chumbi Valley. The latter border has been contested by China, which claims the Doklam region as its territory. In recent years, China has begun to build villages in its claimed area.
Lhokpu, also Lhobikha or Taba-Damey-Bikha, is one of the autochthonous languages of Bhutan spoken by the Lhop people. It is spoken in southwestern Bhutan along the border of Samtse and Chukha Districts. Van Driem (2003) leaves it unclassified as a separate branch within the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Dungtoe Gewog is a gewog of Samtse District, Bhutan. Dungtoe Gewog is part of Dorokha Dungkhag (sub-district), together with Dorokha and Denchukha Gewogs.
Tendu or Tendruk Gewog is a gewog of Samtse District, Bhutan. The Tendruk Gewog comprises part of Sipsu Dungkhag (sub-district), together with Bara, Biru, Lehereni, and Sipsu Gewogs.
Ugentse Gewog is a gewog of Samtse District, Bhutan.
Dophoogchen Gewog, or Dorokha Gewog, is a gewog of Samtse District, Bhutan. Dophoogchen Gewog is part of Dophoogchen Dungkhag (sub-district), which comprise Dorokha and Denchukha Gewogs.
Norgaygang Gewog is a gewog of Samtse District, Bhutan. It is located at the extreme northwest of the Samtse District bordering on India's West Bengal (Kalimpong) and Sikkim provinces. It has the Haa District to the northeast and Samtse's Tendruk Gewog to the southeast.
Pemaling Gewog is a gewog of Samtse District, Bhutan. The gewog has an area of 49.04 square kilometres and contains 15 chewogs with 46 villages and 448 households. Pemaling Gewog comprises part of Tashicholing Dungkhag (sub-district), together with Tendu, Namgaychhoeling, Norgaygang, and Tashicholing Gewogs.
Tashicholing or Sipsu Gewog is a gewog of the Samtse District, Bhutan.
The 2012–13 Bhutan National League was the first season of the Bhutan National League. It was organized by the Bhutan Football Federation and sponsored by Coca-Cola. The National League replaced the A-Division as the country's premier football competition and would provide Bhutan's entrant to the 2013 AFC President's Cup. the A-Division continues as a football competition, but is now merely a qualifying round for Thimpu-based teams. The top three teams in the A-Division progressed to the national league where they were joined by three other teams representing other districts within Bhutan. The A-Division was won by Druk Pol, but were beaten to the national title by fellow A-Division competitors Yeedzin who won the inaugural competition, their fifth top flight title overall.
Samtse Football Club is a professional football club from Samtse, Bhutan, based at the Samtse Dzongkhag Ground. They finished last in the inaugural season of Bhutan National League.