Bhutan.
Capital: Thimphu.
Population. One million.
Area. 18150 square miles.
Revenue Districts. 20.
Word Bhutan is derived from Bhu-Utthan= high lands.
Bhutan is a kingdom, located on the eastern ridges of the Himalayas.
The country has an area of about 18,150 square miles.
Bhutan's undefined northern and western boundary with Tibet follows the crest of the Great Himalaya Range for the most part.
Its boundary with India lies to the south of the Himalaya Range in the Duars Plain. Directly south lie the states of West Bengal and Assam.
To the east, Bhutan borders Arunachal Pradesh, and to the southwest it borders the state of Sikkim. Thimphu is the capital.
Progress is seen in the development of transportation since 1960, when the trip from the Indian border to the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, took six days by mule. Now the journey can be made in six hours by car along the 120-mile winding mountain road from Phuntsholing, on the border, to Thimphu.
The economic core of Bhutan lies in the fertile valleys of the Lesser Himalayas, which are separated from one another by a series of high and complex interconnecting ridges extending across the country from north to south.
The political nucleus of Bhutan lies in the Paro and Thimphu valleys in the Lesser Himalayan region. Its location between the Assam-Bengal Plain of India to the south and the Chinese-occupied Plateau of Tibet to the north gives it considerable geopolitical significance.
In southern and southwestern Bhutan, an ethnically mixed population with a predominance of Nepalese settlers is found. The Nepalese, or Gurung, are the most recent arrivals in Bhutan and constitute about one-third of the population. They speak Nepali and practice Hinduism.
Most of the people in eastern Bhutan are ethnically related to the hill tribes living in adjacent areas of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The Sharchops, as these people are called, are Indo-Mongoloid in origin and are believed to have been the earliest inhabitants of Bhutan. Though the Sharchops are Tibetan Buddhists, they are less strict in their observance of religious customs than are the Bhutia.
The three main ethnic groups of Bhutan display considerable variety in their culture and lifestyles. The Bhutia, or Ngalops, share a common heritage of Tibetan culture, language, and religion. They form the largest of the three ethnic groups.
Most of the political and social leaders of Bhutan are of Bhutia heritage.
Bhutia houses are built of timber and stone and have thick, pounded mud walls to keep out the cold. Most such houses have two stories: livestock are kept on the ground floor, while the family lives above. Inside the house a family will usually have a shrine consisting of a small Buddhist image in a corner.
While the Bhutia family system is basically patriarchal, family estates are divided equally between sons and daughters. Both men and women are free to choose whom to marry, and members of both sexes can initiate a divorce.
Ordinary Bhutia villagers may not be able to afford meat in their daily meals and often must rely on a dish of rice, potatoes, and chillies. Besides meat, the yak also supplies milk, from which butter is made for use in lamps on the shrine altar.
The Sharchops are closely linked to the Bhutia because they share a common religion in Tibetan Buddhism, though among the Sharchops there is often a strong element of the older pre-Buddhist Bon religion. Sharchops build their houses of stone and wood, often on stilts on the hillslopes.
They generally clear the land for agriculture by burning the vegetation, use a plot for several years, and then move to another site when the productivity of the soil declines.
The Nepalese are predominantly Hindus and have caste and family ties to Nepal and India. Because they live in the warmer climate of southern Bhutan, their houses are made of bamboo and thatch. The Nepalese do not eat beef, and some of them abstain from meat altogether.
Instead, they eat the rice and curry dishes. Their caste system separates different social levels and influences the choice of marriage partners and other social relationships. The Nepalese in Bhutan lack the same loyalty to the monarchy that is predominant among the Bhutia and Sharchops.
In response, the government has tried to integrate the Nepalese into the national life.
For example, a government order has made the Dzongkha language compulsory for all Nepali-speaking Bhutanese. On their part, the Nepalese have protested this and other attempts at "national integration" under the hegemony of Bhutanese language and culture, and a serious political and cultural division between the Buddhist Bhutanese majority and the Hindu Nepali-speaking minority continues to exist.
The major impulse in Bhutanese art comes from Buddhism. The mystic pattern known as a mandala is a favourite subject. The mandala adorns the walls and ceilings of Buddhist temples or is painted, embroidered, or affixed on the scrolls known as thangkas.
One of the most popularly depicted figures is Padma-Sambhava, who brought Buddhism to Bhutan, and another popular theme in the visual arts is the eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism.
Dancing is the centre of all religious festivals in Bhutan and is used to depict the tales and legends of Buddhist history and mythology.
The castle dzongs, with their gently tapering walls, large courtyards, and long galleries, are among the finest examples of Bhutanese architecture. Chortens, or stupas, small shrines built originally to house sacred relics, are also a common architectural sight in Bhutan; their designs range from simple square structures to large, multilayered, pyramidal shapes.
The skill of Bhutan's craftsmen is working with bronze, silver, and other fine metals is seen in statues of deities, the doors and pillars of temples, bells, trumpets, swords, tables, candle-sticks, rice boxes, and jewellery.
Every Buddhist temple contains large, brightly painted and gilded statues of the Buddha and his saints. Folk songs of itinerant minstrels, the low chanting of Buddhist monks, and the sounds of long horns echoing across the valleys are all an integral part of Bhutanese music.
Many of the ancient Tibetan musical forms have been preserved, though the instruments have been modified. For example, trumpets once made of human thighbone are today constructed of metal. Among other instruments used are drums and cymbals.
Bhutan itself has been able to finance less than 10 percent of its total development expenditures. For the other 90 percent, it has depended on external assistance from India, the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Asian Development Bank.
The success of the five-year plans has depended largely on the regular flow of funds from India and upon the availability of Indian technical personnel.
The Chhukha Hydel project, which harnesses the waters of the Raidak River, is the largest single investment undertaken in Bhutan and represents a major step toward exploiting the nation's huge hydroelectric potential.
The surplus energy from the Chhukha project is sold to India, which has financed the entire venture.
Because Bhutan is landlocked, trade and transit arrangements with India play a critical role in its economic life. Free trade with India prevails; imports from that country comprise about 90 percent of Bhutan's total imports and include machinery and equipment, petroleum products, food grains, textiles and clothing, and transport equipment. Bhutan's exports to India, which amount to about 95 percent of its total exports, consist of agricultural products such as cardamom, potatoes, and oranges;
forestry products such as sawed timber and rosin; and cement.
