Bhutan

Sheltered among the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas, the valleys that became Bhutan were settled early but left little written record before the coming of Buddhism. Tibetan sources credit the 7th-century king Songtsen Gampo with founding the first Buddhist temples in the region, including Kyichu Lhakhang in the Paro valley, as Tibetan religion began to spread south across the high passes.

Bhutan's recorded spiritual history is conventionally dated to the 8th century and the figure of Guru Padmasambhava — known throughout the Himalayas as Guru Rinpoche, the 'Precious Master.' An Indian tantric adept revered by the Nyingma school as a second Buddha, he is said to have travelled into Bhutan, subdued local deities, healed a stricken king of Bumthang, and meditated at the cliffside cave above Paro that later became Taktsang, the 'Tiger's Nest.' His visits are remembered as the true advent of Buddhism in the land.

Over the following centuries a settled Buddhist culture took root, organised around temples, hermitages and lineages of teachers. In the 12th century the Drukpa Kagyu tradition — the 'Dragon' school whose name would give Bhutan its own name, Druk Yul, the Land of the Thunder Dragon — was carried south from Tibet and gradually became the dominant form of Buddhism. Yet political power remained fragmented among rival valleys, monasteries and noble families for centuries to come.

Turning points

1. 7th centuryReligion

   First Buddhist temples founded

   Tibetan tradition credits King Songtsen Gampo with building the earliest Buddhist temples in the Bhutanese valleys, including Kyichu Lhakhang at Paro, as Buddhism spread south from Tibet.

   [4] [1]

2. 8th centuryReligion

   Guru Rinpoche brings Buddhism to Bhutan

   The tantric master Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) is said to have travelled into Bhutan, blessing sites such as Bumthang and the Taktsang cliff at Paro and marking the proper advent of Buddhism in the country.

   [2] [4]

3. 12th centuryReligion

   Drukpa Kagyu tradition takes root

   The Drukpa ('Dragon') Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism spreads into the southern valleys and becomes the dominant religious tradition, lending Bhutan its name Druk Yul, the Land of the Thunder Dragon.

   [4] [1]

In 1616 Ngawang Namgyal, a young hierarch of the Drukpa Kagyu school, fled a succession dispute in Tibet and arrived in western Bhutan. Recognised by his followers as the Zhabdrung Rinpoche — 'at whose feet one submits' — he set about uniting a land long fractured among warring valleys, lamas and noble lineages. Over the following decades he defeated rival sects and repelled repeated Tibetan and Mongol invasions, welding the disparate communities into a single polity for the first time.

To anchor his new state, the Zhabdrung built a chain of imposing dzongs — fortress-monasteries of rammed earth and stone set on ridges and river junctions — that served at once as military strongholds, administrative seats and centres of worship. Punakha Dzong, begun in 1637, became his capital. He also gave the country a code of law, a distinct national identity and the religious supremacy of the Drukpa school, much of which endures to this day.

His most lasting institution was the dual system of government, the chhoesi, which divided authority between a spiritual ruler, the Je Khenpo as head of the monastic body, and a secular administrator, the Druk Desi, who governed temporal affairs. After the Zhabdrung's death — long concealed by his officials to preserve stability — this system held the state together in theory for two and a half centuries, even as it generated chronic instability in practice.

Turning points

1. 1616Formation

   Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal arrives in Bhutan

   Fleeing a sectarian dispute in Tibet, the Drukpa Kagyu lama Ngawang Namgyal enters western Bhutan and is recognised as the Zhabdrung, beginning the unification of the country.

   [1] [4]

2. 1637Culture & Ideas

   Punakha Dzong founded

   The Zhabdrung begins building Punakha Dzong at the confluence of two rivers as his capital, one of a network of fortress-monasteries that became the seats of Bhutan's temporal and religious power.

   [5] [4]

3. c. 1651Politics & Power

   Dual system of government established

   The Zhabdrung institutes the chhoesi dual system, splitting power between a spiritual Je Khenpo and a secular Druk Desi; his death around this time is concealed to preserve the fledgling state.

   [1] [4]

Figures of the era

After the Zhabdrung's death the dual system proved fragile. Real power slipped to the regional governors, the penlops of Tongsa and Paro and the dzongpons of the great fortresses, who manipulated a rapid succession of weak Druk Desis and fought one another for supremacy. The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by recurrent civil war, assassinations and shifting alliances, even as the line of reincarnate Zhabdrungs lost its commanding authority.

Bhutan's southern frontier brought it into collision with British India. Disputes over the duars — the fertile plains at the foot of the hills — and the failure of an 1864 British mission led to the brief Duar War of 1864–65. Bhutan, with no standing army, was defeated, and by the Treaty of Sinchula of November 1865 it ceded the Bengal and Assam duars in return for an annual subsidy. The loss fixed Bhutan's modern southern border and tied its economy to British payments.

Out of the chaos rose Ugyen Wangchuck, penlop of Tongsa, who by the 1880s had defeated his rivals and made himself the effective ruler of the country. He cultivated close ties with British India, serving as intermediary during the 1903–04 Younghusband expedition to Tibet, for which he was knighted. In 1910 the Treaty of Punakha revised the Sinchula terms: Britain doubled the subsidy and agreed not to interfere in Bhutan's internal affairs, while Bhutan accepted British guidance in its external relations — preserving an independence few Himalayan states retained.

Turning points

1. 1864–1865War & Rupture

   The Duar War with British India

   After a failed British mission and disputes over the southern duars, Britain and Bhutan fight a five-month war that ends in Bhutanese defeat.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [4]

2. 11 Nov 1865Colonisation

   Treaty of Sinchula

   Bhutan cedes the Bengal and Assam duars to British India in exchange for an annual subsidy, fixing its modern southern border and binding it to the Raj.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [4]

3. 8 Jan 1910Politics & Power

   Treaty of Punakha

   Revising the Sinchula terms, Britain increases Bhutan's subsidy and pledges non-interference in internal affairs while guiding its foreign relations, securing Bhutan's continued independence.

   [6] [4]

By the early 20th century the cycle of civil strife had exhausted the dual system, and Bhutan's leaders looked for a stable centre. On 17 December 1907, in the courtyard of Punakha Dzong, an assembly of the clergy, officials and people unanimously elected Ugyen Wangchuck — already master of the country in all but name — as the first hereditary Druk Gyalpo. A representative of British India attended the ceremony, lending it external recognition. The dual system was set aside, and a single hereditary monarchy took its place.

Ugyen Wangchuck's reign brought peace after generations of conflict. He consolidated royal authority, suppressed the remaining rivalries among the lords, and used his standing with British India to keep Bhutan secure and unconquered. When he died in 1926 the throne passed smoothly to his son, Jigme Wangchuck, the second king, demonstrating that the new dynasty could transfer power without the strife that had plagued the old order.

Jigme Wangchuck (reigned 1926–52) further centralised the state, strengthened the monarchy's control over the monastic and noble establishments, and reorganised taxation and administration. Bhutan in this period remained deliberately isolated, with little contact beyond its relationship with British India. That cautious, inward-looking stability laid the groundwork for the dramatic opening that would come under his successors after Indian independence reshaped the subcontinent in 1947.

Turning points

1. 17 Dec 1907Formation

   Ugyen Wangchuck crowned first king

   An assembly at Punakha Dzong unanimously elects Ugyen Wangchuck, penlop of Tongsa, as the first hereditary Druk Gyalpo, ending the dual system and founding the Wangchuck dynasty.

   [1] [4]

2. 1926Politics & Power

   Accession of the second king

   On Ugyen Wangchuck's death the crown passes peacefully to his son Jigme Wangchuck, confirming the stability of the new hereditary monarchy.

   [4] [1]

Figures of the era

The third king, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (reigned 1952–72), is remembered as the father of modern Bhutan. He created a National Assembly, the Tshogdu, in 1953, a Council of Ministers and a modern judiciary, and abolished serfdom and slavery, redistributing land. After Indian independence the 1949 Treaty of Friendship had renewed Bhutan's special relationship with its giant southern neighbour; under Jigme Dorji, India helped build Bhutan's first roads and its first five-year development plans, beginning in 1961, drew the country out of isolation.

Bhutan stepped onto the world stage as it modernised. It joined the Universal Postal Union, took a seat in the Colombo Plan, and on 21 September 1971 was admitted to the United Nations — a decisive assertion of sovereignty by the once-hidden kingdom. The relationship with India remained the cornerstone of its foreign policy, providing development aid, trade and security while Bhutan guarded its independence and distinct identity.

His son Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who became the fourth king in 1972 at the age of sixteen, gave Bhutan's modernisation a philosophy of its own. Declaring that 'Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product,' he insisted that development be measured not by wealth alone but by the well-being of the people, the strength of their culture, good governance and a protected environment. The idea, articulated from the 1970s onward, became Bhutan's signature contribution to global thinking about progress.

Turning points

1. 1953Politics & Power

   National Assembly established

   King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck creates the Tshogdu, Bhutan's National Assembly, beginning the reform of the country's institutions alongside the abolition of serfdom and land redistribution.

   [3] [4]

2. 21 Sep 1971Independence

   Bhutan joins the United Nations

   Bhutan is admitted as the 128th member of the United Nations, a milestone in its emergence from isolation and its assertion of full sovereignty.

   ↗See the data

   [7] [8]

3. 1972Politics & Power

   Gross National Happiness proclaimed

   On acceding to the throne, the young fourth king Jigme Singye Wangchuck advances Gross National Happiness as Bhutan's guiding measure of development, valuing well-being and culture over GDP alone.

   [9] [10]

Figures of the era

In a step almost unique in world history, Bhutan's monarchy chose to limit itself. From 1998 the fourth king began devolving executive power to an elected Council of Ministers, and in 2005 he unveiled a draft constitution. He abdicated in 2006 in favour of his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, and the country held its first National Council elections in December 2007 and its first National Assembly elections in March 2008. A written Constitution came into force in July 2008, making Bhutan a democratic constitutional monarchy with Gross National Happiness enshrined as a goal of the state.

The transition was crowned in November 2008, when the young fifth king was formally enthroned amid celebrations marking the centenary of the Wangchuck dynasty. Since then Bhutan has held successive peaceful elections and transfers of power between parties, pursued cautious, environment-first development, and become known internationally for being carbon-negative and for the GNH philosophy that the United Nations itself drew upon in 2011 when it urged states to weigh happiness in measuring progress.

The era's gravest shadow is the fate of the Lhotshampa, Bhutanese of Nepali ancestry in the south. Amid 'one nation, one people' policies and a tightening of citizenship rules in the late 1980s, tens of thousands left or were forced out in the early 1990s, and more than 100,000 ended up in UNHCR camps in eastern Nepal. Repatriation talks failed, and from 2007 a large-scale resettlement programme moved over 100,000 to countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and several in Europe — a humanitarian solution that nonetheless left questions of return and citizenship unresolved into the present day.

Turning points

1. early 1990sPeoples & Migration

   Exodus of the Lhotshampa

   Amid 'one nation, one people' measures and stricter citizenship rules, tens of thousands of southern Bhutanese of Nepali origin leave or are expelled, and more than 100,000 end up in UNHCR camps in eastern Nepal.

   ↗See the data

   [11] [4]

2. 2007–2008Peoples & Migration

   Resettlement of Bhutanese refugees

   A multinational programme led by UNHCR and IOM resettles over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees from Nepal to countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [11]

3. Jul 2008Politics & Power

   Constitution and democratic monarchy

   Following the country's first parliamentary elections, Bhutan's written Constitution comes into force, transforming the kingdom into a democratic constitutional monarchy with Gross National Happiness as a goal of the state.

   [1] [13]

4. Nov 2008Politics & Power

   Coronation of the fifth king

   Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is formally enthroned as the fifth Druk Gyalpo, his coronation timed to the centenary of the Wangchuck monarchy and the inauguration of democratic rule.

   [1] [13]

Figures of the era