PRESENTEDBY-
MayurdeepBora
MPH,1st YEAR
CMC VELLORE
BHUTAN
འབྲུག་ཡུལ

ABOUT
Bhutan is a country of south-central Asia, located on the eastern
ridges of the Himalayas.
HISTORY
Historically a remote kingdom, Bhutan became less isolated in the
second half of the 20th century, and consequently the pace of
change began to accelerate.
Bhutan's early history is steeped in mythology and remains obscure.
Some of the structures provide evidence that the region has been
settled as early as 2000 BC.
According to a legend it was ruled by a Cooch-Behar king,
Sangaldip, around the 7th century BC, but not much is known prior
to the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism in the 9th century, when
turmoil in Tibet forced many monks to flee to Bhutan. In the 12th
century, the Drukpa Kagyupa school was established and remains
the dominant form of Buddhism in Bhutan today..

• Bhutan's historical period begins at about 747 A.D., when the
revered religious leader Guru PadmaSambhava came from Tibet
and introduced Buddhism to the country. Known also as Guru
Rinpoche, this remarkable man almost as highly esteemed as
Buddha himself in Bhutan is credited with various events.
• The country's political history is intimately tied to its religious
history and relations among the various monastic schools and
monasteries
• Bhutan was inhabited by people as early as 4,000 years back.
There are archaeological evidences indicating settlements in
Bhutan dating back to 2,000-1,500 BC. Bhutan in ancient times had
many different names; it was known as Druk Yul or the Land of
the Thunder Dragon in the 17th century.

Physical Geography & Features
• The map shows Bhutan, also known as “Druk Yul” - the Land of
Thunder Dragon. The kingdom is a landlocked country on the
southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas. It borders the Indian
states of Sikkim in the west, West Bengal and Assam in the south,
and Arunachal Pradesh in the east, and it shares a border with China
(Xizang - Tibet Autonomous Region) in the north.

• With an area of 38,394 km², the country is somewhat smaller than
Switzerland or about half the size of the US state of Indiana.
Bhutan's landscape is mountainous interspersed with fertile valleys;
it offers a pristine environment with a spectacular biodiversity.
• Political Map of Bhutan

• The country's landscape offers three major regions. South of the
outer foothills of the Himalayas along its southern border are the
Dooars (Duar). The Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands are
Bhutan's very narrow portion of the subtropical and tropical
alluvial floodplains of the Ganges-Brahmaputra lowlands (Indo-
Gangetic Plain).
• To the north of the plains the land rises steeply, the landscape is
dominated by the mountains of the Sub-Himalayan Range. The
kingdom has one of the most rugged mountain terrains in the
world. The 1,000 to 3,000 m high ranges of the sub-alpine
Himalayan region (Outer Himalaya) are the main settlement area.
• The high mountain region lies south of the border to Tibet with
hundreds of unnamed, unmapped, and unclimbed peaks.

• The Great Himalaya range is home to Bhutan's highest mountain, the
7,570 m high Gangkhar Puensum, which is most likely the highest
mountain in the world which has never been climbed by a human
being.

Population
Bhutan has a population of 742,000 inhabitants (in 2019); it is South Asia's
second least populous country.
Capital
The capital and largest city is Thimphu.
Language
Spoken languages are Dzongkha (official), Tshangla, Nepali, Dzala, Kheng,
and other East Bodish languages.
Main Cities
Thimphu the cpital city of Bhutan is located on the west bank of the
Thimphu Chu River (Raidāk River).
Phuntsholing at the India-Bhutan border is the nation's financial,
industrial and trading capital.
Paro, the historic town with many sacred sites is also home to the National
Museum of Bhutan.

Punakha, the village is known for the Punakha Dzong, a 17th-century
fortress at the juncture of the Puna Tsang and Mo Chhu rivers. Behind
Phunaka Dzong is Phuntsho Pelri the King's Summer Palace and a
royal museum.
Gelephu, the third largest town in the kingdom, is located in the
Sarpang district in the central-south of the country on the Indian border.
Samdrup Jongkhar is another Bhutanese border town in the
southeast of the country bordering India's Assam state.

Ethnicity
• There are three major ethnic groups in Bhutan: the Bhutia (also
called Ngalop), the Nepalese, and the Sharchop.
• The Bhutia are the largest ethnic group and make up about half
of the population. They are the descendants of Tibetan
immigrants who came southward into Bhutan beginning about
the 9th century.
• Most of the people in eastern Bhutan are ethnically related to
the hill tribes living in adjacent areas of Assam and Arunachal
Pradesh.
• An ethnically mixed population is found in southern and
southwestern Bhutan. The Nepalese predominate in the region
and constitute roughly one-third of the country’s total
population.

Aboriginal Bhutia people with their traditional outfit

Religion
• About three-fourths of Bhutan’s population follows Buddhism,
primarily of the Tibetan variety; formerly the official state
religion, it is now described in the 2008 constitution as the
“spiritual heritage” of the country
• Aside from Buddhism, Hinduism commands a significant
following in Bhutan, particularly within the
Nepalese community. Hindus constitute nearly one-fourth of
the population.
• There also is a tiny Christian population, although
proselytization is illegal in Bhutan.

Settlement patterns
• Bhutan is a relatively sparsely populated country, with a rate of
population increase close to the world average in the early 21st
century.
• Its most thinly populated sections are the cold and rugged Great
Himalayan region and the malarial tracts bordering the Duars
Plain.
• The adverse physical conditions in both these areas limit most of
the population to two regions: the fertile and intensively farmed
Lesser Himalayan valleys of central and western Bhutan and the
southwestern portions of the country near the Indian border.
• Much of Bhutan’s population lives in very small scattered
villages. Until the late 1960s the country had no urban settlements.
However, with road construction and economic development,
some of the larger villages have grown into towns, a few dozen of
which have been deemed “urban centres” by the government. In
the mid-2010s such urban centre’s contained nearly two-fifths of
the population

Demographic trends
• The population is young. Nearly one-third is under age 15, while
about three-fifths is under 30 . Both the birth rate and the death
rate are below the global average. The life expectancy is 72 years for
women and 70 years for men.

Economy
• The Bhutanese economy is largely agrarian, and the
significant variations in elevation and climate across the
country allow Bhutan’s farms to support a wide variety of
crops and livestock.
• However, the amount of land available for agriculture is
only a small fraction of the total area of the country; the
adverse climate, poor soil, and steep slopes in much of
Bhutan have made it necessary to leave a large land area
covered with forest growth, meadows, and grasslands.
• The relatively low, well-watered, and fertile valleys of
central Bhutan have the largest percentage
of cultivated land.

• The main priority of Bhutan’s developmentstrategy has been to bring
the country out of its geographic isolation.
• To this end, Bhutan has relied on external assistancefrom India,
the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Asian DevelopmentBank.
• The success of a series of five-yearplans—the first of which was
launched in 1961—has dependedlargely on the regular flow of funds
from India to Bhutan and on the availabilityof Indian technical
personnel.
• Much of the country’s development budget has been devoted to
improvement of the infrastructure, but the five-yearplans also have
emphasizedthe exploitation of agricultural and power resources, and
the country’s economy has been on a general upward trend since the
late 20th century.
• Propelling much of the growth has been the Chhukha Hydel
hydroelectricpower project (completed in 1987–88),which enabled
the country not only to provide for its own energy needs but also to
export electricity to India.

Finance
• Until the 1960s Bhutan did not have a currency; its people
bartered for the goods they could not produce themselves.
• Now the country has a cash economy, with the
Royal Monetary Authority issuing the ngultrum, the national
currency.
• The country also has a few commercial banks, most of which
are jointly owned (in various combinations) by the government
of Bhutan, the government of India, and private interests.
• A development bank that specializes in industrial and
agricultural loans was established in 1988. A stock exchange,
open to citizens of Bhutan only, was founded in Thimphu in
1993.

CURRENCY
• The ngultrum (དངུལཀྲམ) is the currency of the Kingdom of Bhutan.
It can be literally translated as 'silver' for ngul and 'coin'
for trum. It is subdivided into 100 chhertum ( ཕྱེད་ཏམ, spelled
as chetrums on coins until 1979). The Royal Monetary Authority
of Bhutan, the central bank of Bhutan is the minting
authority of the ngultrum banknotes and coins. The ngultrum is
currently pegged to the Indian rupee at parity.

KING
Jigme Khesar Namgyel
Wangchuck
(since 2006)
PRIME MINISTER
Lotay Tshering
(since 2018)

INDIA-BHUTAN RELATIONS
• Diplomatic relations between India and Bhutan were established in 1968
with the appointment of a resident representative of India in Thimphu.
Before this our relations with Bhutan were looked after by our Political
Officer in Sikkim. The basic framework of India – Bhutan bilateral relations
is the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation of 1949 between the two
countries, which was updated and signed during the visit to India of His
Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in February 2007.
• The updated India-Bhutan Friendship Treaty not only reflects the
contemporary nature of our relationship but also lays the foundation for
their future development in the 21st century. The Treaty provides,
amongst other things, for perpetual peace and friendship, free trade and
commerce, and equal justice to each other's citizens. Our bilateral political
relations with Bhutan have matured over the years and are characterized
by close trust and understanding and extensive cooperation in the field of
economic development, particularly in the mutually Beneficial sector of
hydroelectric power.

Interesting facts
• The ONLY Carbon Negative Country in the World
• Isolated from the World Until The 1970s
• No Traffic Lights in Bhutan
• The King Abdicated the Throne for Democracy
• Happiness Prevails Over GDP
• Bhutan Says NO To Plastic
• Education and Healthcare is Free For All Citizens
• Bhutanese call their homeland “ Druk Yul” which
translates to the Land of the dragons because of the
mighty storms that occur in the Himalayas and can be
heard in Bhutan.
• It is Illegal to Kill Anything

National Symbols
• The flag of Bhutan is based upon the tradition of the Drukpa
Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and features Druk, the Thunder
Dragon of Bhutanese mythology. The basic design of the flag
by Mayum Choying Wangmo Dorji dates to 1947.
• The Druk Tsendhen ("The Thunder Dragon Kingdom") is
the national anthem of Bhutan. Adopted in 1953, the music was
composed by Aku Tongmi and the words were penned by
Dasho Gyaldun Thinley. Tongmi was educated in India and had
recently been appointed leader of the military brass band when
the need for an anthem rose at the occasion of a state visit from
Prime Minister Nehru of India.
• The Himalayan cypress (Cupressus torolusa) is the national tree
of Bhutan.
• Archery has been the official national sport of Bhutan since the
kingdom's accession to the United Nations in 1971

• The emblem of Bhutan is used in
official government publications such
as legislation and websites.
• The national bird is the raven.
• The national animal is the takin
(Burdorcas taxicolor).
• The national flower of Bhutan is the
Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis gakyidiana)
National flower, bird and animal

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