About Bhutan

Mountainous Bhutan is situated on the south-eastern slope of the Himalayas, bordered on the north by Tibet and on the south, west and east by India. The landscape is a succession of lofty rugged mountains and deep valleys, with towering peaks in the north.

Although archaeological exploration has been limited, there is evidence of civilisation in the region dating back to at least 2000 BC. The aboriginal Bhutanese, known as Monpa, are believed to have migrated from Tibet. The traditional name of the country since the seventeenth century has been Drukyul (the Land of the Drukpa, the Dragon People), a reference to the dominant branch of Tibetan Buddhism still practised here.

For centuries Bhutan was made up of feuding regions until it was unified under King Ugyen Wangchuck in 1907. The British exerted some influence over Bhutan's affairs but never colonised it. Until the 1960s the country was largely isolated, and its people carried on a traditional life of farming and trading that had been intact for centuries.

After China invaded Tibet, Bhutan strengthened its ties with India to avoid the same fate. New roads began to end its isolation. In the 1960s the country undertook social modernisation, abolishing slavery and the caste system, emancipating women and enacting land reform. In 1985 Bhutan made its first diplomatic links with non-Asian countries.

In 1998 King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth hereditary ruler, voluntarily curtailed his absolute monarchy. In 2006 he abdicated in favour of his son, and Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck became the fifth Druk Gyalpo.