Himalayan Bhutan still guards the world’s highest unclimbed peak
Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom of about 800,871 people on 38,394 square kilometres between Tibet and India, calls itself Druk Yul, Land of the Thunder Dragon. Its peaks top 7,000 metres, and Gangkhar Puensum, the highest, remains the tallest unclimbed mountain on Earth. Vajrayana Buddhism is the state religion.
The land climbs from lush subtropical plains in the south to the Himalayas in the north, sheltering wildlife such as the Himalayan takin and the golden langur. Thimphu, the capital, holds close to 15 per cent of the population. The name Bhutan probably traces to Böd, the Tibetan word for Tibet, and is traditionally read as a Sanskrit phrase meaning end of Tibet, but at home the country has been Druk Yul since the seventeenth century, and its kings are Druk Gyalpo, Dragon Kings.
Stone tools and remains of large stone structures suggest people lived here by 2000 BCE. The Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, who reigned from 627 to 649, extended his empire into Bhutan and ordered temples built at Bumthang and in the Paro Valley, and Buddhism spread in earnest from 746. Later the lama Ngawang Namgyal, fleeing persecution in Tibet, united a patchwork of warring fiefdoms, beat back three Tibetan invasions and codified the Tsa Yig legal code; his death in 1651 was kept secret for 54 years.
Bhutan's occupation of Koch Bihar prompted the British East India Company to attack in 1774, and a century of border skirmishes ended in the Duar War of 1864–65, which cost Bhutan the Bengal Duars. After civil wars between the Paro and Trongsa valleys, Ugyen Wangchuck united the country and in 1907 was chosen hereditary king. The 1910 Treaty of Punakha gave Britain control of foreign affairs, and a 1949 treaty with India, signed at Darjeeling, had each recognise the other's sovereignty.
King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck set up a 130-member National Assembly in 1953, and Bhutan joined the United Nations in 1971. The 2008 constitution created a parliamentary system under the monarchy, with two elected chambers, the National Assembly and the National Council. Though it relies on India's military, Bhutan keeps its own units, and in 2024 it ranked 21st on the Global Peace Index, the most peaceful country in South Asia.
Source: Bhutan
