Factfile
Population: 672,425
Time zone: GMT +6 hours
Currency: Ngultrum
Language: Dzongkha
Int. dialling code: +975
Religion: Buddhism
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Other Bhutan pages
- Bhutan homepage
- Bhutan's culture
- Bhutan's history
- Getting in to Bhutan
- Getting there - airport parking
- Getting there - airport hotels
- Getting there - holiday-insurance
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Recommended by...
Kitty Corrigan
Deputy Editor, Country Living
"My must-see destination is Bhutan - all the more thrilling because it's difficult to get to and there's a restriction on the number of tourists admitted each year.
"Buddhism is at the core of every aspect of life, and the king - now handing over to a democratic government - believes that gross national happiness is more important that gross domestic product. I went to escape the millennium in London and would recommend it to escape the Olympics in 2012."
The history of Bhutan
Bhutan has a long and mysterious history
Much of Bhutan's early history remains unknown or shrouded in mystery. It's estimated that there may have been human inhabitation of the area as early as 2000BC, but it wasn't until the introduction of Buddhism 2700 later that the history of the small country was recorded. Even then, a lot of Bhutan's early history is lost after fire destroyed records in 1827. It's thought that the country spent a lot of its early history as a loose collective of tribes until they were united by the Tibetan Shabdrung Ngawang Namgya.
During the 1870s Bhutan entered civil war, with the governor of Trongsa, Ugyen Wangchuck, emerging victorious which lead to him cementing his place as the hereditary king in 1907 until his death in 1926. Bhutan remained under autocratic rule until the 1950s, when Ugyen Wangchuck's successor, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, promoted a more democratic way of running the country by introducing a 130-member National Assembly. The 60s were characterised by internal power struggles but by the King's death in 1972 they had largely subsided.
Succeeding Jigme Dorji Wangchuck was his teenage son, Jigme Singye Wangchuck. The following decades saw Bhutan open up more to the outside world, establish more foreign relations and join the UN. In 2008 Bhutan held its first parliamentary elections as it completed its journey to a democratic society.
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