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Bhutan - History

Bhutan's early history is shrouded in obscurity, but the country's past seems to resemble that of rural medieval Europe. Bhutan's early history is steeped in mythology and remains obscure. It may have been inhabited as early as 2000 BC, but not much was known until the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism in the 9th century AD when turmoil in Tibet forced many monks to flee to Bhutan. In the 12th century AD, the Drukpa Kagyupa school was established and remains the dominant form of Buddhism in Bhutan today. The country's political history is intimately tied to its religious history and the relations among the various monastic schools and monasteries.

The consolidation of Bhutan began 300 years ago, when Shadbung Ngawang Nangyal, a lama from Tibet, acquired the title of "dharma raja."

The consolidation of Bhutan occurred in 1616 when the Shabdrung Ngawana Namgyal, a lama from Tibet, defeated three Tibetan invasions, subjugated rival religious schools, codified an intricate and comprehensive system of law, and established himself as ruler (shabdrung) over a system of ecclesiastical and civil administrators. The Shabdrung set up a dual-system of government with temporal and religious leaders. After his death, infighting and civil war eroded the power of the shabdrung for the next 200 years. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the local territorial governors had grown increasingly powerful, and the "deb raja" (minister) frequently became a mere figurehead.

In 1865, following a military conflict known as the Duar Wars, Britain and Bhutan signed the Treaty of Sinchula, under which Bhutan would receive an annual subsidy in exchange for ceding some border land in the South. Three years later, a treaty was signed whereby the British agreed not to interfere in Bhutanese internal affairs and Bhutan undertook to seek the advice of Britain in the conduct of its foreign affairs. This Treaty was assumed by India at Independence in 1947 but was later replaced.

In 1885, Ugyen Wangchuck was able to consolidate power and cultivated closer ties with the British in India. In 1907, Ugyen Wangchuck was elected as the hereditary ruler of Bhutan, crowned on December 17, 1907, and installed as the head of state Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King). In 1910, King Ugyen and the British signed the Treaty of Punakha which provided that British India would not interfere in the internal affairs of Bhutan if the country accepted external advice in its external relations. When Ugyen Wangchuck died in 1926, his son Jigme Wangchuck became the next ruler, and when India gained independence in 1947, the new Indian Government recognized Bhutan as an independent country.

In 1949, India and Bhutan signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which provided that India would not interfere in Bhutan's internal affairs but would be guided by India in its foreign policy. Succeeded in 1952 by his son Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, Bhutan began to slowly emerge from its isolation and began a program of planned development. Bhutan became a member of the United Nations in 1971, and during his tenure the National Assembly was established and a new code of law, as well as the Royal Bhutanese Army and the High Court.

In 1972, Jigme Singye Wangchuck ascended the throne at age 16. He emphasized modern education, decentralization of governance, the development of hydroelectricity and tourism and improvements in rural developments. He was perhaps best known internationally for his overarching development philosophy of "Gross National Happiness." It recognizes that there are many dimensions to development and that economic goals alone are not sufficient. Satisfied with Bhutan's transitioning democratization process, he abdicated in December 2006 rather than wait until the promulgation of the new constitution in 2008. His son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, became King upon his abdication.

Despite the absence of political parties, political activities carried out by elite political factions had played a role since the 1960s. These factional politics had generally been devoid of ideology, focusing instead on specific issues or events. Government decrees promulgated in the 1980s sought to preserve Bhutan's cultural identity in a "one nation, one people" policy called driglam namzha (national customs and etiquette). The government hoped to achieve integration through requiring national dress—the kira for women and the gho for men—at formal gatherings (by a May 1989 decree that was quickly reversed) and insisting that individual conduct be based on Buddhist precepts. The government stressed standardization and popularization of Dzongkha, the primary national language, and even sponsored such programs as the preservation of folksongs used in new year and marriage celebrations, house blessings, and archery contests.

In 1989 Nepali ceased to be a language of instruction in schools, and Dzongkha was mandated to be taught in all schools. In 1989 the government moved to implement the Citizenship Act of 1985, which provided that only those Nepalese immigrants who could show they had resided in Bhutan for fifteen or twenty years (depending on occupational status), and met other criteria, might be considered for grants of citizenship by naturalization. An earlier law, passed in 1958, had for the first time granted Bhutanese citizenship to Nepalese landed settlers who had been in Bhutan for at least ten years.

To ameliorate some of the differences between the ethnic communities, interethnic marriages among citizens, once forbidden, were allowed as a means of integrating the Nepalese. Bhutan's concern heightened in the late 1980s when Nepalese liberation movements emerged in India. In 1988 some ethnic Nepalese in Bhutan again began protesting the alleged discrimination against them. They demanded exemption from the government decrees aimed at enhancing Bhutanese national identity by strengthening aspects of traditional culture (under the rubric of driglam namzha). It was likely that they were inspired by prodemocracy activities in their homeland as well as by democratic, Marxist, and Indian social ideas picked up during their migration through or education in India.

The reaction to the royal decrees in Nepalese majority communities surfaced as ethnic strife directed against non-Nepalese-origin people. Reactions also took form as protest movements in Nepal and India among Nepalese who had fled Bhutan. The Druk Gyalpo was accused of "cultural suppression," and his government was charged by antigovernment leaders with human rights violations, including the torture of prisoners; arbitrary arrest and detention; denial of due process; and restrictions of freedoms of speech and press, peaceful organization and assembly, and workers' rights.

Antigovernment protest marches involved more than 20,000 participants, including some from a movement that had succeeded in coercing India into accepting local autonomy for ethnic Nepalese in West Bengal, who crossed the border from West Bengal and Assam into six Bhutan districts. In February 1990, antigovernment activists detonated a remote-control bomb on a bridge hear Phuntsholing and set fire to a seven-vehicle convoy. In September 1990, clashes occurred with the Royal Bhutan Army, which was ordered not to fire on protesters.

The government branded the the illegal Bhutan People's Party, reportedly established by antimonarchists and backed by the Nepali Congress Party and the Marxist-Leninist faction of the Communist Party of Nepal, as a terrorist organization. The party allegedly led its members — said to be armed with rifles, muzzle-loading guns, knives, and homemade grenades — in raids on villages in southern Bhutan, disrobing people wearing traditional Bhutanese garb; extorting money; and robbing, kidnapping, and killing people. Reportedly, there were hundreds of casualties, although the government admitted to only two deaths among security forces.

Other sources indicated that more than 300 persons were killed, 500 wounded, and 2,000 arrested in clashes with security forces. Along with this violence, vehicle hijackings, kidnappings, extortions, ambushes, and bombings took place, schools were closed (some were destroyed), and post offices, police, health, forest, customs, and agricultural posts were destroyed. By early 1991, the press in Nepal was referring to insurgents in southern Bhutan as "freedom fighters."

Repressive measures continued against suspected dissidents and their families, and indeed against Southern Bhutanese in general, during 1991 and 1992. As more and more people had their citizenship revoked in the successive annual censuses, a trickle of refugees into Nepal during 1991 turned into a flow of up to 600 per day in mid-1992. These conflicts led up to 100,000 Lhotshampa to leave Bhutan. Since then, around 100,000 of these refugees lived in seven camps across eastern Nepal, supported by international aid groups. Years of negotiations between the Nepalese and Bhutanese governments on taking the refugees back came to nothing.

Despite pressure, Human Rights Watch said that continuing discrimination against ethnic Nepalese made repatriation to Bhutan impossible at this time. The government of Bhutan lists the country's population as 750,000. That would make the expelled Nepalis a significant portion of the Bhutan population, and the government was afraid of being swamped by non-Buddhists.

Various Indian guerrilla organizations operated from a series of camps along the southern border. Their presence from the mid-1990s onwards impacted on the development of these areas, and India increasingly brought pressure on the Bhutanese government to act against them. In December 2003, the Royal Bhutan Army, led by the fourth king, appeared to successfully remove this threat.