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Bhutan - People

The government is afraid of being swamped by non-Buddhists. Population figures for Bhutan remain disputed on the basis of unresolved citizenship claims. The population was estimated by the National Statstical Bureau (NSB) at 634,982 (2005-2006). The US government estimated the total population at 742,000 (July 2015 estimate). When Bhutan's first national census was conducted in 1969, the population officially stood at 930,614 persons. Before 1969 population estimates had ranged between 300,000 and 800,000 people. The 1969 census has been criticized as inaccurate. By the time the 1980 census was held, the population reportedly had increased to approximately 1,165,000 persons. Preliminary government projections in 1988 set the total population at 1 ,375,400 persons, whereas UN estimates stood at 1,451 ,000 people in 1988. Other foreign projections put the population at 1,598,216 persons in July 1991. It is likely, however, that Bhutan's real population was less than 1 million and probably as little as 600,000 in 1990. Moreover, the government itself began to use the figure of "about 600,000 citizens" in late 1990. The annual growth rate in 1990 was 2 percent.

Society was traditionally divided into the zhung (monarchy and bureaucracy), dra-tshang (religious community), and mi-sey (people). There has been no caste system in Bhutanese society, but class differences exisited in the form of categorisation by profession. This class difference was not rigid, and mobility along the social ladder was both lateral and vertical. Essentially, the division was not rigid since anyone could rise to the highest position in the government and the monastic body.

The population can be divided into 3 broad ethnic categories -- Bhote, Nepalese, and various tribal groups. The Ngalungs or Ngalops (often called Drukpas) make up the majority of the population, living mostly in the western and central areas. The Ngalops are thought to be of Tibetan origin, arriving in Bhutan during the 8th and 9th centuries AD and bringing Buddhism with them. Most Ngalops follow the Drukpa Kagyupa discipline of Mahayana Buddhism. In a country that is deeply rooted within the Buddhist religion, many people's sect of religion, as opposed to their ethnic group, characterizes them. The Ngalops predominate in the government, and the civil service and their cultural norms have been declared by the monarchy to be the standard for all citizens. The Sharchops, who live in the eastern section of Bhutan, are considered to be descendants of the earliest major group to inhabit Bhutan. Most follow the Ningmapa discipline of Mahayana Buddhism. Sharchop is translated as "people of the east."

The Ngalops, Sharchops, and the indigenous tribal people are collectively known as Drukpas and account for about 65% of the population. The national language is Dzongkha, but English is the language of instruction in schools and an official working language for the government.

The Lhotsampas (meaning Southern Bhutanese) are people of Nepali descent, making up 35% of the population. They came to Bhutan in the 19th and 20th centuries, mostly settling in the southern foothills to work as farmers. They speak a variety of Nepali dialects and are predominantly Hindu.

Bhutanese speak one or more of four major, mutually unintelligible languages. Traditionally, public and private communications, religious materials, and official documents were written in chhokey, the classical Tibetan script, and a Bhutanese adaptive cursive script was developed for correspondence. In modern times, as in the past, chhokey, which exists only in written form, was understood only by the well educated. The official national language, Dzongkha (language of the dzong), has developed since the seventeenth century. A sophisticated form of the Tibetan dialect spoken by Ngalop villagers in western Bhutan, it is based primarily on the vernacular speech of the Punakha Valley. In its written form, Dzongkha uses an adaptive cursive script based on chhokey to express the Ngalop spoken language. Ngalopkha is spoken in six regional dialects with variations from valley to valley and village to village; Dzongkha, however, through vigorous government education programs had become widely understood throughout Bhutan by the 1970s.

The other languages include Sharchopkha, or Tsangla, a Mon language spoken in eastern districts; Bumthangkha, an aboriginal Khen language spoken in central Bhutan; and Nepali, or Lhotsam, predominantly spoken in the south. Seven other Khen and Mon languages also are spoken in Bhutan. Hindi is understood among Bhutanese educated in India and was the language of instruction in the schools at Ha and Bumthang in the early 1930s as well as in the first schools in the "formal" education system from the beginning of the 1960s.

The law provides for equal inheritance for sons and daughters. Traditional inheritance laws stipulate that inheritance is matrilineal and that daughters inherit family land and daughters do not assume their father’s name at birth or their husband’s name upon marriage. According to NGO and government sources, within the household, men and women enjoyed relatively equal status.

The statutory minimum age of marriage for both men and women is 18. Statistics from the 2010 BMIS indicated that 31 percent of marriages occurred before age 18, and 7 percent before age 15. In 2010, 15 percent of girls and young women ages 15-19 were either married or in a civil union. While child marriage has become less common in urban areas, in remote villages there were reports of secret marriage ceremonies involving girls younger than 15. Child marriage took place in all regions, but the incidence was higher in the western and central areas of the country.

Migration by Nepalis into southern Bhutan began in the early 19th century. Currently these and other ethnic Nepalis, referred to as Lhotsampas, comprise 35% of Bhutan's population. In 1988, the government census led to the branding of many ethnic Nepalis as illegal immigrants. Local Lhotshampa leaders responded with anti-government rallies demanding citizenship and attacks against government institutions. Between 1988-1993, thousands of ethnic Nepalis fled to refugee camps in Nepal alleging ethnic and political repression. As of January 20, 2010, 85,544 refugees resided in seven camps. Bhutan and Nepal have been working for over seven years to resolve the refugee problem and repatriate certain refugees living in Nepal.

In the late 1980s, concern over the increase in the population of and political agitation among ethnic Nepalese prompted aggressive government efforts to assert a national culture, to tighten control over southern regions, to control illegal immigration, to expel ethnic Nepalese, and to promote national integration. Discriminatory measures continued during the year. Measures include a requirement that a security clearance be obtained for jobs and promotions in government service and to obtain passports. The law also requires that the national dress be worn for official occasions and as a school uniform, the teaching of Dzongkha as a second language in all schools, and an end to instruction in Nepali as a second language.

During the mid- and late-1980s, citizenship became a highly contentious matter. Requirements for citizenship first were formalized in the Citizenship Law of 1958, which resulted in the denaturalization of many ethnic Nepalese. Implementation of a nationwide census in 1985 resulted in the denaturalization of many Nepali-speaking Bhutanese individuals because they lacked land-ownership documents predating 1958, which were required to retain citizenship. The census was repeated in 1988-89 in the southern districts. During the second round of the census, those who lost citizenship in 1985 could reapply for citizenship provided they met certain conditions. Those who could not meet the new criteria were categorized by the government as illegal immigrants and expelled to refugee camps in Nepal.

The Citizenship Act provided for the revocation of the citizenship of any naturalized citizen who "has shown by act or speech to be disloyal in any manner whatsoever to the King, country, and people of Bhutan." The Home Ministry later declared in a circular that any nationals leaving the country to assist "antinationals," and the families of such persons, would forfeit their citizenship. Human rights groups alleged that these provisions were used widely to revoke the citizenship of ethnic Nepalese who subsequently were expelled from or otherwise departed the country.

Local officials reportedly took advantage of the climate of repression to coerce ethnic Nepalese to sell their land below its fair value and to emigrate, while others abandoned their land in fear. Beginning in 1991, ethnic Nepalese began to leave southern areas of the country in large numbers and to take refuge in Nepal. In 1998, the Government expanded its program of resettling Buddhist Bhutanese from other regions of the country on land in the southern part of the country vacated by the ethnic Nepalese living in refugee camps in Nepal.

In the early 1990s, the government forced approximately 90,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese persons to leave the country, following a series of steps taken during the 1970s and 1980s to deprive the Nepali-speaking population of citizenship. As of September 2015, after years of international resettlement efforts, approximately 10,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees remained in two refugee camps in Nepal administered by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The government continued to criticize UNHCR for its failure to screen individuals who originally entered these camps to determine whether they had genuine claims to Bhutanese citizenship. The government maintained that individuals who entered the camps before the establishment of screening and registration mechanisms were not citizens and that some were using the camps as a base for terrorist activities against the state.

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) reported that since the 1960s the country had sheltered Tibetan refugees who were initially located in seven settlements. The government reported that the Tibetans were integrated into Bhutanese society and that approximately 1,600 had applied for and received Bhutanese citizenship. The National Statistics Bureau reported that in 2012 there were 2,648 non-Bhutanese Tibetans residing in the country, of whom 993 held work permits. The CTA did not have an official presence in the country and did not provide social and economic assistance to Tibetans in Bhutan. Bhutan’s border with China was closed, and Tibetans generally did not transit Bhutan en route to India. The Tibetan population in Bhutan was not increasing.

Bhutan has an estimated population growth rate of 1.03% (est. 2008) and the life expectancy of 65.0 yrs (2006). The infant mortality rate (< 1 yr) is estimated at 63 per 1,000 live births (2006). The level of HIV infection in adults is estimated at less than 0.1% (pop between 15-49 years). 84.2% of the population have access to piped water (2007).