Bhutan
Bhutan is located in South
Asia, nestled on the southern slopes of the eastern
Himalayas.
Kingdom landlocked and bordered by India to the south and north China. The official language is
kingdom and its capital and largest city is Thimphu.
In the past,
Bhutan has been divided into small warring fiefdoms with each other until it was united by Shabdrung Hgauong Namgayal in the early 17th century. To protect the country from the periodic raids from Tibet, he established a network of impregnable fortress called Dzong. Many of these forts exist to this day as a religious and administrative centers.
Administrative
country is divided into 4 areas called Dzong activities. Each of the four zones is divided into areas called Dzong khag whose total number is 20.
After centuries of absolute monarchy in 2008 were held in
Bhutan's first democratic elections.
Kingdom is one of the first countries to recognize the independence of
India from the UK in 1947.
Interestingly,
Bhutan is one of the last countries where he started to broadcast television. That was in 1999 when the government repealed the ban on television and the Internet throughout the country.
The population of
Bhutan is a little more than 691,000 people and is divided into two large groups - and ngalop sharshop. The first group mainly inhabits the western part of the
country and culture and is closely related to Tibetan culture. Representatives of the second group is more numerous, inhabited mostly eastern
Bhutan.
About three quarters of the population professes
Buddhism that became popular in
Bhutan in the 7th century. Second-spreading religion in the country, which is manifest in about one third of the population and Hinduism is distributed mainly in the southern part.
Despite being one of the least economically developed countries in the eastern hemisphere,
Bhutan has one of the happiest
people on earth. In 2006, after conducting a global survey, the country is ranked by Business Week magazine in eighth place for happy
people in the world and first in
Asia.
An interesting fact is that parents in
Bhutan is not inherited by their sons rather than daughters. Here polygamy is okay, but the villages still often observe the tradition of arranging marriages between parents of the bride and groom.
It is assumed that the name
Bhutan is derived from Sanskrit and means high land or the end of
Tibet.
The presence of preserved stone tools, weapons and remnants of large stone structures gives reason to believe that these lands were inhabited as early as 2000 BC
The earliest reports of
Bhutan are 747 years, when these lands passed
Buddhist saint Padma sambhavi, also known as Guru Rinopche. The early history of
Bhutan, however, is unknown because many documents were destroyed during the great fire in 1827 which destroyed the old capital of Punakha.
The first Europeans, for which there is evidence that he had visited
Bhutan is a Portuguese Jesuit Eshtevao Kaselya who offered help Namgayal against Tibetan attacks, but she refused.
Bhutan's territory consists mainly of steep and high mountains, crisscrossed by a network of fast rivers forming deep valleys. North of the country is covered by alpine shrub and meadows, crossing to the high and steep mountain peaks.
Central part is occupied by subalpine coniferous forests in the higher areas and deciduous in the lower and south by dense subtropical broadleaf forests and river valleys.
The landscape ranges from subtropical plains in the south to 7000 meters high above the Himalayan peaks in the northern part of sub-alpine. The highest point is Mount Gankhar Puensum, at an altitude of 7570 meters.
The climate in
Bhutan varies depending on altitude, running south from subtropical to temperate and arctic north with the eternally snow-capped mountain peaks. Here there are five seasons: summer, monsoon season, autumn, winter and spring. In the western part of fall high rainfall, while the south is hot and dry summer and cool winter. Central and east are more moderate with warm summers and mild winters.
Fauna and flora are represented by about 770 species of birds and 5400 species of plants. Here the Bengal tiger, unicorn rhinos, Asian golden monkeys, leopards, tigers and others. Fruit trees and bamboo provide habitat for the
Himalayan black bear, red panda, sambar etc.. Alpine northern territories inhabited by snow leopards,
Tibetan wolves, antelopes and others.
Bhutan is a country with very rich and unique cultural heritage, remained almost intact. This is mainly due to long years of isolation, which lasted until early 1960. The government is making great efforts to preserve
Bhutanese culture and traditions. One of the main attractions for visitors to the country Dzong fortress.
The national sport of the
Kingdom of
Bhutan is archery. Competitions are held regularly in many places in the
country and also include the race and other entertainment. Another popular sport is darts, which here is called khuru.
