Line #83 UsefulNotes/Bhutan


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bhutan_map_9372.gif]]
2
3	A small, mountainous South Asian country sandwiched between India and China, Bhutan (Dzongkha: ''འབྲུག་ཡུལ་'', ''Druk Yul''), officially known as the '''Kingdom of Bhutan''' (Dzongkha: ''འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་'', ''Druk Gyal Khap''), is a monarchy that has enjoyed enduring independence for centuries, having never been colonized in its history. A land of minor warring fiefdoms until Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal united them in the 1630s, he sought to carve a separate identity from the Tibetan culture from which many practices derived. The country fell to civil war with his passing, but the country was able to thwart two invasion attempts. They invaded Cooch Behar kingdom (now part of West Bengal), which appealed to the British East India Company, which helped to oust the Bhutanese and both parties signed a peace treaty that lead to a tenuous peace. Actual peace followed during the Duar Wars, where Bhutan was defeated.
4
5	The 1870s were a period where the Paro and Tongsa factions held a power struggle that lead to civil war. Ugyen Wangchuck of the the Tongsa faction came to power and suppressed further civil war and rebellion. His ascendancy as a hereditary king was recognized by the British Empire, who were allowed to "guide" Bhutan's foreign affairs.
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7	Bhutan was the first country to recognize the independence of India from Britain.
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9	In 1953, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck set up the legislature, to promote the increasing democratic governance that would follow.
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11	In 1971, Bhutan was admitted to the UN after three years of observer status.
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13	In 1972, Jigme Singye Wangchuck ascended to the throne. He was later responsible for the many modern reforms of Bhutan, including parliamentary democracy, and created the concept of Gross National Happiness. In 2006, he abdicated to his eldest son Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who received international attention for being MrFanservice. His consort, Jetsun Pema, is also a stunning beauty, and not for nothing are the couple dubbed "the William and Kate of the Himalayas".
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15	The kingdom is (in)famous for its non-aggressive isolation from the outside world – television did not come until 1999, for instance. Although it is opening itself up more nowadays, the government is doing so gradually, in order to better preserve its traditional Buddhist culture.
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17	One of only four countries[[labelnote:†]] (five prior to July 2015; since then, Cuba and the USA have reopened their respective embassies)[[/labelnote]] to not have diplomatic relations with the United States. Two of the others are sworn enemies (North Korea and Iran), and the other one is a complex diplomatic issue (Taiwan), so this one just seems really out of place. In Bhutan's defense, the kingdom doesn't have much in the way of diplomatic relations with anyone – so far, they have only exchanged ambassadors with India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
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19	Bhutan has an army, which consists of the Royal Bhutan Army, the Royal Bodyguard and militia. Any air force support is relayed to India and to a lesser extent, Nepal. As such, they're mostly trained and equipped by India. The RBA is known for being involved in peacekeeping operations, but were involved circa 2003 in taking on Indian-based communist militants in the southwest, as well as a pro-communist rebel group making up on disenfranchised Bhutanese of Nepali origin.
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21	Bhutan has a Nepali and Lhotsampa minority groups, but they were being marginalized when Jingye Singye Wangchuck called for one identity, limiting immigration and halted education specifically for minorities. As of 2016, the policies taken are slowly being reversed.
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23	Their flag is also famous for having a [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragon]] on it.
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25	One of the odder aspects (at least, odd to a foreigner) is that they have a [[ForHappiness Happiness Index]], and according to magazine ''Business Week'', it is the happiest country in Asia. Some economists has critizied the GNH since it's too subjective that it would suit Bhutanese interest.
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27	Bhutan is one of the two countries to have no previous governing power by another country, the other is Nepal, according to Website/TheOtherWiki.
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29	Bhutan is also home to Gangkhar Puensum, the world's tallest unclimbed mountain at 7,570 meters (24,836 ft). Not only is scaling it physically challenging, it's actually ''illegal''; the government has banned mountaineering for religious reasons.
30
31	!!'''Examples of Bhutan in fiction''':
32
33	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'' takes place in Bhutan.
34	* The country is visited (though involuntarily) in ''VideoGame/PinkPantherPassportToPeril''. One of the campers also hails from Bhutan.
35	* Bhutan is a selectable stage in the game ''VideoGame/OverrideMechCityBrawl''.
36	* The first episode of the second season of ''Series/HikoninSentaiAkibaranger'' reveals that Nabuo's love interest, Sayaka, moved to Bhutan; one of the many "rewrites" the Akibaranger world experienced.
37	* Several scenes of Little Buddha were shot, and take place in Bhutan, with some real life Bhutanese lamas
38	* The film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travellers_and_Magicians Travellers and Magicians]]''.
39	* The entirety of ''Anime/PsychoPassSinnersOfTheSystem: Case 3 - Beyond Love and Hate'' takes place in Bhutan in a fictional city called Lezim Chuzom. The {{Deuteragonist}} of the movie, Tenzing, also has a very common Bhutanese last name of Wangchuk. The director, Naoyoshi Shiotani, even visited Bhutan to do location scouting work in the country.
40	* ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheSecretsOfDumbledore'' is set to use the country as a location for the election of the chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards.
41	* ''Film/LunanaAYakInTheClassroom'', a Bhutanese film about a man who goes to teach in a remote mountain village.
42	----
43	[[AC:The Bhutanese flag]]
44	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bhutan_flag_885.png
45	->The flag's yellow and orange halves symbolize the ''Druk Gyalpo'', the [[RedBaron Dragon King]], and Buddhism, respectively. At the center is the "Druk", the Thunder Dragon, placed on the dividing diagonal line between the two colors to signify the equal importance of civil and monastic duties, and is colored white to symbolize purity; the orbs it holds in its claws symbolize the nation's wealth, and its snarl signifies the deities' readiness to defend Bhutan.
46	----
47	[[AC:The Bhutanese national anthem]]
48
49	->འབྲུག་ཙན་དན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་།།
50	->དཔལ་ལུགས་གཉིས་བསྟན་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་བའི་མགོན་།།
51	->འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་མངའ་བདག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་།།
52	->སྐུ་འགྱུར་མེད་བརྟན་ཅིང་ཆབ་སྲིད་འཕེལ་།།
53	->ཆོས་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པ་དར་ཞིང་རྒྱས་།།
54	->འབངས་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཉི་མ་ཤར་བར་ཤོག་།།
55	[[note]]
56	->Dru tsend°en kepä gäkhap na
57	->Pä lu’nyi tensi kyongwä gin
58	->Dru gäpo ’ngada rinpoche
59	->Ku gyûme tencing chap si phe
60	->Chö sanggä tenpa dâzh°ing gä
61	->Bang deki nyima shâwâsho.
62	[[/note]]
63
64	--
65
66	->In the Kingdom of Bhutan adorned with cypress trees,
67	->The Protector who reigns over the realm of spiritual and secular traditions,
68	->He is the King of Bhutan, the precious sovereign.
69	->May His being remain unchanging, and the Kingdom prosper,
70	->May the teachings of the Enlightened One flourish,
71	->May the sun of peace and happiness shine over all people.
72	----
73	[[AC:Government]]
74	* Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
75	** Druk Gyalpo: Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
76	** Chief Advisor: Tshering Tobgay
77	----
78	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
79	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Thimphu (ཐིམ་ཕུག)
80	* '''Population:''' 754,388
81	* '''Area:''' 38,394 sq km (14,824 sq mi) (133rd)
82	* '''Currency:''' Bhutanese ngultrum (Nu.) (BTN)
83	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' BT
84	* '''Country calling code:''' 975
85	* '''Highest point:''' Gangkhar Puensum (7570 m/24,836 ft) (4th)

Context UsefulNotes / Bhutan