About BT

Official Name

The official name of the country is the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Location

Bhutan is a landlocked country located in the Eastern Himalayas of South Asia. It is bordered by China to the north and India to the south, east, and west.

Capital

The capital city of Bhutan is Thimphu, which is the largest city in the country.

Population

Bhutan has a population of approximately 770,000 people, making it one of the smallest countries in Asia by population.

Languages

The official language of Bhutan is Dzongkha, although English is also widely spoken and used in government and education.

Ethnic Diversity

Bhutan is home to several ethnic groups, with the Ngalops and Sharchops being the two main ethnic groups. There are also smaller ethnic communities, such as the Lhotshampas, who have Nepali origins.

Geography

Bhutan is characterized by rugged terrain, including mountains, valleys, and forests. The country is known for its stunning landscapes and biodiversity, with a range of ecosystems from subtropical to alpine.

Economy

Bhutan has a mixed economy with agriculture, forestry, and hydropower being the main sectors. The country has been transitioning from a primarily agrarian economy to one that focuses on sustainable development and Gross National Happiness (GNH) rather than Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Currency

The currency of Bhutan is the Bhutanese Ngultrum (BTN), which is pegged to the Indian Rupee (INR).

Government

Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. The King of Bhutan is the head of state, while the Prime Minister is the head of government. The country has undergone significant political reforms in recent years, including the introduction of a new constitution in 2008.

Culture

Bhutan has a rich cultural heritage influenced by Buddhism, which plays a central role in society. The country is known for its unique architecture, traditional dress (such as the gho for men and kira for women), and festivals (known as tshechus) that celebrate Bhutanese culture and religion.

The national anthem of Bhutan is called "Druk tsendhen" in Dzongkha. Here are the lyrics in Dzongkha and their English translation:

༄༅། །འབྲུག་ཙན་དན་ལ་སྟེ།

འཛིན་ལས་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་མི་འདུག

སྲུང་བའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་གང་གི་དབྱངས་ཅན་མཁས།

འབྲུག་བའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་སྟེ།།

ལྷག་པར་ཕྱིར་ལོ་ལྟ།

འབྲུག་པའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་སྐུ་གསུམ་གང་ཞིག་རེ་ཞུ།

འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་རིགས་རང་གྲོལ་རིགས་རང་བཞུགས།

འབྲུག་དང་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་སྟེ།།

In the kingdom of Druk, where cypresses grow,

The protector who guards the teachings of the dual system

He, the precious and glorious ruler,

Causes dominion to spread, while his unchanging person abides.

He, who crowned with a lotus, spreads a mind of compassion

Is the king of the Drukpas, the precious and glorious ruler,

May the teachings of the great Drupa, the protector,

Continue to the end of time.