Bhutanese

Bhutanese

ETHNONYMS: Bhote, Bhotia, Bhutia

Orientation

The name "Bhutan" is derived from the compound bhotente, the ente or "borderland" of Bhot. The Bhutanese know their country as "Druk-yul," the land (yul ) of the thunder dragon (druk ). The country's association with the dragon is explained by the evolution of the early sects of Buddhism in Tibet and its adjoining territories. It was the Indian saint Padma Sambhava, "the lotus-born," known in Tibet as Guru Rimpoche or "precious teacher," who was primarily responsible for the introduction of Buddhism into Bhutan, Sikkim, and Tibet in the eighth century a.d.

Bhutan has an area of 47,182 square kilometers. It is flanked on the north by Tibet, on the south by Bengal and Assam, on the east by Arunachal Pradesh and on the west by Sikkim. In 1990 the estimated population of Bhutan was 1,566,000, the second most populous Himalayan kingdom after Nepal. At least another 100,000 live in West Bengal and Nepal. However, its density of population, about 32 persons per square kilometer, is the lowest of the three Himalayan kingdoms. Bhutan's population is entirely rural. The Kingdom has no towns, no banks, and no shops worthy of the name. Thimbu is the capital, built up with Indian aid, and is just a cluster of houses around the dzong, a fortress built in the architectural style of the potala or palace of the Dalai Lama at Lhasa. In the north and center of the country Tibetan is spoken, in the southeast Sangla; both are Tibeto-Burman languages. In the southwest live Rai, Gurung, and Limbu settlers from Nepal, and some Nepalese Brahmans and Chhetris, all of whom speak Nepali.

Economy

Bhutan's economy is based on agriculture. The main crops are rice, wheat, maize, and millet. The country is heavily Forested, but the absence of good communications has prevented any effective exploitation. The forests of teak and sal (Shorea robusta ) along the southern foothills are within easy reach of railheads in India. That rail system provides a way for timber to be dispatched to a ready market. The larger proportion of Bhutan's forests is inaccessible. These forests consist of conifers extending over mountain ranges rising to a height of 3,600 meters and more. Bhutan does have limestone, gypsum, and other valuable mineral deposits that will provide raw material for setting up industries, but the field of hortiCulture is the most significant source of advancement for the country. The Bhutan apple is much favored in India, and the climate is also ideally suited for the cultivation of peaches, plums, and apricots. Some liqueur is manufactured.

Kinship, Marriage and Family

The king has worked on modernizing the social structure of Bhutan. For example, besides declaring serfdom illegal, he has abolished polyandry and restricted polygamy to a maximum of three wives per man. Before taking a new wife, the man must obtain the permission of his first wife, who is free to seek a divorce and maintenance for life from the husband. The age for marriage has been raised to 16 for women and 21 for men. Once married the bride does not necessarily leave her home; it all depends on the strength of the two families as an agricultural labor force. The groom moves in if the bride's family's labor needs are greater. If both families have ample labor, then the couple may stake out their own plot of land and home.

Sociopolitical Organization

Bhutan is divided into fifteen districts, each with its own dialect, that grew out of history and tradition and formerly were isolated by the mountain ranges. This geographic pattern of fertile valleys surrounded by mountains gives the background to the whole administrative and political concept of the country. One-quarter of Bhutan's people are Nepalese Immigrants, and there are strict restrictions against their settling north of a specified middle line running from east to west across the entire country. The Bhutanese have seen how in neighboring Sikkim the original inhabitants have been Gradually outnumbered by Nepalese immigrants, and they are determined to stop the process in their own country before it assumes unmanageable proportions. The Nepalese are a polygamous people and a household of three or four wives and a dozen to fifteen children is not an uncommon phenomenon. The Bhutanese worry that, unless restrictions are set on further settlement, the Nepalese will in time emerge as the majority community, as in Sikkim, and seek to exert political and cultural dominance. Twenty-five percent of the 130 members of the Tsongdu (the national assembly) are government officers appointed to the assembly by the king. Included in the membership are influential lamas and the abbot of the chief monastery at Pimakha, who is a member of the ruler's council of eight ministers. The rest of the body consists of Village headmen elected for five-year terms from all over the kingdom. Each family in the villages has one vote.

Religion and Expressive Culture

The dominant religious cult in Bhutan is that of the Red-Hat sect (Kargyupa), a Tibetan lamaistic order of Mahayana Buddhism. Tibetan shamanism in the form of Bon, a more ancient religious tradition, is also practised. Only among the Nepalese immigrants does one find Hinduism, or a combination of that tradition with Tibetan lamaism, being followed. The idea of ablution has diffused here from India. The inherent idea is that purification of the body leads to the purification of the mind as well. The Bon practice salutation, circumambulation, and offering of water; devotions are part of the Buddhist mode of worship in Bhutan. The offering of Sacrifices is accompanied by ritual dances and dramatic representations. The special dance sequences known as acham, where trained and inspired actors impersonate gods and goblins, wearing appropriate masks and mimicking mystery actions, are essentially frameworks for offering the torma (see below). These dances are described by some Western scholars as "devil dances," because the chief purposes of these performances are to exorcise evil spirits and secure blessings or, allegorically speaking, to drive out bad luck and usher in the good year and good luck. Whenever a domestic or public rite of greater importance is to be performed, lamas expert in ritual are called to prepare the altar and appropriate accessories and to conduct the elaborate worship. An indispensable part of all such ritual performances is the torma, figures made of dough and butter, shaped to symbolize deities and spirits and presented to the deities invoked.

See also Brahman and Chhetri of Nepal; Gurung; Lepcha; Limbu; Rai

Bibliography

Chakravarti, Balaram (1980). A Cultural History of Bhutan. Chittaranjan: Hilltop Publishers.

Karan, Pradyumna P. (1967). Bhutan, a Physical and Cultural Geography. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.

Jenkins, William M. (1963). The Himalayan Kingdoms: Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand.

Olschak, Blanche C. (1971). Bhutan: Land of Hidden Treasures. New York: Stein & Day.

Rustomji, Nari (1978). Bhutan: The Dragon Kingdom in Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press.

BRENDA AMENSON-HILL