History of Bhutan

Guide — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:59:52 +0000

The Bhutanese name for Bhutan, Druk Yul, means ‘Land of the Thunder Dragon’. There is proof leading Bhutanese history back to AD450, although many of the intervening events remains unsolved by many. Guru Rinpoche is believed to have brought Mahayana Buddhism to Bhutan from Tibet in the eighth century. Bhutan, the world’s last Buddhist kingdom, first became a coherent political entity around the 17th century and a interesting fact to be taken note of is that Bhutan has never been conquered by any foreign power.
Trade agreements with India have been essential to the Bhutanese economy since the 1940s. But Bhutan has occasionally turned over its support to its other great neighbor, China. Over the years, relations with China have been dominated by the issue of Tibet; thousands of refugees entered Bhutan after the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 and the country has become a centre for Tibetan exile politics.

The refugee issue also dominates relations with Bhutan’s other neighbor, Nepal. Bhutanese refugees are housed in camps in the east of the country. Most are ethnic Nepalese whose citizenship is in dispute. The Nepali government wants them to go back to Bhutan but they are not wanted by the Bhutanese too.

Travel Guide - SAARC » Bhutan History

History of Bhutan