Bhutan's Forgotten People (Al Jazeera Documentary, 2014)

Bhutan's Forgotten People is a two-part documentary that aired on Al Jazeera's 101 East programme on 30 May 2014. Directed by Nepali filmmaker Subina Shrestha, the documentary follows Lhotshampa refugees from camps in eastern Nepal to resettlement in the United States, examining the human cost of Bhutan's expulsion of over 100,000 ethnic Nepali-speaking citizens in the early 1990s. The film was notable for bringing international attention to a refugee crisis that had received comparatively little global media coverage despite its scale and duration.^[1]

Background

In the 1980s, the Bhutanese government under King Jigme Singye Wangchuck introduced a policy of "one nation, one people" that sought to impose a uniform national identity centred on Ngalop culture, Dzongkha language, and the national dress code. The Lhotshampa — ethnic Nepali-speaking residents of southern Bhutan, many of whom had lived in the country for generations — were disproportionately affected by these policies. Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing through the early 1990s, Bhutanese security forces conducted what human rights organisations have characterised as systematic ethnic cleansing, stripping southern Bhutanese of citizenship and forcing more than 100,000 people across the border. India refused to accept the refugees, pushing them into eastern Nepal, where they remained in camps administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for nearly two decades.^[2]

Despite the magnitude of the crisis — the expelled population represented approximately one-sixth of Bhutan's total population at the time — it attracted limited sustained international media attention. As filmmaker Subina Shrestha observed, the story of Bhutanese refugees never captured the popular imagination, and the expulsion of such a large population did not substantially tarnish Bhutan's international image as a Shangri-La or undermine the appeal of its Gross National Happiness philosophy.^[3]

Content and Structure

The documentary is divided into two parts. Part One follows Sabitra Bishwa and her family as they prepare to leave Beldangi refugee camp in Jhapa District, eastern Nepal, after 23 years of displacement. The cameras document Sabitra's departure from the camp and her journey to Rochester, New York, where she and her family begin the process of resettlement in the United States. The film captures the emotional complexity of the transition — relief at leaving the camps mixed with grief over abandoning the hope of returning to Bhutan.^[1]

Part Two examines the lives of those who chose not to leave the camps, including Sancho Hang Subba, who continues to hold out hope that Bhutan will eventually open its doors to repatriation, despite having left the country as a child. The documentary also features Dr Bhampa Rai, a Lhotshampa exile who had served as a royal surgeon in Bhutan, and Chet Nath Timisina, a refugee who was resettled in the United States. Through these individual stories, the film traces multiple trajectories available to the refugees — third-country resettlement, continued waiting in the camps, and the psychologically fraught effort to build new lives while mourning a lost homeland.^[1]

The documentary addresses the mental health toll of displacement, noting that approximately 20 per cent of Bhutanese refugees in the United States were experiencing depression, with some taking their own lives. It also examines the paradox of Bhutan's global reputation for happiness coexisting with the reality of a large, displaced population denied return to its homeland.^[1]

Filmmaker

Subina Shrestha is a Nepali journalist and documentary filmmaker who began her career in newspapers before transitioning to television after the launch of Al Jazeera English in 2006. She has worked across South and Southeast Asia, including in India, Thailand, and Myanmar. Her documentary work has been used by educational institutions including Columbia University's School of Journalism and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, as well as by human rights organisations in The Hague for discussions on modern-day slavery and conflict.^[4]

In an accompanying "Filmmaker's View" piece published by Al Jazeera, Shrestha reflected on her motivation for making the documentary, noting the disconnect between Bhutan's carefully cultivated international image and the plight of its expelled citizens. She observed that journalists were quick to cover stories about Gross National Happiness but had been largely indifferent to the forced displacement of a significant portion of the country's population.^[3]

Reception and Impact

The documentary brought renewed attention to the Bhutanese refugee crisis at a time when the UNHCR-led third-country resettlement programme was well underway but far from complete. By the time of the documentary's airing in 2014, approximately 75,000 Bhutanese refugees had been resettled in third countries, primarily the United States, while thousands remained in camps in Nepal with uncertain futures. The film was shared widely by refugee advocacy organisations and diaspora communities, and it remains one of the most prominent English-language documentary treatments of the Lhotshampa displacement.^[2]

The film contributed to a broader body of media and academic work documenting the Bhutanese refugee experience, alongside publications by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and academic researchers. For the Bhutanese diaspora, the documentary served as both a record of their history and a tool for raising awareness among the broader public in their resettlement countries.

See Also

• Bhutanese Refugee Crisis
• Lhotshampa
• Refugee Camps in Nepal
• Bhuthan — The World's Happiest Man (Film)

References

1. Bhutan's forgotten people — Al Jazeera 101 East (30 May 2014)
2. Bhutanese Refugees: The Story of a Forgotten People — Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services (BRYCS)
3. Filmmaker's view: Bhutan's forgotten people — Al Jazeera (22 May 2014)
4. Subina Shrestha — TV Documentaries: Director/Reporter 2013/2018