Zhung Dratshang (Central Monastic Body)

The Zhung Dratshang (Dzongkha: gzhung grwa tshang, "state monastic college"), also rendered in English as the Central Monastic Body or Central Monk Body, is the official monastic order of Bhutan and one of the two pillars of the country's historical dual system of governance (chos srid). It is constituted as the principal institutional carrier of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage in Bhutan and is headed by the Je Khenpo, the Chief Abbot, who under the Constitution of 2008 is the country's senior religious authority.^[1][2]

The Zhung Dratshang was instituted by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal at Cheri Goenpa above the upper Thimphu valley in 1620, with the formal enrolment of the first Sangha of thirty monks taking place in 1621. From this base the institution expanded through the 17th century into a national monastic body whose seat moved seasonally between western Bhutan's major dzongs, an arrangement that survives in modified form today.^[1][3]

As of the mid-2020s the Zhung Dratshang comprises approximately 7,000 ordained monks, with the Je Khenpo and the senior monastic community wintering at Punakha Dzong and summering at Tashichho Dzong in Thimphu. Its operations are funded by the Royal Government of Bhutan through annual budgetary allocations administered by the Dratshang Lhentshog (Commission for Monastic Affairs).^[2][4]

Founding

The Zhung Dratshang was conceived as the religious counterpart to the political-administrative apparatus that the Zhabdrung was constructing through the 1620s and 1630s. The site at Cheri, on a steep ridge a day's walk above the modern Thimphu valley, had been established by the Zhabdrung as his retreat residence in 1620 (the Iron Monkey year of the 11th rabjung). In the following year, traditionally identified as 1621, he ordained the first cohort of thirty monks at Cheri, drawing them from his Drukpa Kagyu network in Tibet and from new lay recruits in western Bhutan. This act is treated in Bhutanese tradition as the formal institution of the Zhung Dratshang.^[1][3]

From Cheri the monastic seat moved to Pungthang Dewachenpoi Phodrang (later Punakha Dzong) following its construction in 1637–1638, and the seasonal cycle between Punakha and Thimphu took shape in the years that followed. The first Je Khenpo, Pekar Jungney, was appointed by the Zhabdrung in 1651, the year of the Zhabdrung's own retreat into life-long meditation seclusion, establishing the line of succession that has continued unbroken to the present incumbent, the 70th Je Khenpo Trulku Jigme Choedra (in office since 1996).^[2][3]

The Council of Five Lopens

The Je Khenpo is supported by a Council of Five Lopens (Lopen Lhengye), each of whom holds the constitutional rank of a Cabinet Minister and oversees one of the five domains of monastic life: the Dorji Lopen (master of the Vajrayana, deputy to the Je Khenpo); the Yangbi Lopen (master of liturgy and chant); the Tshenyi Lopen (master of philosophy and dialectic); the Drabi Lopen (master of grammar and lexicography); and the Leytshok Lopen (master of administration and finance). Together with the Je Khenpo they constitute the Supreme Sangha Council, the apex decision-making body of the institution.^[2][4]

Structure and dependent institutions

The central body at Punakha–Thimphu is supplemented by the rabdes (district monastic bodies) attached to the dzong of each of the twenty dzongkhags, by a network of shedras (philosophical colleges) including Tango, Sangchhen Dorji Lhuendrup and Drametse, and by retreat centres for the traditional three-year, three-month, three-day retreat cycle. Smaller institutions and the rural lhakhangs are linked administratively to the rabde of their dzongkhag and through it to the central body.^[2][4]

The Zhung Dratshang is the primary institutional vehicle of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage in Bhutan. Bhutan's significant Nyingma communities — including the Pema Lingpa lineage centred on Gangtey Goenpa and a number of independent Nyingma monasteries in eastern Bhutan — operate outside the central body, although they are recognised under the Dratshang Lhentshog framework and receive limited state support.^[2]

The dual system and constitutional status

The Zhung Dratshang's public role is grounded in the dual system of religious and secular governance instituted by the Zhabdrung. Although the political half of the dual system was effectively replaced by hereditary monarchy in 1907 and by constitutional democracy in 2008, the religious half has been retained in modified form. Article 3 of the 2008 Constitution recognises Buddhism as the "spiritual heritage of Bhutan" and provides for state support of monastic institutions; Article 3, section 4 vests the appointment of the Je Khenpo in the Druk Gyalpo on the recommendation of the Five Lopens, formalising the relationship between state and Sangha within the constitutional order.^[5]

Funding and the Dratshang Lhentshog

The Royal Government provides annual operating funds for the Zhung Dratshang through the Dratshang Lhentshog, established as a separate budgetary entity in 1985. The arrangement is designed to maintain the constitutional separation of religion and political activity by routing state support through a non-political body. The Lhentshog is chaired by the Je Khenpo and includes the Five Lopens and the secretary of the Lhentshog as a non-monastic civil servant.^[4]

Seasonal residence and public role

The seasonal procession of the Je Khenpo and central monastic body between Punakha and Thimphu — known as the Rabney — takes place in the autumn (the move down to Punakha) and the spring (the move back to Thimphu) and is one of the most visible expressions of the dual system. The Zhung Dratshang officiates at major state ceremonies, including coronations, royal weddings and funerals, and at the principal national tshechus held in the courtyards of Punakha, Thimphu, Wangdue and Paro dzongs.

References

1. Zhung Dratshang: The Central Monk Body of Bhutan — The Druk Journal
2. Dratshang Lhentshog — Wikipedia
3. Cheri Monastery, the First Seat of Zhabdrung Rinpoche in Bhutan — Bhutan Pilgrimage
4. Three Important Roles of the Central Monastic Body — Academia.edu
5. Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2008, Article 3
6. Karma Phuntsho, The History of Bhutan (Random House India, 2013), chapters on the Zhabdrung and the dual system