Khar Gewog

Climate of Bhutan

The climate of Bhutan spans tropical lowlands to permanent ice within about 170 kilometres north to south, producing three broad zones — subtropical southern foothills, temperate central valleys and alpine north — each with distinct temperature and rainfall regimes. The country is dominated by the Indian summer monsoon, holds constitutionally mandated forest cover above 60 per cent, and is documented as carbon-negative, yet is also among the world's most exposed high-mountain states to warming, glacial retreat and glacial lake outburst floods.

Manas River

The Manas River, called Manas Chhu or Drangme Chhu in its upper Bhutanese reaches, is the largest river system of eastern Bhutan, formed by the confluence of the Drangme Chhu, Mangde Chhu and Bumthang Chhu before flowing south into Assam to join the Brahmaputra.

Mongar Regional Referral Hospital

The Mongar Regional Referral Hospital, also known as the Eastern Regional Referral Hospital, is the principal tertiary-care facility for eastern Bhutan, located in Mongar town in Mongar dzongkhag. The 150-bed hospital was constructed with Government of India financial assistance and serves as the apex referral institution for six eastern dzongkhags and parts of Bumthang.

Lhotshampa

The Lhotshampa (Nepali: ल्होत्साम्पा, "southerners") are an ethnic Nepali-speaking population of southern Bhutan. Comprising a significant minority of Bhutan's population, the Lhotshampa have been at the centre of one of South Asia's most consequential human rights crises, with over 100,000 displaced from Bhutan in the early 1990s and subsequently resettled across the globe.

Association of Bhutanese in America

The Association of Bhutanese in America (ABA) is a national umbrella organisation for the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese-American community, the great majority of whom are Lhotshampa refugees resettled in the United States from 2008 onwards. It coordinates among dozens of city-level community-based organisations, runs an annual national convention, and has become a visible civic voice during the 2025 ICE deportations of Lhotshampa green-card holders.

Tsirang District

Tsirang District (Dzongkha: རྩི་རང་རྫོང་ཁག) is a district in south-central Bhutan characterised by its subtropical climate, rugged terrain, and diverse population. One of the smaller districts, Tsirang was significantly affected by the events of the 1990s refugee crisis and has since been a focus of government resettlement and rural development programmes.

Trashi Yangtse District

Trashi Yangtse District (Dzongkha: བཀྲ་ཤིས་གཡང་རྩེ་རྫོང་ཁག) is a district in northeastern Bhutan, carved out of Trashigang District in 1992. It is renowned for Chorten Kora, one of Bhutan's most sacred Buddhist monuments, and for its thriving tradition of wooden bowl and container craftsmanship.

Trashigang District

Trashigang District (Dzongkha: བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག) is the largest and most populous district in eastern Bhutan, serving as the political and commercial centre of the eastern region. Home to the historic Trashigang Dzong and a diverse population including the Sharchop people, it is known for its rich cultural traditions, weaving heritage, and dramatic mountain landscapes.

Samdrup Jongkhar District

Samdrup Jongkhar District (Dzongkha: བསམ་གྲུབ་ལྗོང་མཁར་རྫོང་ཁག) is one of the twenty dzongkhags of Bhutan, located in the southeastern corner of the country along the border with the Indian state of Assam. It serves as Bhutan's primary land gateway to eastern India and is a major commercial centre with a diverse population including Sharchop, Lhotshampa, and other ethnic communities.

Mongar District

Mongar District (Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར་རྫོང་ཁག) is one of the twenty dzongkhags of Bhutan, located in the eastern part of the country. It serves as the principal commercial and administrative hub of eastern Bhutan, with its district capital at Mongar town, and is known for its terraced hillsides, subtropical valleys, and the historic Mongar Dzong.

Gasa District

Gasa District (Dzongkha: མགར་ས་རྫོང་ཁག) is the least populated and most remote district in Bhutan, located in the northwestern highlands along the Tibetan border. Known for its hot springs, the Snowman Trek, and the semi-nomadic Layap people, Gasa encompasses some of the highest and most pristine landscapes in the Himalayas.

Chhukha District

Chhukha District (Dzongkha: ཆུ་ཁ་རྫོང་ཁག) is a district in southwestern Bhutan and one of the most economically important regions in the country, home to the Chhukha Hydropower Plant and the border town of Phuntsholing, which serves as Bhutan's principal commercial gateway to India.

Bumthang District

Bumthang District (Dzongkha: བུམ་ཐང་རྫོང་ཁག) is a district in north-central Bhutan and the cultural heartland of the kingdom, renowned for its ancient Buddhist temples, sacred valleys, and deep associations with Guru Rinpoche and Pema Lingpa. With its dzongkhag capital at Jakar, Bumthang encompasses four main valleys and is one of the most historically significant regions in the country.

Jigme Wangchuck

Jigme Wangchuck (1905-1952) was the second Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King) of Bhutan, ruling from 1926 until his death. He consolidated central authority over Bhutan's previously fragmented governance, pursued legal and infrastructural reform, and maintained a policy of near-total isolation from the outside world to protect the kingdom's sovereignty.

Bhutanese Refugee Crisis

The Bhutanese refugee crisis is the displacement of roughly 100,000 ethnic Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa from southern Bhutan in the early 1990s, their two-decade stay in seven UNHCR camps in eastern Nepal, and a third-country resettlement programme that moved more than 113,000 people to eight Western states between 2007 and 2016. Its contemporary tail is the 2025 deportation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement of resettled Lhotshampa to a Bhutan that refused to readmit them.

List of Bhutanese Political Prisoners

A list of individuals reported to be detained in Bhutan in connection with peaceful political activity, the great majority arrested between 1990 and 2008. The list is compiled from documentation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the diaspora-led Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan.

Batoo Tshering

Lieutenant General Batoo Tshering is the Chief Operations Officer of the Royal Bhutan Army, appointed in November 2005. He commanded the Dewathang sector during Operation All Clear in 2003 and is one of the longest-serving military commanders in Bhutanese history.

River Systems of Bhutan

Bhutan's river systems rise from Himalayan glaciers and drain through steep forested gorges into the Brahmaputra plain, sustaining the kingdom's agriculture, generating its primary export commodity in hydroelectric power, and posing significant flood risks from glacial lake outbursts and monsoon flooding.

Masang Gang

Masang Gang (also spelled Masa Gang) is a mountain peak in northern Bhutan with a summit elevation of 7,158 metres, making it the second-highest mountain in the country after Gangkhar Puensum. It remains unclimbed, as Bhutan has prohibited mountaineering on peaks above 6,000 metres since 2003.

Government of Bhutan

The Government of Bhutan operates as a democratic constitutional monarchy established by the Constitution of 2008. Executive power is exercised by the Lhengye Zhungtshog (Council of Ministers) headed by the Prime Minister, while the Druk Gyalpo (King) serves as head of state. Legislative authority is vested in the bicameral Parliament, comprising the National Assembly and the National Council.