Khar Gewog

Gangkhar Puensum

Gangkhar Puensum is the highest mountain in Bhutan and the highest unclimbed mountain in the world, standing at 7,570 metres (24,836 feet) on the border with China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Climbing has been banned since 2003 when Bhutan prohibited all mountaineering above 6,000 metres, a policy rooted in respect for the spiritual sanctity of high peaks.

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.

Younten Phuntsho

Younten Phuntsho is Bhutan's Minister of Agriculture and Livestock since January 2024, bringing a Yale-trained environmental management background and WWF experience to a portfolio addressing food security, organic farming, and the nexus between conservation and agricultural development.

Khaling Wildlife Sanctuary

Khaling Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in eastern Bhutan, covering 273.02 square kilometres in the Samdrup Jongkhar district. Established in 1993, the sanctuary protects a diverse range of subtropical and tropical ecosystems and provides important habitat for Asian elephants, gaur, pygmy hog, and the critically endangered white-bellied heron.

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.

Medicinal Plants of Bhutan

Bhutan's rich biodiversity supports a traditional medicine system known as Sowa Rigpa ("the science of healing"), which uses over 200 medicinal plant species to produce more than 100 poly-ingredient formulations. Integrated into the national healthcare system since 1967, Bhutanese traditional medicine is practised through 65 hospitals and health units, with all medicines manufactured by the state-owned Menjong Sorig Pharmaceuticals.

Operation All Clear (2003)

Operation All Clear was a military campaign conducted by the Royal Bhutan Army from 15 December 2003 to 3 January 2004 against Indian separatist groups — ULFA, NDFB and KLO — that had established roughly 30 camps in the forests of southern Bhutan. Personally directed by the Fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck after five years of failed negotiations, it was the first combat operation in the history of the modern Royal Bhutan Army.

Tshangla Language

Tshangla, also known as Sharchopkha ("language of the east"), is the most widely spoken native language in Bhutan by number of speakers and the mother tongue of the Sharchop people of eastern Bhutan. A Sino-Tibetan language spoken across six eastern districts, it has approximately 157,000 speakers in Bhutan and a further 18,000 across northeast India and Tibet. Despite its demographic weight, Tshangla has no standardised written script and is not an official language of instruction, raising concerns about long-term language vitality.

Kurjey Lhakhang

Kurjey Lhakhang is a major temple complex in the Bumthang Valley of central Bhutan, renowned as the site where Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) left a body imprint on a rock while meditating in the eighth century. The complex comprises three temples spanning from the eighth to the twentieth century and serves as one of the royal burial grounds of the Wangchuck dynasty.

SIM Cards and Internet Access for Visitors to Bhutan

A practical guide for tourists visiting Bhutan on obtaining SIM cards, choosing between B-Mobile and TashiCell, data plan options, WiFi availability, and mobile coverage across the country including rural and trekking areas.

India–Bhutan Friendship Treaty (1949)

The Treaty of Perpetual Peace and Friendship between the Government of India and the Government of Bhutan, signed at Darjeeling on 8 August 1949, governed the two countries' relations for nearly six decades. Its Article 2 — under which Bhutan agreed to be "guided by" India in external relations — became the central asymmetry of the relationship and was renegotiated in the 2007 successor treaty.

Glossary of Dzongkha Terms Used in English Writing About Bhutan

A comprehensive reference glossary of Dzongkha and Bhutanese terms commonly encountered in English-language writing about Bhutan, including administrative terminology, religious vocabulary, cultural concepts, titles, and everyday words. Includes definitions, context, and pronunciation guidance.

Tsangmo

Tsangmo (Dzongkha: གཙང་མོ་) is a Bhutanese quatrain tradition of short, sung verses performed as improvised back-and-forth exchanges between individuals or groups. Each poem has four lines organised as two couplets, the first setting a metaphorical scene and the second delivering the message. Tsangmo is performed at village gatherings, weddings, archery matches, and festivals, and is studied as one of the country's most distinctive forms of oral literature.

Royal University of Bhutan

The Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) is the only public university in Bhutan, established by royal charter in 2003. It operates as a federated institution comprising ten constituent colleges spread across the country, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in education, engineering, natural sciences, business, traditional medicine, and the humanities.

Punatsangchhu Hydroelectric Project

The Punatsangchhu Hydroelectric Project comprises two large run-of-river hydropower plants on the Punatsangchhu (Sunkosh River) in Wangdue Phodrang District, Bhutan: Punatsangchhu-I (1,200 MW, still under construction) and Punatsangchhu-II (1,020 MW, fully commissioned August 2025 and inaugurated November 2025). Originally expected online by 2016-2017, both projects suffered severe delays and massive cost overruns. Punatsangchhu-II was commissioned in phases from December 2024 to August 2025, boosting Bhutan's power generation capacity by 40%, while Punatsangchhu-I remains stalled by geological challenges.

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.

Construction and Foreign Labour in Bhutan

Bhutan's construction sector relies heavily on Indian and other foreign workers who perform the majority of manual and semi-skilled labour on the country's building sites, hydropower projects, and road construction. This dependency has shaped the economic, social, and cultural dynamics of Bhutan's modernisation, raising questions about labour rights, working conditions, wage equity, and the long-term sustainability of a development model that depends substantially on imported labour.

Dashain in Bhutan

Dashain (Dasain) is the most important Hindu festival celebrated by the Lhotshampa of southern Bhutan, marking the triumph of the goddess Durga over the buffalo demon Mahishasura. Observed for fifteen days in the Hindu month of Ashwin (September–October), it was historically a major cultural event in southern Bhutan before being suppressed under the Driglam Namzha cultural policies of the late 1980s. Dashain remains central to Lhotshampa identity both for those remaining in Bhutan and for the global Bhutanese diaspora.

The Happiest Country On Earth Is Running Out Of Bhutanese

The Royal Government has just confirmed it will pay families Nu 10,000 a month (around USD 105) for every third child, because the birth rate has collapsed and the young will not stay. An editorial from the BhutanWiki Editorial Team on the Gross National Happiness brand versus the youth exodus, the TV and internet ban, the 1985 Citizenship Act and the Lhotshampa expulsion, and the policy machinery that produced both.

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.