2006 Abdication of Jigme Singye Wangchuck

The 2006 abdication of Jigme Singye Wangchuck took place on 14 December 2006, when the Fourth Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan formally relinquished the throne in favour of his eldest son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, then 26 years old. The decision was announced by royal kasho on 9 December 2006 and took effect five days later, ending a reign of 34 years that had begun in 1972.^[1]

The abdication was the culmination of a programme of constitutional reform set in motion in 2001, when the Fourth King appointed a 39-member committee under the chief justice to draft a written constitution. In December 2005 he had publicly stated that he intended to step down in 2008, the year the new constitution was expected to be adopted. The decision to bring forward the handover by close to two years gave the new king time to settle into the role, and to take a leading part in the consultations that preceded the adoption of the Constitution of Bhutan on 18 July 2008 and the country's first parliamentary elections.^[2]

The Fifth King's accession on 14 December 2006 was followed by a sequence of public ceremonies in 2007 and a state coronation at Punakha Dzong on 6 November 2008, timed to coincide with the centenary of the Wangchuck dynasty. The 2006 abdication itself was not accompanied by a separate state ceremony of the same scale; the formal transfer of authority was effected through the kasho and through the new king's investiture as Druk Gyalpo.^[1]

Background

Jigme Singye Wangchuck had ascended the throne on 24 July 1972 at the age of 16, following the sudden death of his father Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. By the late 1990s he had begun to delegate executive functions to a Council of Ministers, and from 1998 the cabinet was elected by the Tshogdu from a roster of candidates nominated by the king. These changes were presented at the time as steps in a deliberate, monarch-led democratisation rather than concessions to internal pressure.^[3]

On 17 December 2005, addressing crowds at Trashiyangtse during the National Day celebrations, the Fourth King announced that he would step down in 2008 in favour of his son and that the country would by then have adopted a written constitution and held parliamentary elections. He framed the change as a long-planned transfer rather than an emergency: in his own words, the best time to introduce democracy was when the country was at peace, and reliance on a single individual was unwise for a small Himalayan state.^[3]

The 2005 announcement was met with public dismay in many districts. During the constitutional consultations that followed, citizens at zomdues (community meetings) repeatedly petitioned the king to remain on the throne, and a draft of the constitution was circulated to every household for comment. The 9 December 2006 kasho, issued from Tashichho Dzong in Thimphu, brought the timetable forward and pre-empted any further public effort to dissuade him.^[4]

The Kasho and the Transfer

The royal kasho of 9 December 2006 announced that the Fourth King would relinquish the throne to the Crown Prince. On 14 December 2006 the throne formally passed to Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. The new king's accession at age 26 made him among the youngest reigning monarchs in the world. His father retained no constitutional role under the existing legal order; the abdication was complete, not regency.^[1]

The transfer was followed by mock parliamentary elections in April 2007, designed to familiarise the electorate with ballot procedures, and by elections to the National Council on 31 December 2007. The first National Assembly elections were held on 24 March 2008. The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, led by Jigmi Y. Thinley, won 45 of 47 seats. The new constitution was adopted by the first elected Parliament on 18 July 2008.^[2]

The 2008 Coronation

The state coronation of the Fifth King took place at Punakha Dzong on 6 November 2008, almost two years after the abdication itself. The date was chosen to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the Wangchuck dynasty in 1907. Religious rites at Punakha were followed by public celebrations at Tashichho Dzong and at Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu. The two-year interval between the 2006 abdication and the 2008 coronation reflected the Bhutanese practice of selecting an astrologically auspicious date for the formal investiture, and aligned the coronation with the dynastic anniversary.^[1]

Significance

The abdication is unusual in modern monarchy in three respects. First, it was voluntary, undertaken in the absence of internal protest, external pressure or constitutional crisis. Second, it was tied explicitly to a programme of self-imposed democratisation: the throne was vacated specifically so that the next monarch would assume office under a written constitution and an elected legislature. Third, the timing was advanced by close to two years from the originally announced 2008 schedule, which had the practical effect of placing the Fifth King in office before the constitutional referendum and the first general election rather than after them.^[2]

The Fourth King has continued to be a public figure since the abdication, but has scrupulously avoided any visible role in elected government. He is widely referred to as the "Fourth Druk Gyalpo" or "the People's King" in Bhutanese public discourse, and continues to take part in religious and ceremonial events, particularly those linked to the Gross National Happiness framework with which his reign is closely identified.^[5]

References

1. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck — Wikipedia
2. Jigme Singye Wangchuck — Wikipedia
3. "Abdication shocks Bhutanese" — Al Jazeera, 19 December 2005
4. "Democratization from above: the case of Bhutan" — GSDRC
5. "7 Facts on the Legacy of Jigme Singye Wangchuck" — Druk Asia