South Asia: Pakistan and the Himalayan States - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 206

Bhutan: Land of the Thunder
Dragon

decades and if this trend continues, there will be no more
by 2050. As geographers David Zurick and Autumn Rose
(2009) note: “. . . the prospects for a vibrant farming life
are bleak.”
In 1979, UNESCO classified seven valley locations
as World Heritage sites. By 2003, UNESCO had reclassi-
fied them as “World Heritage in Danger” sites. The new
government has dedicated itself to cleaning up popular
tourist attractions such as the great Buddhist stupa at
Bouddhanath (Bodnath) on the outskirts of Kathmandu
(Figure 7-17). Vehicular traffic has been banned and
teams have been organized to clean up the streets.
Thanks to these efforts, Nepal' s historic sites have been
removed from the Danger list.

Bhutan (also called Drukyul) , is a Lamaistic Buddhist
kingdom struggling to keep its culture and identity in the
face of outside influences and modernization. Land-
locked and isolated, it was virtually closed to the outside
world until the 1960s. Like Nepal, Bhutan is one of the
world' s least developed countries.
This Switzerland-size kingdom once comprised
monastic power bases centered on dzongs —fortified
monasteries. Its deep valleys were linked by cultural and
trade contacts facilitated by iron-chain suspension
bridges constructed in the fourteenth century . Given the
highly differentiated terrain and natural communities
ranging from glaciers and tundra in the north to tropical
rainforests and malarial swamps in the south, cultural
variety is to be expected (Figure 7-18).
The Bhote tribes of northern Bhutan are originally
from Tibet and adhere to the Drukpa Kagyudpa sect of
Tibetan Buddhism. Commonly called Drukpas , they re-
vere the king as their spiritual leader (Figure 7-19). The
Nepalese of the south are primarily Hindu. Most people
speak Dzongkha, a Tibetan dialect. Others speak Shar-
chop or Nepali or one of at least 18 other different lan-
guages or dialects.
In 1731, Tibet imposed suzerainty over Bhutan.
Forty years later, in light of constant regional struggles
and raids into Assam and Bengal, the British became in-
volved. After a lengthy civil war one family triumphed
and in 1907, the first hereditary king was enthroned with
British support. Four years later, Bhutan signed a treaty
with the British to counter Chinese designs on the region
and later agreed to rely on the advice of India (Great
Britain) for action in foreign affairs. This agreement was
formalized by India in 1949.
While Bhutan' s current foreign policy leans toward
isolationism, China' s 1950 claims to Bhutan and its 1959
occupation of Tibet cemented Bhutan' s stronger ties with
India. The first road from India to the capital of Thimpu
was opened in 1962. Now , several roads from India are
furthering cultural intrusion and the trappings of devel-
opment. For India, Bhutan is a convenient buffer state
between it and China. It is a strategic training and stag-
ing ground for troops that could be quickly employed
against China or separatist groups in Assam.
Subsistence farmers cultivate grains and vegetables,
and herders raise yaks and cattle and practice transhu-
mance (moving livestock between the highlands in sum-
mer and the lowlands in winter). A mere 6 percent of the

Figure 7-17
This Tibetan refugee center of Bouddhenath (Bodnath) is a
Buddhist stupa containing relics of the Kashyapa Buddha who is
believed by Tibetans to have preceded (the original) Gautama
Buddha. Here you can see people spinning prayer wheels and
moving clockwise around the stupa. The eyes of the Buddha are
on worshippers at all times.
Photograph courtesy of B. A. Weightman.