60 Fun Facts About Bhutan

What is the capital and largest city of Bhutan?

Close to 15% of the population lives there; the capital only moved from Punakha in 1955.

Bhutan is landlocked between which two countries?

Despite the map, it does not touch Nepal; a sliver of India separates them.

Bhutan is famous for measuring its progress by which index instead of GDP alone?

The fourth king coined the phrase in 1972; the commission enforcing it was dissolved in 2022.

In Dzongkha, Bhutan's own name Druk Yul means what?

The dragon, or druk, is the emblem of the Drukpa Buddhist lineage; the kings are Druk Gyalpo, "Dragon Kings".

What does the dragon on Bhutan's flag hold in each of its claws?

The two halves of the flag stand for the secular monarchy and the Buddhist tradition.

Which two colours make up the diagonal halves of Bhutan's flag?

An earlier version had a red field and a green dragon; the current design dates from 1969.

Gangkhar Puensum, Bhutan's loftiest peak at 7,570 m, holds what global distinction?

Bhutan banned climbing peaks above 6,000 m in 1994 out of respect for local beliefs, and went further in 2003.

Since 2003, what has Bhutan completely banned on its mountains?

A 1994 law first prohibited climbing peaks over 6,000 m, out of respect for the deities believed to live there.

Paro Taktsang, the "Tiger's Nest" monastery, is named after a legend that Guru Padmasambhava arrived how?

He is credited with bringing Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan; the monastery buildings date from 1692.

Bhutan was among the last countries to allow which technology, lifting its ban in 1999?

The king warned that misuse of it could erode traditional values; the internet arrived the same year.

A 2010 law made Bhutan the first nation in the world to ban the sale of what?

The ban was reversed in 2021 because smuggled cigarettes were spreading Covid across the Indian border.

Bhutan's constitution requires that at least what share of the country stay forested forever?

Actual cover is over 70%, which is why the country absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits.

Bhutan is one of the few countries with net negative carbon emissions. What absorbs its pollution?

The forests soak up more than four million tonnes of CO2 a year against 2.2 million tonnes produced.

Ema datshi, the national dish of Bhutan, is a stew of which two main ingredients?

Bhutanese treat chillies as a vegetable rather than a spice; the cheese is home-made from cow or yak curd.

Bhutan's best-known agricultural export is which unusual grain?

Its neighbours, meanwhile, buy most of the Bhutanese apples and oranges.

Which animal, looking like a cross between a goat and a cow, is Bhutan's national animal?

Legend says the Divine Madman created it by sticking a goat's head on a cow's skeleton.

What is the national sport of Bhutan?

Matches are raucous village social events with singing and heckling of the opposing team.

In Bhutan's national sport, roughly how far apart are the two targets placed?

Olympic archers shoot at 70 metres; Bhutan has sent archers to every Summer Games since 1984 without winning a medal.

Bhutan's national football team beat Montserrat 4-0 in 2002 in a match billed as what?

It was played on the same day as the Brazil-Germany World Cup final between the world's two lowest-ranked teams.

Who unified Bhutan in the 17th century and became the first Zhabdrung Rinpoche?

A Tibetan lama fleeing persecution, he repelled three Tibetan invasions and built the great fortresses.

After Bhutan's 17th-century unifier died in 1651, how long was his death kept secret?

Officials feared the fragile new state would collapse without its founder.

Who became the first hereditary King of Bhutan on 17 December 1907?

He was elected unanimously by monks, officials and family heads at Punakha Dzong; the date is now National Day.

Bhutan's kings wear a distinctive crown topped with the head of which bird?

The first king adopted the Raven Crown as the unique symbol of his authority; the raven represents a protective deity.

Jigme Singye Wangchuck became the world's youngest monarch in 1972 at what age?

He reigned 34 years, then abdicated voluntarily in 2006 to usher in democracy.

Bhutan held its first parliamentary elections and adopted its constitution in which year?

The fourth king abdicated in December 2006 to let his son oversee the switch to constitutional monarchy.

Bhutan's fifth king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, married which commoner in 2011?

He studied at Wheaton College and Oxford before being crowned in 2008 at age 28.

Bhutan's ngultrum is pegged at par to which currency, also legal tender in Bhutan?

It is subdivided into 100 chhertum and was introduced in 1974.

What is Bhutan's largest export?

Almost all of it goes to India; the Tala plant alone generates 1,020 MW.

Which fortress-monasteries are the administrative centres of Bhutan's districts?

Traditional Bhutanese architecture uses no nails or iron bars.

Punakha Dzong, built in 1637-38 between two rivers, has been the venue for what since 1907?

Punakha was the seat of government until 1955 and remains the winter capital of the monastic body.

Which is the largest dzong in Bhutan and the ancestral seat of the Wangchuck dynasty of penlops?

Crown princes traditionally serve as Trongsa Penlop before taking the throne.

What is the national dress for Bhutanese men, a knee-length robe tied with a cloth belt?

Government workers must wear it; women wear the ankle-length kira.

Bhutan's Driglam Namzhag code, enforced from 1989, requires citizens to do what?

It was part of a nationalisation policy that alienated the Nepali-speaking south.

Bhutan's tshechu festivals, held on the tenth day of a lunar month, are best known for what?

Many end with the unfurling of a giant thongdrel tapestry that is said to cleanse sins just by being seen.

Phallus paintings on Bhutanese houses are traditionally meant to do what?

They trace to a 15th-16th century saint nicknamed the "Divine Madman".

Which 'Divine Madman' saint is linked to Bhutan's phallus symbols and the Chimi Lhakhang fertility temple?

His unorthodox teaching methods were deliberately shocking; the takin is also credited to him.

Why is Paro, Bhutan's only international airport, considered one of the world's toughest?

Only a handful of pilots are certified to land there, by visual approach in daylight.

Dzongkha is Bhutan's national language, but schools teach in which language?

Dzongkha is native to only about a quarter of the population; the country has some two dozen languages.

In 2023 Bhutan cut its daily Sustainable Development Fee for most visitors to about how much?

Indians, Bangladeshis and Maldivians are exempt; Indians pay a small permit fee instead.

Which Buddhist school is the state religion of Bhutan?

The Je Khenpo heads the monastic body; Hindus, mostly in the south, make up over a fifth of the population.

What are Bhutan's Nepali-speaking southern minority, many of whom fled to refugee camps in the 1990s, called?

The name means "southerners"; most refugees were later resettled in North America, Europe and Oceania.

Which sacred Bhutan-Tibet peak, the 'bride of Kangchenjunga', is the source of the Paro river?

Locals believed anyone climbing too high would be hurled down by its goddess; a British team was permitted up in 1937.

Bhutan was the first country in the world to recognise the independence of which nation in 1971?

Bhutan itself joined the UN that same year after three years as an observer.

Bhutan's Sixth Five-Year Plan in the late 1980s promoted which slogan?

It imposed the Drukpa dress code and pushed Dzongkha; southerners saw it as forced assimilation.

In 2023 the king announced a huge special economic zone modelled on Singapore at which southern town?

The "Mindfulness City" plan by Bjarke Ingels covers 2,500 km2, three times the size of Singapore.

How many smaller gilded Buddhas sit inside Bhutan's Great Buddha Dordenma statue?

The 54 m bronze statue took from 2006 to 2015 to complete.

How many memorial chortens stand at the Dochula Pass on the road from the capital to Punakha?

The Queen Mother built them for soldiers killed in a 2003 operation against Assamese militants; 108 is a sacred Buddhist number.

Bhutan's flag carrier, Drukair, began flights in 1983 between Paro and which Indian city?

It used Dornier 228s at first; the airline had been chartered by the king in 1981.

Bhutan's Himalayan blue poppy is the national flower. What is its scientific genus?

It grows in China's Yunnan, Nepal and northeast India as well as Bhutan.

Bhutan's inheritance customs are unusual because property generally passes how?

A man is expected to make his own way and often moves into his wife's home.

By late 2024, Bhutan had used its hydropower to accumulate over US$1 billion of what?

It was the fifth-largest state holder, behind the US, China, the UK and Ukraine.

Bhutan was a founding member in 1985 of which South Asian regional organisation?

Bhutan belongs to some 150 international bodies but keeps diplomatic ties with only around 58 countries.

Bhutan's 2019 ban on plastic bags replaced them with bags made mainly of what?

The rule took effect on 1 April 2019, one more piece of the country's carbon-negative environmental record.

How many dzongkhags, or districts, is Bhutan divided into?

Each district is run by a Dzongkhag Tshogdu, and rural village blocks called gewogs elect their own headmen, known as gups.

In which year did Thimphu replace the ancient capital as Bhutan's seat of government?

Thimphu was only officially declared the capital in 1961; before 1960 it was little more than a scatter of hamlets across the valley.

Bhutan ceded the Bengal Duars to British India after which 19th-century conflict?

Bhutan was never colonised, but the loss of the fertile Duars plain and the 1910 Treaty of Punakha put it firmly under British influence.

How many 'domains' of happiness make up Bhutan's Gross National Happiness index?

The index rests on four pillars and nine domains, and the first nationwide GNH survey was carried out in 2008.

Which district is regarded as the place where Buddhism first entered Bhutan?

Guru Padmasambhava visited in 746 AD, and the 7th-century Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo had already ordered the Jambay Lhakhang temple built there.

In which year did a fire gut the main building of the Tiger's Nest monastery?

The blaze, blamed on a short-circuit or butter lamps igniting hanging tapestries, killed a monk and destroyed paintings and statues before a full restoration.

Besides India and Bangladesh, which country keeps a resident embassy in Bhutan?

Bhutan has missions in only a handful of countries and two UN missions, in New York and Geneva.