Bhutan Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
59 free Bhutan trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Bhutan is the Himalayan kingdom that measures Gross National Happiness, was the last country on Earth to allow television, and refuses to let anyone climb its highest peak. It has a monastery glued to a cliff, phalluses painted on its houses to ward off gossip, a dragon on its flag and an airport that only a few dozen pilots are qualified to land at. And it is one of the very few countries that absorbs more carbon than it emits. This quiz covers geography (what lies to the north and south?), history (the unifier who kept his death secret for 54 years, the first king of 1907, the fourth king who gave up absolute power), symbols and culture (the flag, the takin, ema datshi, the gho and kira, tshechu festivals), and modern life (hydropower, the daily tourist fee, the Other Final football match against Montserrat). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Bhutan?
Thimphu
Thimphu, about 2,300 m up in the Himalayas, has no airport of its own: the nearest is at Paro, and the rest of the journey is by road.
Q 02Bhutan is landlocked between which two countries?
China and India
China and India are its only neighbours: close as they look on a map, Bhutan never touches Nepal, because the Indian state of Sikkim lies between them.
Q 03Bhutan is famous for measuring its progress by which index instead of GDP alone?
Gross National Happiness
Gross National Happiness was the fourth king's idea, and it travelled: a Bhutanese resolution led the UN to declare 20 March the International Day of Happiness.
Q 04In Dzongkha, Bhutan's own name Druk Yul means what?
Land of the Thunder Dragon
Land of the Thunder Dragon: by tradition, the thunder that rolls through Bhutan's valleys is said to be the voice of dragons.
Q 05Bhutan's capital is one of very few national capitals in the world without a single what?
Traffic light
Traffic lights are absent from the capital, where smartly uniformed police stand at the busiest junctions and direct the cars by hand instead.
Q 06Which two colours make up the diagonal halves of Bhutan's flag?
Yellow and orange
Yellow and orange split the flag between two powers: the yellow half stands for the king's worldly authority, the orange half for the Buddhist monasteries.
Q 07Gangkhar Puensum, Bhutan's highest peak at 7,570 m, holds what global distinction?
Tallest unclimbed mountain on Earth
Tallest unclimbed mountain on Earth, and off limits: Bhutan closed its highest peaks to climbers in 1994, out of respect for local spiritual beliefs.
Q 08Each winter, a festival in Bhutan's Phobjikha Valley welcomes the return of which rare migrating birds?
Black-necked cranes
Black-necked cranes arrive from the north each winter, and at the festival local schoolchildren welcome them with a dance that mimics the birds.
Q 09In legend, how did Guru Padmasambhava arrive at the cave of Bhutan's Paro Taktsang monastery?
Flying on the back of a tigress
Flying on the back of a tigress, the legend says, which is why the monastery clinging to its cliff above Paro is known as the Tiger's Nest.
Q 10Bhutan was among the last countries to allow which technology, lifting its ban in 1999?
Television
Television was switched on in June 1999, with the king warning viewers that not everything they would see would be good; the internet arrived the same year.
Q 11In 2004, Bhutan became the first country in the world to ban the sale of what?
Tobacco
Tobacco sales were outlawed nationwide in December 2004, but the ban was lifted in 2021.
Q 12Bhutan's Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary was created partly to protect which creature that science has never confirmed exists?
The yeti
The yeti, called the migoi in Bhutan, is taken seriously enough there to have its own protected home, and villagers in the far east report sightings.
Q 13Bhutan's constitution demands that at least 60% of the country must always stay what?
Forested
Forested, and Bhutan overdelivers: trees cover about 70% of the land, which helps make it one of the few carbon-negative countries, absorbing more CO2 than it emits.
Q 21Officials hid the 1651 death of Bhutan's founding lama for 54 years by saying he was what?
In retreat
In retreat was the cover story, and orders kept going out in his name, because the governors feared the young state would break apart in a fight over who came next.
Q 22Who became the first hereditary King of Bhutan on 17 December 1907?
Ugyen Wangchuck
Ugyen Wangchuck was chosen unanimously by an assembly of clergy, officials and the people's representatives, so the hereditary monarchy began with a vote; 17 December is still National Day.
Q 23Bhutan's kings wear a distinctive crown topped with the head of which bird?
A raven
Q 14Ema datshi, the national dish of Bhutan, is a stew of which two main ingredients?
Chillies and cheese
Chillies and cheese: Bhutanese cooks treat the chilli as a vegetable rather than a spice, so it is the main ingredient of the stew and not just the seasoning.
Q 15Which unusual grain is the everyday staple of Bhutanese kitchens?
Red rice
Red rice gets its colour from the bran left on each grain, and it turns a pale pink in the pot.
Q 16Which animal, looking like a cross between a goat and a cow, is Bhutan's national animal?
Takin
Takin were once freed from the capital's zoo on the king's orders, but the tame animals just wandered the streets looking for food, so they were given a preserve of their own instead.
Q 17What is the national sport of Bhutan?
Archery
Archery was the only sport Bhutan entered at its first Olympics in 1984, and it took until 2012 for the country to send an athlete who was not an archer.
Q 18In Bhutan's first Oscar-nominated film, a city teacher posted to a remote mountain school shares his classroom with which animal?
A yak
A yak: the villagers give it to him because its dried dung is their fuel, and the film was shot on solar power in a village with no electricity, days' walk from the nearest road.
Q 19On the day of the 2002 World Cup final, Bhutan played fellow bottom-ranked Montserrat in a match billed as what?
The Other Final
The Other Final kicked off hours before Brazil met Germany; Bhutan won 4-0, its first ever official victory, and afterwards both teams sat down together to watch the real thing.
Q 20Who unified Bhutan in the 17th century and became the first Zhabdrung Rinpoche?
Ngawang Namgyal
Ngawang Namgyal arrived in 1616 as a young lama fleeing arrest at home, then fought off repeated invasions and raised the great fortresses that still anchor Bhutan's valleys.
A raven: the crown is not metal at all but a satin and silk hat with the bird's head embroidered on top, and the raven is also Bhutan's national bird.
Q 24Bhutan's fourth king married four women who were all what?
Sisters
Sisters: all four queens come from one family, and the present king is the son of one of them, which makes the other three his aunts as well as his stepmothers.
Q 25Bhutan's fifth king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, married which commoner in 2011?
Jetsun Pema
Jetsun Pema was a student when the king told the opening session of parliament in May 2011 that it was time for him to marry, and he wed her that October.
Q 26Bhutan's ngultrum is pegged one-to-one to which foreign currency?
Indian rupee
Indian rupee notes in small denominations spend at face value in Bhutan's shops.
Q 27Which export has driven Bhutan's economic growth for decades?
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity: dams in the steep Himalayan valleys send their power south across the border to Bhutan's main trading partner, and the income sits beside tourism and farming as a pillar of the economy.
Q 28Bhutan's districts are run from fortresses where civil servants share the courtyards with which other residents?
Monks
Monks: every great fortress is split between the district's offices and a monastery, a legacy of the 17th-century system that divided power between religious and civil rulers.
Q 29Punakha Dzong, built in 1637-38 where two rivers meet, served as what until the 1950s?
The seat of government
The seat of government stayed here until 1955, and the chief abbot's monastic body still moves in every winter, because this low valley is warmer than the capital.
Q 30Which dzong in the centre of Bhutan is the ancestral home of the royal family, whose crown princes take its title?
Trongsa
Trongsa's governors, the penlops, controlled the middle of the country and grew powerful enough to become kings in 1907; every heir still takes the title Trongsa Penlop before the throne.