People

Bhutanese generally refer to themselves as the Drukpas, meaning the inhabitants of Druk Yul, the land of the Thunder Dragon. Three main ethnic groups, the Sharchops, Ngalops and the Lhotsampas (of Nepalese origin) make up today’s Drukpa.

Bhutan’s earliest residents, the Sharchops reside predominantly in the eastern Bhutan. Their origin can be traced to the tribes of northern Burma and north- east India. The Ngalops migrated from the Tibetan plains and are the importers of Buddhism to the kingdom. Most of the Nepalese migrants settled in the fertile agricultural southern foothills in the early 20th century. The geography of the land kept each ethnic group separate until the middle of this century when roads were built between the east and the west.

The ethnic diversity of the Bhutanese people has meant that a number of different languages and dialects are spoken throughout the kingdom. The national language is Dzongkha, which is taught at all school. So different are the dialects that eastern and western neighbors can have great difficulty understanding each other.

Bhutan’s population is, in many ways, one large family. More than 90 percent of the people live on subsistence farming, scattered in sparsely populated villages across the rugged terrain of the Himalayas.

With rice as the staple diet in the lower regions, and wheat, buckwheat, and maize in the other valleys, the people from narrow terraces cut into the steep hill slopes, Bhutanese communities settled in the valleys with limited communication in the past. It is for this reason that the sense of individuality and independence emerges as strong characteristic of the people.

The Bhutanese are, by nature, physically strong and fiercely independent with an open and ready sense of humor, hospitality is an in-built social value in Bhutan.