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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 17 September 2008 00:24 |
BhutanGenWeb
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Welcome to the BhutanGenWeb Project. This website
was designed to assist
researchers in their quest for their ancestry in Bhutan.
History of Bhutan
Until the early seventeenth century, Bhutan existed
as a patchwork of minor warring fiefdoms when the area was unified by
the Tibetan lama and military leader Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal. To
defend the country against intermittent Tibetan forays, Namgyal built a
network of impregnable dzong (fortresses), and promulgated a code of
law that helped to bring local lords under centralized control. Many
such dzong still exist. After Namgyal's death in 1651, Bhutan fell into
anarchy. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Tibetans attacked Bhutan in
1710, and again in 1730 with the help of the Mongols. Both assaults
were successfully thwarted, and an armistice was signed in 1759. One of
the most famous Dzongs (or Durbars) was constructed at Saureni in
Samchi district. As this Dzong was constructed by a reknowned person of
Nepali origin, no effort was ever made to preserve this monument and
has been completely wiped out today.
In the eighteenth
century, the Bhutanese invaded and occupied the kingdom of Cooch Behar
to the south. In 1772, Cooch Behar appealed to the British East India
Company who assisted them in ousting the Bhutanese, and later in
attacking Bhutan itself in 1774. A peace treaty was signed in which
Bhutan agreed to retreat to its pre-1730 borders. However, the peace
was tenuous, and border skirmishes with the British were to continue
for the next one hundred years. The skirmishes eventually led to the
Duar War (1864–1865), a confrontation over who would control the Bengal
Duars. After Bhutan lost the war, the Treaty of Sinchula was signed
between British India and Bhutan. As part of the war reparations, the
Duars were ceded to the United Kingdom in exchange for a rent of Rs.
50,000. The treaty ended all hostilities between British India and
Bhutan.
During the 1870s, power struggles between the rival valleys of Paro and
Trongsa led to civil war in Bhutan, eventually leading to the
ascendancy of Ugyen Wangchuck, the ponlop (governor) of Tongsa. From
his power base in central Bhutan, Ugyen Wangchuck defeated his
political enemies and united the country following several civil wars
and rebellions in the period 1882–1885.
In 1907, an epochal year for the country, Ugyen Wangchuck was
unanimously chosen as the hereditary king of the country by an assembly
of leading Buddhist monks, government officials, and heads of important
families. The British government promptly recognized the new monarchy,
and in 1910 Bhutan signed a treaty which "let" Great Britain "guide"
Bhutan's foreign affairs. In reality this did not mean much given
Bhutan's historical reticence. It also did not seem to apply to
Bhutan's traditional relations with Tibet. The greatest impact of this
treaty seems to be the perception that it meant Bhutan was not totally
sovereign.
Source: Wikipedia
The Provinces
Bhutan is divided into four dzongdey (administrative
zones). Each dzongdey is further divided into dzongkhag (districts).
There are twenty dzongkhag in Bhutan. Large dzongkhags are further
divided into subdistricts known as dungkhag. At the basic level, groups
of villages form a constituency called gewog and are administered by a
gup, who is elected by the people.
Bulletin Boards and Surname Resource Pages
Submit
and View Queries and Surnames Submit a Query or Surnames for
your lost Kingdom of Bhutan ancestor.
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