Bhutan - monarchy and marriage

His Majesty the King and Their Majesties the Queens





King Jime Singye Wangchuck is hugely respected here. He is probably the last absolute monarch in the world, and the first to voluntarily introduce democracy and a constitutional monarchy. This will happen in 2008, when they will also celebrate 100 years of the Wangchuk dynasty (2007, which is the actual 100th anniversary being inauspicious in the Bhutan calendar). The king will also retire and the crown prince will be crowned king in that year. This all seems to fill people here with some apprehension - a leap into the unknown.

He also introduced the concept of Gross National Happiness - a way of measuring the quality rather than just the material economic progress of a country.

Before 1907 the country was effectively a theocracy, ruled by the Shabdrung and his supposed reincarnations. It was he that instituted the dzong system that continues to this day. Each district has a dzong that is the centre of both civil and religious government. In the following period, power ebbed and flowed, and there was almost constant civil war. The strongest baronies were Paro and Tongsa, and eventually the Wangchuks of Tongsa won, uniting the country.

The four kings of the dynasty have generally been seen as benevolent, and their photographs are displayed everywhere. Every citizen has the right to have an audience with the king if requested, to this day.

The present king came to the throne about 34 years ago at the age of 17. He is married to four sisters, who are descended from the Shabdrung’s family. In Bhutan polygamy and even polyandry is – if not common – at least seen as normal and acceptable. Usually, it’s a way, in isolated communities, of keeping wealth in the family and not dispersing it amongst the children of several sisters or brothers. How it works in practice is a mystery, and no-one is prepared to open up on this as far as the king goes.

The attitude to marriage here is almost exactly oposite to India. Kids meet and fall in love without much parental interference, and there is no tradition of arranged marriages. Weddings are not a big deal traditionally and often girls got pregnant before matrriage.

Bhutan property rights are also very different. Property including land normally passes to the daughters; the sons are expected to make their own way in the world.

More on the history at www.bhutannewsonline.com/monarchy.html and on GNH at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness