When to begin our story?
Certainly, we must start in Bhutan, in the Himalayas, but choosing our starting date is tricky. Starting with the collision of India and Asia and the rise of the Himalayas is far too early, but Bhutan is not a well-known subject and so some background must be provided.
We then start in the late 12th century. What will one day become Bhutan is for now innumerable petty kingdoms ruled over by the debs, local kings who often claim a supernatural bloodline. As it stands Bhutan is currently a cultural appendage of Tibet, which is in turn currently dominated by the Mongols. The Mongols have begun to favor a certain school of Buddhism, the Gelung school. It is a school that will come to dominate Tibet and produce the Dalai Lamas. Yet the rise of a new force in Tibet forces minor sects out, and into the fringes, such as Bhutan.
One of these sects, the Drukpa Lineage, would grow to dominate Bhutan. It was founded by Drogon Tsangpa Gyare, a monk from Southern Tibet. It takes its name from the Tibetan word for “Dragon”. As he lay dying the founder supposedly prophesized that a man would soon come to his followers who if sent South would do a great service to the Buddha Dharma. This man was born Dondrub Gyaltsen, but history would remember him as Phajo Drugom Zhigpo. The son of a merchant Phajo’s tale is surrounded by local tellings of mystical signs preordaining his greatness, as these types of men so often do.
Phajo would eventually learn of the Drukpa School and convert. The legends of course say he went to Bhutan in 1224 to fulfill the prophecy, but is entirely possible other factors were at work. He married in Bhutan and had 7 sons, who he threw in a river to see if they were demons (after which he had 4 sons). Despite this possibly legendary bit of child endangerment he gained a following, including from some local debs, threatening the Lhapa school then dominant in the region. Attempts were made to stop Phajo, but none succeeded. Despite this the Lhapa innovation of the dzong mountain fortress would ensure that they would survive the Drukpa dominance for now.
The Drukpa sect would end up thankful for Phajo Drugom Zhigpo in a few centuries. In 1612 the head of the Drukpa Lineage was forced from their traditional position by a rival claimant backed by the Gelung. This man, Ngawang Namgyal, held onto control of the tradional Drukpa seat for a while longer, but was soon forced out from there as well. Henceforth the Upper Drukpa and Lower Drukpa in Tibet and Bhutan would be separated. He fled south into Bhutan and into legend.
Ngawang Namgyal set up shop in the Thimpu valley, a place that from now on will be central to this story. It sat atop a vital trading network and Ngawang Namgyal was able to set up a monastery and a dzong before pursuing a military career. He began by ending the last of the Lhapa, who had been in decline since the Drukpa arrived. His status as a new trade power and his position as head of the Drukpa Lineage gave him great prestige and he soon consolidated control over the western areas of Bhutan, taking the title Zhabdrung Rinpoche, meaning “the jewel at whose feet one submits”. However, the Lhapa appealed to Tibet for assistance and the country launched a series of invasions with the goal of ending the Drukpa threat. However, each of these invasions was defeated in turn and the Tibetans suffered a major setback when most of their army was killed looting a dzong after they accidently set off the gunpowder stores. In 1687 a final Tibetan invasion was repulsed and Ngawang Namgyal turned his focus to taking eastern Bhutan under his rule.
Ngawang Namgyal established a system of duel governance between a secular administration, headed by the Druk Desi and a religious order headed by the Je Khenpo. These two forces would be united under the rule of the Zhabdrung Rinpoche. In 1651 Ngawang Namgyal died, though this would be covered up for 54 years. After his death was finally acknowledged the title Zhabdrung Rinpoche became quite similar to the Dalai Lama in Tibet, with various reincarnations ruling in name. As the centuries passed however it was the Druk Desi line of temporal power that became ascendant after several wars with Tibet and Sikkim. Bhutan gained great influence over nearby Indian regions known as the Duars. However, in 1772 the Bhutanese backed candidate for the throne of one of those states was deposed for one backed by the British East India company.
This provoked war between Bhutan and Britain, a war that the British won easily. After Tibet rather understandably refused to aid them Bhutan was forced to cede its influence to the British. This pattern would repeat itself as Bhutan was steadily forced back north into the mountains by British encroachment. This trend cumulated in the 1864-65 Bhutan War. Two rival claimants for the title of Druk Desi (both the Zhabdrung Rinpoche and the Je Khenpo were now powerless) emerged and a Bhutanese Civil War ensued. The victorious faction refused a British delegation only to be soundly defeated and forced to cede all power in the Duars to Britain in exchange for an annual subsidy of 50,000 rupees from the British. This humiliation provoked a 10-year period of civil instability between forces that favored an alliance with the British against the ancient foe in Tibet and a faction that favored putting aside old rivalries to expel the newcomers. The pro-British House of Wangchuck would eventually win these civil wars and emerge as the dominant force in Bhutan with their allies the Dorji Family becoming a close second after being granted the lands of pro-Tibetan forces by the Wangchucks. In 1904 Ugyen Wangchuck and Ugyen Dorji were vital in arranging a convention between the Tibetans and British, an action that put them firmly in the good graces of the British. 3 years later assembled religious, political and economic authorities met in Punakha Dzong, the ancient seat of the Druk Desis, and forced the now irrelevant Druk Desi to step down. They then declared Ugyen Wangchuck the first Druk Gyalpo or Dragon King. The days of ineffective dual government were over and a new absolute monarchy now reigned in Bhutan.
As for the Zhabdrung Rinpoche the ancient head of the Drukpa Buddhists, the Bhutanese government simply refused to recognize any reincarnation of the position. It's continued existence was simply too much of a threat. However a dissident line of claimants would remain, powerless for now, but resentful of the loss of power.
In 1910 China invaded Tibet and announced claims on Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. Ugyen Wangchuck turned to the British for protection. In exchange for a new 100,000-rupee subsidy he ceded control of Bhutan’s foreign affairs to the British. The Dorji family was also given land in the Raj to act as a gateway to Bhutan, their estate was soon aptly named the Bhutan House. The Wangchucks perused a path of centralization and infrastructure construction, but remained isolated from the outside world and very much behind the times when it came to technology. In 1949 Jigme Wangchuck, the second Druk Gyalpo, signed a Treaty with the newly independent India that essentially transferred Britain’s control of Bhutanese foreign policy to India while also raising the stipend to half a million rupees. India began to subsidize Bhutanese infrastructure projects, however a shortage of labor emerged.
The main source of labor Bhutan found was Nepali migrants, who began to move into the southern reaches of Bhutan which had previously been uninhabited.
And this, this, is where our story really begins.
