Bhutan is China's smallest neighbor, because of its unique history and reality. This country is another country full of mystery for most Chinese people. In fact, the main ethnic group of Bhutan is also one of the 55 ethnic minorities in China. Their language also belongs to the Chinese-Tibetan language . In the history of Bhutan, it has also been closely linked with China, but Bhutan has belonged to South Asia in modern times. So what happened in Bhutan’s history? What is its current situation?
How did the Bhutanian regime appear?
According to the general understanding of modern times, the early residents of Bhutan were the ancestors of one of the 55 ethnic minorities in our country. However, because the ancestors of the Menba people did not have their own writings in the early days and did not leave any written records of their early history, there was also a lot of uncertainty about the early history of Bhutan.
Bhutan's location
However, according to the historical records of some surrounding ethnic groups and some folk legends, some modern views believe that the ancestors of the Menba people may have established a regime called Menyu in Bhutan and its surrounding areas in the 1st to 6th century AD. Because they lived in a difficult mountainous environment, the combat effectiveness of this regime was once strong. It is said that the king of Menyu once led the Menyu army south and once conquered the areas such as Assam , West Bengal and Bihar in India today. Of course, as we said earlier, due to the lack of direct written records, it is also controversial whether these deeds are truly historical facts.
. Around the 7th century AD, my country's separatist regime of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau rose rapidly, and soon expanded its territory to the area where Bhutan is located today. During the reign of Tubo, Songtsen Gampo, two Buddhist temples were ordered to be built in the Boumtang area in the central Bhutan today and the Paro area in the western Bhutan. Since then, Buddhism has taken root and sprouted in Bhutan.
Songtsen Gampo also had a profound impact on Bhutan's history
. After the collapse of the Tubo regime in 842 AD, the surrounding areas of Bhutan also entered the era of tribal separatism, just like Tibet in our country. During this period, some separatist forces with Buddhist temples as the core formed in the surrounding areas of Bhutan. But soon after, the Mongolian cavalry swept across the Eurasian continent and began to enter the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and even the Bhutan area. Soon Bhutan was included in its territory by Mongolian Empire .
. After Yuan Dynasty was established, Bhutan was under the jurisdiction of the Yuan Dynasty Xuanzhengyuan. During this period, Bhutan also coexisted by different Buddhist sects like other areas in Tibet, and these Buddhist sects were supported by different Yuan dynasties, so the competition was once very fierce. After the decline of the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th century AD, Tibetan Buddhism Gelug sect gained a dominance in the Tibet region. Since then, monks from other Buddhist sects fled to Bhutan. During this period, the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, especially a sect called Zhuba Kagyu, was widely spread in the surrounding areas of Bhutan.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the Xuanzhengyuan of Bhutan was under the jurisdiction of the Yuan Dynasty
In this context, around 1594 AD, a baby named Awang Langjie was born in the Jia family in Relong Township, Jiangzi County, southern Tibet, my country. This Jia family has had an important influence on the Zhuba Kagyu Sect for generations, so Awang Langjie was originally very promising to the leader of the Zhuba Kagyu Sect. However, during this period, the local separatist force Zangpakhan intervened in the dispute between the leader of the Kagyu Sect, and later had an armed conflict with Awang Langjie, which eventually led to Awang Langjie being forced to leave the Relong Temple, which was chaired by his family for generations in 1616, and moved south to Bhutan.
After arriving in Bhutan, Awang Langjie led his tribes to defeat other sects many times, and in a region called the Lord Khadi (meaning the Thunder Dragon Kingdom) in Bhutan today, they united some families with important influence on Bhutan and established their own regime.Afterwards, Awang Langjie promulgated the code and built a large number of systematic and solid fortresses in the Bhutan area, which unified the entire Bhutan area. He became a religious and secular leader in the entire Bhutan area, won the title of Xia Zhong (Falun King), and was later regarded as the first important historical figure in Bhutan by Bhutanese .
Awang Langjie's portrait
And in the following 100 years, Awang Langjie's sect defeated the army in other areas of Tibet many times, stabilized its rule in Bhutan, and gradually became a relatively independent area at this time. However, the vassal relationship between Bhutan and the Tibetan local government and even the Central Plains dynasty in China was still maintained. Awang Langjie died around 1651 AD. After his death, his followers had long claimed that he was in seclusion and kept his death as the highest secret for 54 years.
Bhutan’s relationship with Britain and India
. This practice seems to have ensured the stability of Bhutan to a certain extent, and also led to a certain increase in Bhutan’s strength during this period. So by the early 18th century AD, the Kochibihar region located in West Bengal, India today, became a vassal of Bhutan, and the Bhutanese regime also sent troops to the local area. But Bhutan's rule over the Kochibihar region was indirect rule, and the Bhutanese rulers mainly achieved their rule over the local area by canonizing local princes. In 1728 AD, after the death of the old prince of Kochibihar, the heir appointed by the Bhutanese rulers in the local area was opposed by another local force. In the subsequent battle between the two sides, the British East India Company, which had already expanded wildly in South Asia, took the opportunity to invade Kochibihar and defeat the Bhutanese army. After that, Kochibihar became the territory of the East India Company, and this incident also revealed the tangled relationship between Bhutan and the British for more than 200 years.
British army attacked Bhutan fortress scene
From 1772 to 1773 AD, the East Indian Army invaded Bhutan for the first time. Although Bhutan did not perish during the invasion, it had to sign an unequal treaty with the East India Company in 1774 AD, agreeing to pay tribute to it and allowing it to mine timber in Bhutan. In the following years, the UK forced Bhutan to agree to engage in commercial transactions with it and turned Bhutan into a springboard for infiltration into China-Tibet. However, during this period, Bhutan did not become a British colony like most parts of India, but continued to maintain independence.
In 1841 AD, the British invaded Duals (located in the northeastern part of today's India) area, which was still under control before Bhutan, and in the following year, forced Bhutan to lease the local area to the East India Company. Since then, tensions between Bhutan and the British East India Company have continued to heat up. Britain once assembled heavy troops in the Douals area in the mid-1850s, preparing to launch military force against Bhutan. But in 1857, a national uprising occurred in India, and the East India Company's rule in India was declared bankrupt. In the end, the British government ended up cleaning up the mess and stabilized the British rule in India. However, this incident caused Britain's plan to invade Bhutan to fail.
In 1864 AD, civil strife broke out in Bhutan, and there was a civil war between the governor of Punaka Province and his central government and the UK took this opportunity to declare war on Bhutan and invade Bhutan again. This war was later called the Dual War. At that time, the Bhutanese army was basically a mixed army of hot and cold weapons. The soldiers were mainly equipped with relatively backward weapons such as coercion gun , big sword spear, and stone thrower . Therefore, although the Bhutanese army was very brave in resistance and won several battles, they were eventually defeated by the British army after five months of fierce battle.
British negotiation scenarios with Bhutan
On November 11, 1865, Bhutan was forced to sign the "Shinchula Treaty " with the United Kingdom, cede 2,000 square kilometers of land, including the land previously leased to the United Kingdom, to the United Kingdom. In exchange, the United Kingdom agreed to pay a subsidy of 50,000 rupees to Bhutan every year, but this also made Bhutan reliant on the British Indian colonies in terms of economic terms.After that, the UK also built some pro-British forces in Bhutan, which also caused new disputes within Bhutan. From the 1870s to the 1880s, pro-British forces within Bhutan and forces who advocate maintaining traditional vassal relations with the local governments of Tibet in China and even the central government of the Qing Dynasty started a fierce struggle. During these struggles, pro-British Governor-General of Tungsa Province in central Bhutan gradually rose. With the support of the British, he defeated multiple competitors one by one through a series of wars, establishing rule throughout Bhutan.
In 1907, with the support of the British, Wuyan Wangchuk completely abandoned the traditional Bhutanese political system, proclaimed himself the "Dragon King", and established his own Wangchuk Dynasty. The Wanchuk family, who relied on the support of the British, controlled Bhutan, remained highly dependent on the UK since then. In 1910, Bhutan signed the Punaka Treaty with the United Kingdom, which stipulated that Bhutan should be guided by the United Kingdom in foreign affairs. Since then, Bhutan has been completely controlled by the United Kingdom in foreign relations, but Bhutan has also avoided the situation of internal affairs being controlled by the United Kingdom to a certain extent.
Wuyan Wangchuk
1947 After India's independence from Britain, the weak Bhutan was also unable to fight against India. Therefore, on August 8, 1949, a new treaty was signed with India under the leadership of India, which stipulated that Bhutan's foreign exchanges, which were originally guided by the United Kingdom, were transferred to India's guidance in exchange for India's commitment to not interfere in its internal affairs and recognize it as an independent country. The treaty also stipulates that India provides Bhutan with a subsidy of 5 million rupees per year, further escalating its economic dependence on India.
Bhutan's current situation
The monarchical monarchy of the Wangchuk Dynasty continued until 2008. In this year, Bhutan carried out a certain degree of reform of the internal political system, and since then Bhutan was regarded as a constitutional monarchy. Although Bhutan has long been a member of the UN , Bhutan’s diplomacy is still largely controlled by India, which makes Bhutan the United Nations member with the fewest diplomatic countries.
Bhutan scene
It was not until the year when he joined the United Nations in 1971 that Bhutan was allowed to develop diplomatic relations with countries other than India. It was not until 1973 that it established diplomatic relations with the first country except India, and this country was not independent with the support of India. Since then, Bhutan has not established diplomatic relations with Kuwait in 1983, which has reached three countries. Although the number of countries establishing diplomatic relations in Bhutan has increased year by year since then, until now, Bhutan has only established diplomatic relations with 54 UN member states. Bhutan has not yet established diplomatic relations with any of the 25 permanent members of the UN Security Council. Perhaps related to this restricted international environment, Bhutan's economic development is also relatively slow. By 2022, its per capita GDP 2 of is only US$3,491, which is at the mid-to-downstream level in the world.
As of 2021, the total population of Bhutan has reached 777,000. In Bhutan, there are currently three relatively important ethnic groups. The largest group of people in Bhutan is called the Cangluo people, but although this group has the largest number, it is not the group that dominates the situation in Bhutan. At present, the situation in Bhutan is mainly dominated by the Arrow people, the second largest ethnic group in the country. Most of the Bhutanese nobles, including the Bhutanese royal family, come from the Arrow people.
Bhutanese
Around 1860 AD, and the Cangluo people and the Aluo people are actually distributed in China. Both ethnic groups belong to the Menba people. The Menba people are also called the main Ba people in Bhutan. Therefore, it can be said that the Cangluo people and the Aluo people are also different branches of the same ethnic group. The main differences between them reflect the religious beliefs. Some data show that the Aluo people mainly believe in the Zhuba Kagyu sect mentioned in the aforementioned article, while the Cangluo people mainly believe in the Tibetan Buddhism Nyingma sect.
The languages spoken by the Cangluo people and the Aluo people belong to the Chinese-Tibetan language Tibetan language , so it can be said that the main ethnic group in Bhutan also speaks the Chinese-Tibetan language language.However, because Bhutan is located on the southern slope of the Himalayas, it has had a lot of interactions with South Asia in history, so there are also a considerable number of people with South Asian descent in modern Bhutan. These people are called Luochang people in Bhutan, meaning "southern people". This ethnic group is mainly descended from craftsmen from Nepalese who entered Bhutan in the 17th century AD, speaking the Indian- Aryan language language.
Modern Bhutanese children
Because there are huge differences between culture and language from the native Bhutanese ethnic group, this ethnic group had many conflicts with other ethnic groups in Bhutan after the 1980s, and about 100,000 people left Bhutan after that. But there are still a considerable number of Luochang people living in Bhutan. Overall, Bhutan is also a special country with a complex historical background and special national conditions in modern times. (Pictures from the Internet)
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