Kingdom of Bhutan

 འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ (Dzongkha)
 Druk Gyal Khap

Flag

Emblem

Anthem: Druk tsendhen

"The Thunder Dragon Kingdom"

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 Capital Thimphu
and largest city 27°28.0′N89°38.5′E

Official languages Dzongkha

Religion Buddhism
Hinduism

Demonym Bhutanese

Government Unitary parliamentaryconstitutional

monarchy

• King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

• Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Wangchuk (as Chief
Advisor)

Legislature Parliament

• Upper house National Council

• Lower house National Assembly

Formation

• Unification of Bhutan 1616–1634

• House of Wangchuck 17 December 1907
• Indo-Bhutan Treaty 8 August 1949
• UN membership 21 September 1971
• Democratic 18 July 2008
Constitutional
monarchy

Area
• Total 38,394 km2(14,824 sq mi)[1][2](133rd)
• Water (%) 1.1

Population
• 2016 estimate 797,765[3] (165th)
• 2005a census 634,982[4]
• Density 19.3/km2 (50.0/sq mi) (196th)

GDP (PPP) 2018 estimate

• Total $7.701 billion[5]
• Per capita $9,426[5] (115th)
 GDP (nominal) 2018 estimate
• Total $2.547 billion[5]
• Per capita $3,117[5] (130th)

Gini (2012) 38.7[6]

medium

HDI (2017) 0.612[7]

medium · 134th

Currency Ngultrum (BTN)

Time zone UTC+6 (BTT)

Driving side left

Calling code +975

ISO 3166 code BT

Internet TLD .bt

a. The population of Bhutan had been estimated based on the

reported figure of about 1 million in the 1970s when the
country had joined the United Nations and precise statistics
were lacking.[8] Thus, using the annual increase rate of 2–3%,
the most population estimates were around 2 million in the
year 2000. A national census was carried out in 2005 and it
turned out that the population was 672,425.
Consequently, United Nations Population Division reduced its
estimation of the country's population in the 2006 revision [9] for
the whole period from 1950 to 2050.

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Bhutan (/buːˈtɑːn/ ( listen); འབྲུག་ཡུལ་ Druk Yul), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan (འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ Druk
Gyal Khap),[10] is a landlocked country in South Asia. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it is
bordered by Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north, the Sikkim state of India and
the Chumbi Valley of Tibet in the west, the Arunachal Pradesh state of India in the east, and the
states of Assam and West Bengal in the south. Bhutan is geopolitically in South Asia and is the
region's second least populous nation after the Maldives. Thimphu is its capital and largest city,
while Phuntsholing is its financial center.
The independence of Bhutan has endured for centuries and it has never been colonized in its
history. Situated on the ancient Silk Road between Tibet, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast
Asia, the Bhutanese state developed a distinct national identity based on Buddhism. Headed by a
spiritual leader known as the Zhabdrung Rinpoche, the territory was composed of
many fiefdoms and governed as a Buddhist theocracy. Following a civil war in the 19th century,
the House of Wangchuck reunited the country and established relations with the British Empire.
Bhutan fostered a strategic partnership with India during the rise of Chinese communism and has a
disputed border with China. In 2008, Bhutan transitioned from an absolute monarchy to
a constitutional monarchy and held the first election to the National Assembly of Bhutan. The
National Assembly of Bhutan is part of the bicameral parliament of the Bhutanese democracy.[11]