OFFICIAL NAME: Press Yul (‘Use yul’ Land of Thunder ‘)
CAPITAL CITY: Thimphu
POPULATION: 700,000 (Source: COUNTRYaah)
AREA: 38,394 km²
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE (S): dzongka, Tibetan, Nepali, English
RELIGION: Buddhists 75%, Hindus 25%
COIN: ngultrum
CURRENCY CODE: BTN
ENGLISH NAME: Bhutan
POPULATION COMPOSITION: bhotia 50%, Nepalese 35%, other mountain people 15%
GDP PER residents: $ 694 (2007)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men 62 years, women 65 years (2005)
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, HDI: 0.538
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, POSITION: 135
INTERNET DOMAIN NAME: .bt
Bhutan is a Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas in South Asia. The country’s culture, language and religion are heavily influenced by Tibet, and Bhutan can be considered as belonging to the Tibetan cultural circle, as Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism is the official religion and the official language, dzongka, is a southern Tibetan dialect. Bhutan became a political entity in the 1600’s. The country has in recent decades been in a rapid but controlled development. In 2007 and 2008, democratic parliamentary elections were held for the first time.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Find two-letter abbreviation for each independent country and territory, such as BT which stands for Bhutan.
In 2006, Bhutan was described in a major study as the country with the happiest population in Asia. The country has officially weighted happiness as a higher goal than economic development, and attempts are being made to describe the happiness of the population according to a standard called “gross happiness product”. However, the promotion of Buddhist culture has led to conflicts with the country’s Nepalese population minority.
Bhutan – economy
Bhutan has an open economy where imports account for 40% of GDP. India is the dominant trading partner; this goes 95% of exports, and 2/3 of imports come from here. The currency ngultrum is linked to the Indian rupee.
Development aid makes up a large part of the economy. During the rapid economic development of the early 1980’s, aid accounted for 50% of GDP, but its share is declining. Denmark has been one of the most important development partners since 1989; in the early 2000-t. Danish aid amounts to approximately 65 million kr.
Bhutan is among the poorest countries in the world. Rather than using this measure of economic growth alone, the government is talking about measuring the country’s success in the people’s “gross happiness,” a concept that seeks to include both material, spiritual, and emotional development, based on Buddhist principles.
Bhutan wants to preserve its unique natural values. 72% of the country is still covered by forest, and in general the development must be based on a sustainable environment and on Buddhist values of respect for all living things. The majority of the labor force (93%) is employed in self-sufficient agriculture.
Attempts are being made to build up industry, but the country’s difficult transport conditions make all imports and exports disproportionately expensive. Furthermore, wages are higher than in the surrounding countries, India, Bangladesh, China. Hydropower is under continuous development, with Indian assistance. 98% of electricity production is exported to India.
Bhutan – language
Bhutanese Bhutanese, bhotia or lhoskad is the name of a group of closely related dialects spoken by over half of Bhutan’s population. The most important is dzongka, the national language of the country; the language is closely related to Tibetan. Tibetan is used as the written language, which is very conservative in relation to the spoken dialects. The many Nepalese immigrants speak and write Nepali, and in the eastern part of the country live mountain tribes that are linguistically related to similar peoples in Assam. Check youremailverifier for Bhutan social condition facts.
