Over the past two years, Lhostampa exiles and the Thimphu government have published their version of events. Also, a South Asian jurists' report was released in early August 1992
The Bhutan State Congress was, fora few years, to make big waves on the placid surface of Bhutanese politics. The Party's rise and fall is instructive for the
Lhotshampas, the Nepali-speaking people of southern Bhutan, are being forcibly evicted from their country by an elite that fears demographic inundation. Such fears are understandable, but not the method of
Bhutan, wrote the American scholar Leo E. Rose back in 1977, is about as "data-free" as it is possible for a polity of over 300 years old to
Although both are generically called 'Drukpas', the world knows of Bhutan through the pastoral/peasant Ngalung society of western Bhutan rather than the forest dwelling Sarchops of the
Bhutan's domestic hydro power needs are small. But there are large electricity markets in Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal, and a developing one in Bangladesh, which Bhutan can
Environmental degradation, deforestation, and "deteriorating quality of life" are terms increasingly used to describe the conditions in which the people of the Himalayan foothills live. A refreshing exception,
Shangri-La…the perfect realm, shrouded in profound mysticism… visions of sacred monasteries, fluttering prayer-flags, maroon-clad monks in meditative chants… up among lofty snow-clad peaks deep in the Himalaya.
To a
This year too, late monsoon rains brought news of devastation as mountain-sides succumbed to the pull of gravity – from the Indian north-east westward, through Bhutan, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh and beyond.
Since it cautiously opened its borders 13 to foreign visitors in 1974, following the coronation of HM King Jigme Singhe Wangchuk, Bhutan has been earning about U$2 million a