The question of new Queen of Bhutan has many citizens in anxious. This is because Bhutan too had a shared of her Imelda Marcos in her brief history. Fifth King, Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck is 29 years odl and there are rumors doing rounds in country about his imminent marriage within two or three months. The country has become constitutional monarchy and that the discussion on the character of Queen is no longer confined in the chambers of self proclaimed advisors. The upkeep of King and his family is the duty of state and therefore, majority of citizens are of opinion that when public exchequer is involved, the public must have their say especially concerning the number of queens. Until now, Bhutan had to bear the heavy financial burden put up by fourth king, who married four wives and bore ten children. What done is done and henceforth, Bhutanese public should never permit King to take more than one queen. This resolve must start with present King.
Unlike other countries, the gross disparity between man and woman in Bhutan were not so stark. A matriarch society prevails in west, while, in east, a mixture of patriarch and matriarch societies are common. Women in Bhutanese had always occupied special space in Bhutanese society. However, the historical defining role of women in the state of affairs was defined by Pema Choki, mother of first King Ugyen Wangchuck. Through treacherous design, she successfully plotted against her brother’s murderer, Singe Namgyal, the then Tongsa Penlop (He had usurped the Tongsa Penlop post after murdering treacherous Tshoki Dorji) and avenged his death in 1883. Her action enabled her son Ugeyn Wangchuk to become the Tongsa Penlop.
During the reign of third king, Yangki, a better known to Bhutanese public as mistress/concubine to Jigme Dorij Wangchuk took the country by storm. She was bestowed with unlimited power drawn through king. Even her relatives lived above laws. She was ubiquitous in every government functions while the members of the royal family were invisible to public. She gave birth to two sons and two daughters although king never bestowed the titles of prince and princess to them. Ambitious and cleverness deserted her. During the tumultuous time of 1964-1965, had she pushed the king towards second marriage, she would have her way. Ashi Kesang Choden was left with little support as most of her family members had fled Bhutan for Nepal, aftermath of the retribution exacted on the culprit of Lhyonchen Palden Dorji’s plotter. Ashi Kesang Choden, out of power equation was holed up in Dechenchholing palace praying hard to relieve her of humiliations.
After the demise of third king in 1972, Ashi Kesang Choden took the role from Yangki and usurped the power of her son, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who became the youngest monarch at tender age of 17. With state power firmly within her grasp, she schemed to oust her bête noire Yangki from Bhutan. In one pretext or other, she finally achieved her objectives to banish Yangki from Bhutan in 1974, when Yangki left for India due to perceived threat to her life. As soon as she heard that Yangki had left the country, she turned her lofty building, seen right from the Dechecholing palace in Thimphu, into ashes. Like her predecessors, her grip on power ended by early 1980s when her son married four sisters and took the helm of state affairs. In fact her place in power equation was taken over by better half of fourth king, notably Ashi Dorji Wangmo. Yangki however lives in India without any political ambitions whatsoever. Her sons live in US.
Unlike her predecessor, Ashi Dorji Wangmo, the eldest queen of fourth king was of different stock. She was gifted with higher intelligence and had perfected the tricks of trade that palace intrigues demanded. She is ambitious, scheming, cunning and even deceitful. However, she is so clever and excellent in maintaining the public relations and image of her that she always manages to find herself in good books. I am one of her great admirer and wonder how she could do it. She heads, the TARAYANA FOUNDATION, a non-governmental organization dedicated for helping the vulnerable sections of society. For these, she travels extensively the length and breath of country. Through these ventures and other, she manages to keep the watch over Bhutanese public. Though, the fifth king has taken the reign, but her power hasn’t diminished.
She is also an author. In one of her books, she writes, “her grand mother tackled people with mixture of diplomacy, command, accommodation and fearlessness to get her way. She not only managed to make people accept her point of view, but to end up thinking that it was originally their own as well.”
There is not an iota of doubts that she has failed to employ her grandmother wisdom into action. Most of Bhutan government’s policies reflected her signatures. Her father and relatives became millionaires overnight. The then economy of Bhutan was quota-license regime. Therefore, sole license to most of profitable enterprise were granted to her relatives. At present, one of the biggest business houses in Bhutan belongs to her father’s family members. She too has invested in many industries.
Bhutanese citizen doesn’t have ill-will against her relatives hoarding the wealth. They marry within Bhutanese society and the wealth is dispensed. Their unpopularity is merited due to their unwise interference in every aspect of socio-cultural affairs, which has angered ordinary citizens, and empowered with votes in democratic society, befittingly gave sound verdicts in last general election against the party headed by her brother, Sangay Nidup, who was trying to establish political hegemony in the democratic era.
With the institution of constitutional monarchy last year, we can perhaps assume that the power of queen is diminished. But at the same time, we must be cautious and never underestimate the ‘power’ ‘because under existing constitution, the king is still vested with boundless power’. Sadly, down the annals of Bhutanese history, king was found to be no longer the pilot in charge of the vessel of the state, but only the, “the man at the wheel”. In existing polity in Bhutan, the queen has greater responsibility. She not only must ensure the proper health of king but also must ensure the equity and impartial dispensation of crown welfare schemes to public. Bhutanese I guess, doesn’t care whether she belongs from Sharchop, Naglong or Lhotshampa Community as long as she performs these two vital duties with utmost honesty and integrity. I don’t know who that lucky girl will be but one thing I’m certain is that Bhutan has no further patient left to accommodate another scheming woman.
good keep it up.
Reality behind Jigme’s Happiness
King Jigme’s mode of value judgment to happiness is totally a fictional one and is the outcome of design and masterly skill. One has to appreciate his courage and ability but at the same times one shouldn’t subdue the cunningness of the ground reality. His reigning era would be clearer if it is phased out into different time events and reviewed accordingly to draw the real scenario.
Stage-I. Design Phase:
This is the initial stage where the back ground preparation and observation were conducted with great weirdness. King Jigme was crowned at the age of seventeen, right after passing the matriculation from Darjeeling. Without further capacity enhancement in any discipline he ruled the country with full zeal and potential as per his amateur skill. His father, a man of vision and determination was uncontroversial ‘father of modern Bhutan’ gave first priority to national sovereignty and consequently the balanced development through modern amenities in an inclusive mechanism. He tried to make the broad based economy and eventually believed in sustainability and independency. Accordingly the third king played his role and left the world. Contrary to his father, king Jigme, knowingly or unknowingly preferred absolutism in his rule and pre-occupied by prejudices that turned over-ambitious. His perception to look into the issues seemingly started to subdued into unethical bent with set mind. To meet these aspirational goals, the principle of favourism was adopted through his near and dear ones with a politics of suspicion. The conspiracy game and its networks slowly spread over the entire nation and the check and balance to selective mass enrooted. Immaturity of vision was clearly felt and time and resource was spent on strengthening a defined category while the people empowerment was nullified.
The greed-stricken conspirators became jealous and began to mark the southern Bhutanese of Nepali speaking mass who were economically sound and culturally matured as their first target. The geography of the country favored the southerner and adheres to become economically sustained and consequently all round development having a direct relation to economy made prosperous.
The failure of Jigme to marry the Nepalese princess may be the subordinate factor to behave in a hatrage manner otherwise he was bought up on the Nepalese society and understood the beauty and charm of it. Having not had the affinity to Nepalese society he wouldn’t have proposed the Nepali princess. And with a motive to take the revenge by love failure fanatic, he reproduced himself in a different incarnation. His mission began to confiscate the wealth and other marked interests thus giving the optimum satisfaction and services to the ruler as per order. While they find hard to materialize the quest they began to legalize the process by drafting different plans and polices through the consultation with king that were mainly focused to south to cripple or crack down. As an out-come, they brought out the Citizenship Act of 1985 and ‘One nation, One People’ policy of 1988. So these are the strategic design to penalize the southerners. The acts were first drafted by the master-minded under shadow and circulated as the royal decree. Disobedience to decree is by law a crime and degree of default varies till the complete disappearance of the person.
Stage-II: Implementation Phase
The citizenship act stratified the citizen into different categories even in a single family and thereby compelled the mass to cry for mercy. Had the act being implemented nationwide the impact would be neutralized but the act was forced only in the southern districts where the Nepali speaking people lived. The annexation of Tibet by Chinese regime made the Tibetan to flee from their homestead and most of the Tibetan took asylum inside Bhutan and rest fled to India and Nepal. The royal government of Bhutan, during king Jigme tenure issued the citizenship certificate to these Tibetans and even they are not stratified into categories. And guess, this period was during king Jigme direct rule whereas the act mentioned the cutoff year for eligibility to Bhutanese national as 1958 AD. Majority of these people live in Thimphu the capital city of the country and they enjoy the national benefits. Here, I want to clarify that we are not against the issuance of citizenship documents to Tibetans but want to highlight the unfair act performed by the royalties. This clearly shows that the citizenship act was meant only for the Nepali speaking mass and prepared intentionally. Can’t we theorize that the purpose of this act is to evict the Nepali speaking population of Bhutan?
The ‘one nation, one people’ policy of 1988 seems more cruel than rest of the policies. This is the process of unique ‘Bhutanization’ that forced all the Bhutanese irrespective of religion, race, belief, faith, culture, tradition, etc to follow the practices of the ruling class Ngalung who comprises just 15% of the national population. They occupy six out of twenty districts of the country. The government produced in such a ruthless manner that they forced everyone to follow the code and never tried to hear the feedbacks. The government agents reached to such a climax that they even burnt the Devnagari script in the market and other public spaces, vandalized the Hindu temples and strife down the idols of different gods and goddesses. If they were that cruel towards immortal materials than imagine the degree of cruelty conducted to the common people. The dress code was made mandatory and speaking non-Dzongkha was a crime and people couldn’t get justice. Each community follows their own tradition and had their own faith and beliefs. Majority of them haven’t heard the name of cagebird Dzongkha before and how dare they would be to communicate. The situation reached too much and over of anything has the reaction. When the situation reached extreme, people without any leadership went to street to show their difference of opinion in a most peaceful procession. Since this was a planned strategy, within no time armed military was operated and each individual irrespective of their presence were prosecuted and tortured to such a barbaric way that they only stopped the deeds until the detainee were forced to sign the migration form mentioning that the person is voluntarily migrating. If one member of the family is suspected, there was no benefit of doubt and it became the proof all in all and whole family is categorized as anti-nationals. Even by tracing the backward linkage of family and relatives of suspected were evicted. The military personal went to such an extent that they began to burn down the schools and dispensaries saying that these places gave the facilities to Nepali speaking population. The fact is that these physical infrastructures were crack down only after the operation of military and none of these physical structures were destroyed before they were operated. How can one evaluate this phenomenon, as eviction or voluntary migration? How can thousands of people migrate when they have their own properties there and nothing in the outside world within a year period? Is this not an ethnic cleansing and aren’t refugee mass its victim? How can a person judge the importance and significance of other culture, when he considers that their culture needs preservation and banned others that too through the mercy of military? How can this issue be addressed and justified? How will the world perceive this phenomenon change?
Stage-III: Controversial Marriage and Crown Prince.
King Jigme publicized his marriage in 1988 and declared the nationwide royal wedding ceremony. Enthusiastic people were shocked to know that his marriage was polygamous to four ladies. By the time he organized the ceremony, he was already a father of eight children, two from each queens. The eldest child from the second wife was already twelve years old and in early 1990s he declared, the boy named Gyeshar as the crown prince, the right to his heir. Through the system and practice, it is the eldest male child from the first queen that too born after the legal marriage gets the heir right. But king Jigme gave legitimacy to his bastard son (meaning born before the marriage) that too from the second wife that ultimately added fuel in the wild fire. This controversial rightness had deteriorated the family knots and dragged the situation to the cold war. King clearly felt the unrest and reacted timely. In the process to settle this dispute, Jigme played the most cunning role and stand in a most eminent position. He controlled the situation and used his veto not to oppose his magnanimous decision and raise the issue as this being the royal decree. To overcome the probable complication he took the courage to safeguard the throne to his generation by quitting the crown. Otherwise, why should a man born in 1955AD needs to quit the throne? Isn’t this an age to start the politics and be a ruler? If we look into the structure of other countries, most of the state-heads start to involve in the politics on approximately this similar age of king Jigme’s quitting age. If this noble act was for the demand of the people than the 108000 from 630000 population are in exile since early 90s fighting their lives for the democracy and justice and all the people except 15% Naglung within the country are demanding the peoples’ government. How can we say that the king is for the people and quits the throne for people? We don’t understand the kingship, whether this is a post or an institution? If the kingship is an institution than he should have followed the system and process that would at least help to shut down the eyelids of blind citizen. The people of 21st century are very sensitive irrespective of locational attributes.
Stage IV: Gross National Happiness (GNH)
The king feared to show the truth and he covered the scar-marks through the glasses to hide them from others as if others don’t understand the basic tactics. But the satisfaction one derives from the action cumulates and the expression varies as per human level and behavioral aspects. King Jigme extracted optimum satisfaction from whatever he did in the past and by the time he began to realize the truth through maturity, he began to somnambulate by the change of millennium. He understood that later or sooner there will be a doomsday to justify the truth as even the power hungry Sadam Huissan was not left in the mercy of people. To systematize the process and neutralized the charged people he got the enlightenment.
To overcome the global criticism, he coined the term GNH and fooled the whole universe mentioning that the people of Bhutan are happy. How can the Bhutanese people be happy when there are two systems of governance that prevailed in a same nation, right now? How can the people be happy when there are two categories of citizen which is vertically separated by the state on the basis of ancestral lineage? How can the people be happy when they are not allowed to practice their own culture, religion and tradition and people are forced to accept the induced others’ system. One community looks through suspicion to the other and where is the trust? Who is liable for this, people or king?
If one observes the data of Royal Civil Services Commission than one can clearly sense the differences. How many southerners are there above grade three in the status grading of civil service? Are the people from the south incompetent for those posts or their mass is insignificant from approximately 45% population? If we look into the academic performance of all the Bhutanese people than the academic performance of southerners is relatively better than rest of the community and even than they are prevented. Isn’t the system to employ in service through the selective mechanism that favors only the section of population? Recently the RCSC made the oral interview mandatory and face the interview in Dzongkha irrespective of subject or status and there by disqualifying the people to rest of non-Dzongkha speaking community. Can Dzongkha mark the potential and ability of individual who had their educational background in other universal languages? How cleverly the country moved ahead taking the advantage of royal linkage!
These are some of the actualities and one can draw the conclusion that Bhutanese people aren’t happy except the royal family and their community. People are suffering and crying for mercy. The problems faced by the people aren’t addressed by the state. International bodies are not allowed to monitor the actual situation.
congratulations for a new king of bhutan (jigme keshar namgyel wangchuk) iam very proud of you that you have got a married on 29 years what are the idea to be disscussion to make a country a constutional monarchy. what kind of person create the such type of idea thats the great and good.
hi
Sweet season of love.
Delicate star
of a beautiful
and inner emotion,
listen to me
when the sun
fades away:
there’s a candle
tonight in the
light of a silence,
and a season
of love….
Francesco Sinibaldi
Our inability to stand someone results from our lack of cultivation.
Having a wider heart and mind is more important than having a larger house.
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
The universe that we inhabit and our shared perception of it are the results of a common karma. Likewise, the places that we will experience in future rebirths will be the outcome of the karma that we share with the other beings living there. The actions of each of us, human or nonhuman, have contributed to the world in which we live. We all have a common responsibility for our world and are connected with everything in it.
If the love within your mind is lost and you see other beings as enemies
According to kanchaka “The failure of Jigme to marry the Nepalese princess may be the subordinate factor to behave in a hatrage manner otherwise he was bought up on the Nepalese society and understood the beauty and charm of it. Having not had the affinity to Nepalese society he wouldn’t have proposed the Nepali princess.” i dont think King Jigme proposed any nepali Princess. Should we have any Nepali(ppl from Nepal) as our queeen..Bhutan would not have been what it is now. It would have been a bloody maoist State by now.
While analysis any political situation, the democracy of Nepal no where fits in the good practices of it ,though people of Nepal are good, their goverment is not. I would like to bring out that we bhutanese living in Nepal have somehow got the neplese prospective of political ethics which i would say is totally wretched. We have to take our infact democracy to long way.
So, who marries King is not our question . It is the state Affairs. The constitution grants ammulments to the Royal Family so its not of any Tom, Dick or Kanchadaka’s bussiness.After all King is above all.
108000 so called refugees are the people of Nepal who came to Bhutan during the 70and early 80s. How? Very simple! Reasons below and please connect the dots.
1. After getting rid of the Ranas, the Shahs were grabbing everything they could and once again the poor people in Nepal were the sufferers. First the Ranas and then the Shahs. So the Nepalis were going to India and also looking for greener pastures.
2. During the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s Bhutanese parents were encouraged to send their kids to school by the King. To ease the burden and to make it worthwhile, the students were provided books, pencils, erasers, dress, shoes, socks, soaps, tooth brush, combs, underwears, sports uniforms and meal in the boarding schools. Initially they were sent to places like Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kuersong and when schools in Thimphu and Punakha and Phuentshling were opener they were then sent there. By 1987 these free bees were discontinued.
3. During the late 70 and 80 Bhutanese were going to Nepal because of religious reasons like the famous Boudha, Buddhanilkanta, Swayambunath and also some of the reincarnate Bhutanese Rinpoches also had followers in Nepal and offices there. We went there and the Nepalis were very kind and they provided us with free lodging for the nights. We said bye when it was time to leave. And we invited them over to visit Bhutan if they could. They did come and when they felt sick we took them to our hospital and they were amazed because health care was free. And by the by we told them about the schools and how the Government provided everything for free. They were sold. And some never left because they liked it.
So from the above I am sure you can draw your own conclusion.
My grandfather and grandmother came to India and near the Bhutanese border during the 1930s from Nepal and were recruited in the services of the Kazi of Bhutan (Agent of Bhutan). But because of the 108000 so called Bhutanese Refugees who came for a visit and prolonged their stay, our neighbours questioned us once in jest-I wonder. My grandfather and grandmother and parents broke their backs so that we the children could reap the benefit and along comes these so called “Bhutanese Refugees” from Nepal looking for free things and they got it and never left. In turn they destroyed the smooth flow of life and friendships that people like my grandfather and parents had cultivated for almost 9 decades. The trust that the Kings of Bhutan had in us Nepali speaking people have forever been shattered and it is going to take a while to earn that trust again.
You so called “Bhutanese Refugees” please stay in Nepal, US, New York or wherever and please don’t come back to destroy our lives that people like my grandfather tried so hard to build for us from a scratch. I can speak perfect Dzongkha because Dzongkha is my national language and Nepali is Nepal’s national language. I can also speak Nepali, Sharchopka, Bumtap kha.
who ever u r u dont know anything. FYI her majesty ashi kesang choden wangchuck is a reincarantion of a Khandum. and by the way who ever this mistress is she tried to kill her majesty and the 3rd kings real children. and her majesty is the most kind and intillegent queen. and there was never a building near dechencgoling palace which was yanki’s. and next time if u dont know shit plz dont talk about people like that……..
@Jack. Do you actually know Ashi Yangki, have you ever met her, do you know the truth? Well, on my stint to India, on demand from a BBC articulate, i was researching Buddhist and Indian Slokas. I had the opportunity to meet her and lets face it, historical facts are never accurate. From the time i met her, she had humility and was kind enough to extend me an invitation to dine with her and her family. From what i do know, she was kind, gentle and courteous, and i did speak to a few other members of her family, including her sons. There is no respite and as far as i know, there is nothing murderous about her. The fact is for better judgement, she is an elegant lady who holds no hatred about Bhutan, but is always passionate about speaking about Bhutan, the late King and stories about what Bhutan was like in the 60s and 70s and how the country first became a part of the U.N. I have never judged a book by a cover and always refrain from speaking ill will about other people, being a journalist in the field. I do know that after my meeting with Yangki in India, something like you just put in words out here just don’t seem to match and your comment on this site about Yangki is just unclassy. Next time try not to punch people under their belt. I sure do the term being humane when i come across a lot of people, and i sure do wish Yangki and her family well. – [email protected]
While i accept Azhi Yangki may be courteous and woman of humility, while i accept people called Bhutanese refugees has their own grains of truth, while i accept Azhi Dorji Wangmo may be cunningly kind, while i accept the history may be partially wrong, i also agree that nothing lasts forever. The power lies in the hands of ordinary people if they want…so no need to argue and counter argue about something we will never be.