“This is the worst period in our 2,000-year history. This really is the most serious period. At this time, now, there is every danger that the entire Tibetan nation, with its own unique cultural heritage, will completely disappear. The present situation is so serious that it is really a question of life and death. If death occurs, nothing is left.”

 His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize speech, 1989

THE ROADS LESS TRAVELLED

By Héctor Méndez Caratini

 

The Himalayas

The Himalayas are a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan plateau. The Himalayan range, known as the “Rooftop of the World,” is home to some of the planet’s tallest peaks, including Mount Everest, the world’s highest, at 29,029 feet. It has over a hundred mountains exceeding 23,000 feet in height. Most of the Himalayas lie above the snow line.

This is one of the harshest regions of the world, with temperatures in winter dipping as low as ‑50 degrees centigrade, with icy howling winds in an arid landscape. The Himalayan desert is a wild, desolate region, a land of great peaks and deep valleys, with precipitous gorges cut by rivers that arise high on the plateau of snow and ice.

At the crossroads of ancient Asian civilizations, the Himalayas are a mixture of Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese cultures, with their adherents of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 1,500 miles long, separating the Indian sub-continent from the high plateau of Central Asia and the Himalayan desert. The Himalayan range consists of three parallel sub-ranges that cross six countries: Bhutan, India, Nepal, Tibet, the People’s Republic of China, and Pakistan, with the first four countries having sovereignty over most of the range. The severe conditions in remote parts of the region make travel difficult, and for most of history, the people of the region have been largely isolated from surrounding cultures.

The flora and fauna of the Himalayas vary with the seasons, the climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. The climate ranges from tropical, at the base of the mountains, to permanent ice and snow at the highest elevations. Five of Asia’s great rivers, including the Indus, the Mekong, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, have their headwaters in the Himalayas. Their combined drainage basin is home to some 600 million people. Nearly half the world’s population lives downstream from Tibet.

The locals live their dreams in a sacred coexistence with the elements. The mountains are the homes of gods and goddesses who possess supernatural powers. Many Himalayan peaks are of religious significance in Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, the Himalayas have also been personified as the god Himavat, the god of snow, who is mentioned in the Mahabharata. He is the father of Ganga and Saraswati, who became rivers, and Parvati, who married Shiva.

A number of revered Tibetan Buddhist sites are situated through the Himalayan range, including the residence of the Dalai Lama. At one time, there were over 6,000 monasteries in Tibet. The Tibetan Muslims had their own mosques in Lhasa and Shigatse. The mountain range itself is considered sacred land, not an arena for sport and adventure, in harmony with the wandering nomads. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of Southeast Asia.

Buddhism

According to legend, one day he convinced his charioteer to take him outside the palace and was shocked at the sight of an old man, a cripple, and a corpse. The realization that there was so much misery and unhappiness in the world persuaded the prince to abandon his luxurious life in the royal palace in order to search for enlightenment through meditation, and he set out on his quest for the true meaning of life.

For many years, Gautama wandered from place to place, teaching and converting hundreds of followers, while looking for a solution to the problems he saw all around him. Finally, while meditating under a pipal tree, he became spiritually enlightened. Thenceforth known as Lord Buddha or “the enlightened one,” the Samyaksambuddha, he began to preach the “Four Noble Truths” to all who would listen. According to this doctrine, people suffer because of their attachment to things and people; in other words, the root of all problems is desire. These desires, and, consequently, all problems and sufferings, can be transcended by following the “eightfold path”—right views, right intent, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

The Buddha died at the age of eighty. His many disciples, however, continued to spread his teachings. Buddhism, which is based on those teachings, has lasted from the sixth century BCE to the present. The religion evolved as it spread from the northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent through Central, East, and Southeast Asia. The history of Buddhism is also characterized by the development of numerous movements, schisms, and schools, among them the Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna traditions, with alternating periods of expansion and retreat.

Buddhism preaches that its followers can attain nirvana (enlightenment) even if they are poor and have no material wealth. Nirvana, indeed, is the ultimate goal of all Buddhists. The attainment of nirvana breaks the otherwise endless cycle of death, rebirth, and reincarnation. Buddhists consider nirvana the supreme state when one is freed from all worldly concerns such as suffering, greed, hate, ignorance, and egoism.

Hinduism

Hinduism is generally regarded as the oldest formal religion in the world. Its origins go back to the pastoral Aryan tribes, spilling over the Hindu Kush from Inner Asia, mixing with the urban civilization of the Indus Valley and with the tribal cultures of hunter-gatherer peoples in the area. Unlike other world religions, Hinduism had no single founder and has never been a missionary in orientation. It is believed that in about 1,200 BCE the Vedas, a body of hymns originating in northern India, was produced. These texts, containing the precepts of the religion, form the theological and philosophical foundation of Hinduism.

Hindus believe that the Absolute (the totality of existence, including God, man, and the universe) is too vast to be contained within a single set of beliefs. A highly diverse and complex religion, Hinduism embraces six philosophical doctrines (darshanas). From these doctrines, individuals select one that is congenial, or they may conduct their worship simply at a convenient level of morality and observance. Religious practices differ from group to group. The average Hindu does not need any systematic formal creed in order to practice his or her religion. Hindus comply with the customs of their family and social groups.

One basic concept in Hinduism is that of dharma, natural law, and the social and religious obligations it imposes. Dharma is the religious law and moral code by which individuals may achieve enlightenment. It holds that individuals should play their proper role in society as determined or prescribed by their dharma. According to Hinduism, cosmic law determines the order of the world, and every human being must accept his or her caste of birth. The caste system provides a code of conduct and the rites to be performed as the individual’s situation merits. The caste, though not essential to philosophical Hinduism, has become an integral part of its social or dharmic expression. Under this system, each person is born into a particular caste, whose traditional occupation—though members do not necessarily practice it—is graded according to the degree of purity and impurity inherent in it.

Karma (universal justice) is at the basis of Hindu belief. Hindus believe that every good or bad action has inevitable consequences. Karma, then, is the balance of action and reaction. Another basic concept is that of samsara, the transmigration of souls. Rebirth is required by karma in order that the consequences of an action can fully play out. The role an individual must play throughout his or her life is fixed by his or her good and evil actions in previous existences. It is only when the individual soul sees beyond the veil of Maya (illusion or earthly desires)—the forces leading to belief in the appearances of things—that it is able to realize its identity with the impersonal, transcendental reality (world soul) and escape from the otherwise endless cycle of rebirth and be absorbed into the world soul. This release is known as moksha.

Hinduism is polytheistic. It incorporates many gods and goddesses, each with his or her own functions and powers, but in the most important and widely held doctrine, the Vedanta (end of the Vedas), gods, and goddesses are considered merely the various manifestations or aspects of a single underlying divinity. This single divinity is expressed as a Hindu triad comprising the religion’s three major gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva personifying creation, preservation, and destruction, respectively. Vishnu and Shiva, or some of their numerous avatars (incarnations), are the most widely followed.

Vishnu, whose primary duty is to ensure the preservation of the world and all living forms, is believed to have visited the earth ten times as avatars. He is also believed to have come to the earth as a Varaha, as Prince Rama, as the god Krishna, and as Lord Gautam Buddha. Shiva, the Destroyer, is believed to have three forms—Natraj the god of artistic skill; an anthropomorphic form; and the lingam form. The most famous lingam is situated in the northwest of Katmandu. In front of any Shiva temple, one usually sees a statue of Nandi, the divine bull that serves as Shiva’s mount. In anthropomorphic form, Shiva is depicted with his consort Parbati and usually holds a trident and a small drum. Another popular form of Shiva is terrifying Bhairav, who himself has a number of different forms.

Other fundamental ideas common to all Hindus concern the nature and destiny of the soul and the basic forces of the universe. The souls of human beings are seen as separated portions of an all-embracing world soul (brahma). An individual’s ultimate goal is the reunion with this absolute. Hindus believe in rebirth into a better life.

TIBET

Tibetan history begins with the incursions of the Qiang people from central China into the Tibetan plateau when the Buddha was living in India, Confucius, and Lao-tseu in China (fifth century BCE). The Tibetan state began in 127 BCE with the establishment of the Yarlung Dynasty. The country as we now know it was first unified under King Songtsän Gampo (r. 627-650 CE) and his successors. During this period, many famous buildings and holy places were built, such as the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa (642 CE). During the centuries that followed, Tibet was one of the mightiest powers in Asia, as a pillar inscription at the foot of the Potala Palace, in Lhasa, and the Chinese Tang histories of the period confirm.

In the seventh century, during the reign of Srong-brtsan-sgam-po (d. 650 CE), Buddhism was first introduced into Tibet from India. A century later, King Trisong Detsen (r. 755–797) established Buddhism as the official religion of the state. The history of this nation, as it has been recorded, is particularly focused on the history of Buddhism in Tibet. This is partly due to the pivotal role the religion has played in the development of Tibetan, Mongol, and Manchu cultures, and partly because almost all native historians of the country have been Buddhist monks.

As Genghis Khan’s Mongol empire expanded toward Europe in the west and China in the east in the thirteenth century, Tibetan leaders of the powerful Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism concluded an agreement with the Mongol rulers in order to avoid the conquest of Tibet. The Tibetan Lama promised political loyalty, religious blessings, and instruction in exchange for patronage and protection. The religious relationship became so important that when, decades later, Kublai Khan conquered China and established the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), he invited the Sakya Lama to become the Imperial Preceptor and supreme pontiff of his empire.

The relationship that developed between the Mongols and the Tibetans was a reflection of the close racial, cultural, and, especially, religious affinity between the two central Asian peoples. The Mongol Empire was a world empire, and whatever the relationship between its rulers and the Tibetans, the Mongols never integrated the administration of Tibet and China, or appended Tibet to China in any manner. Tibet broke political ties with the Yuan emperor in 1350 before China had regained its independence from the Mongols.

Tibet developed no ties with the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). On the other hand, the Dalai Lama, who had established his sovereign rule over Tibet in 1642 with the help of a Mongol patron, did develop close religious ties with the Manchu emperors who conquered China and established the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). The Dalai Lama agreed to become the spiritual guide of the Manchu emperor and accepted patronage and protection in exchange.

This “priest-patron” relationship (known in Tibetan as ChoeYoen), which the Dalai Lama also maintained with some Mongol princes and Tibetan nobles, was the only formal tie that existed between the Tibetans and the Manchus during the Qing Dynasty. This relationship did not, in itself, affect Tibet’s independence.

On the political level, some powerful Manchu emperors succeeded in exerting a degree of influence over Tibet. Thus, between 1720 and 1792, emperors Kangxi, Yong Zheng, and Qianglong sent imperial troops to Tibet four times to protect the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people from foreign invasions by Mongols and Gurkhas or from internal unrest. These expeditions provided the emperor with the means of establishing influence in Tibet. He sent representatives to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, some of whom successfully exercised their influence, in his name, over the Tibetan government, particularly with respect to the conduct of foreign relations.

At the height of Manchu power, which lasted several decades, the situation was not unlike that which exists between a superpower and a satellite or protectorate, and therefore one which, though politically significant, does not extinguish the independent existence of the weaker state. Tibet was never incorporated into the Manchu empire, much less into China, and it continued to conduct its relations with neighboring states largely alone.

Manchu’s influence did not last long. It was entirely ineffective by the time the British briefly invaded Lhasa and concluded a bilateral treaty, the Lhasa Convention, with Tibet in 1904. Despite this loss of influence, the imperial government in Peking continued to claim some authority over Tibet, particularly with respect to its international relations, an authority which the British imperial government termed “suzerainty” in its dealings with Beijing (then “Peking”) and Leningrad (then “St. Petersburg”).

Imperial armies tried to reassert actual influence in 1910 by invading the country and occupying Lhasa. Following the 1911 revolution in China and the overthrow of the Manchu empire, troops surrendered to the Tibetan army and were repatriated under a Sino-Tibetan peace accord. The Dalai Lama reasserted Tibet’s full independence internally by issuing a proclamation and externally in communications to foreign rulers and in a treaty with Mongolia.

Tibet’s status following the expulsion of Manchu troops is not subject to serious dispute. Whatever ties existed between the Dalai Lamas and the Manchu emperors of the Qing Dynasty were extinguished with the fall of that empire and dynasty. From 1911 to 1950, Tibet successfully avoided undue foreign influence and behaved, in every respect, as a fully independent state.

Tibet maintained diplomatic relations with Nepal, Bhutan, Britain, and later with independent India. Relations with China remained strained. The Chinese waged a border war with Tibet while formally urging Tibet to “join” the Chinese Republic, claiming to the rest of the world that Tibet already was one of China’s “five races.”

In 1913, in an effort to reduce Sino-Tibetan tensions, the British convened a tripartite conference in Simla, where the three states met on equal terms. As the British delegate reminded his Chinese counterpart, Tibet entered the conference as “an independent nation recognizing no allegiance to China.” The conference was unsuccessful in that it did not resolve the differences between Tibet and China. It was, nevertheless, significant in that Anglo-Tibetan friendship was reaffirmed with the conclusion of bilateral trade and border agreements.

In a joint declaration, Great Britain and Tibet bound themselves not to recognize Chinese suzerainty or other special rights in Tibet unless China signed the draft Simla Convention, which would have guaranteed Tibet’s greater borders, territorial integrity, and full autonomy. China did not sign the Convention, however, leaving the terms of the joint declaration in force.

During this time, Tibet conducted its international relations primarily by dealing with the British, Chinese, Nepalese and Bhutanese diplomatic missions in Lhasa, but also through government delegations traveling abroad. When India became independent, the British Mission in Lhasa was replaced by an Indian mission. During World War II Tibet remained neutral, despite strong pressure from the United States, Britain, and China to allow the passage of raw materials through Tibet.

Tibet has never maintained extensive international relations, but those countries with whom it did maintain relations treated Tibet as they would have treated any sovereign state. Its international status was in fact no different, for example than that of Nepal. Thus, when Nepal applied for membership to the United Nations in 1949, it cited its treaty and diplomatic relations with Tibet as evidence of its full international personality.

That same year, 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded. The turning point in Tibet’s history came in 1950 when 80,000 Chinese soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army of the PRC invaded Tibet. In May of 1951, after defeating the small Tibetan army and occupying half the country, the Chinese government forced the Tibetan government to agree to the “17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet.” Because it was signed under duress, the agreement lacked validity under international law. The presence of 40,000 troops in Tibet, the threat of the immediate occupation of Lhasa, and the prospect of the total obliteration of the Tibetan state left the Tibetan government little choice but to sign the agreement.

By 1959, popular uprisings culminated in massive demonstrations in Lhasa. After China’s brutal suppression of the uprising, between 200,000 and 1,000,000 Tibetans lay dead and the Dalai Lama had fled to Dharamshala, in India, a region free from Chinese domination, where he now resides with the Tibetan government-in-exile. More than 100,000 Tibetans live in exile, mainly in India and Nepal.

In 1963 the Dalai Lama presented a constitution for a democratic Tibet, and the constitution has been successfully implemented, to the extent possible, by the government-in-exile. Two years later, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) was created.

In 1966, the Chinese Cultural Revolution came to Lhasa, and by 1969 not a single practicing monk or nun remained in Tibet. In the 1970s, during the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards destroyed nearly 6,000 official buildings, holy places, and monasteries, imprisoned thousands of monks and other community leaders, and burned nearly all the Tibetan libraries and books, in an effort to erase Tibetan civilization and language.

Even so, the religious persecution, consistent violations of human rights, and wholesale destruction of religious and historic buildings by the Chinese occupying authorities have not succeeded in destroying the spirit of the Tibetan people to resist the destruction of their national identity. Some 1.2 million Tibetans have lost their lives (more than one-sixth of the population) as a result of the Chinese occupation, but today, a new generation of Tibetans is just as determined to regain the country’s independence as the older generation was.

Nepal

Historians and local traditions say that a Hindu sage named “Ne” or “Nemuni” established himself in the valley of Kathmandu during prehistoric times. The word “Nepal” means “the place protected [pala in Sanskrit] by the sage Ne.” In the Pashupati Purana, a sacred text, this wise man is mentioned as a saint and a protector. Ne performed religious ceremonies at Teku, the confluence of the Bagmati and Vishnumati rivers. According to legend, he selected a pious cowherd, Bhuktaman, to be the first of the many kings of the Gopala (“Cowherd”) dynasty. The Silncan Gopal dynasty ruled for 621 years. Yakshya Gupta was the last king of this dynasty.

The Vamshavalis, or genealogical chronicles, are the only moderately reliable basis for Nepal’s ancient history. These chronicles mention the rule of several dynasties—the Gopala, the Abhira, and the Kirati—over a span of centuries. However, no historical evidence has yet authenticated the rule of these legendary dynasties. Around 300 CE the Licchavi, a Hindu people from northern India, overthrew the Kirati. Hinduism became the main religion, and the caste system was imposed.

The documented history of Nepal begins with the Changu Narayan temple inscription of King Manadeva I (r. ca. 464–505 CE) of the Licchavi dynasty. The Licchavi were in power until 602 CE, when the Thakuri took over. The first Thakurian king, Amsuvarman, helped to bridge Nepal’s relationship with Tibet when his daughter married a Tibetan prince. Amsuvarman liked the location of the Kathmandu Valley, tucked away within the towering Himalayas, and he decided to build his palace there. The city of Kathmandu was founded in the tenth century with the building of Kasthmandap (“House of Wood”). This and many other ancient buildings are still standing in what is today Durbua Square, in Kathmandu.

Around 1200, King Arideva became the first ruler in the Malla dynasty. The Malla were Hindus and enforced a strict caste system, but were tolerant of Buddhists. The two religions coexisted peacefully, side by side. Later, in the mid-1300s, Nepal began dividing into many small city-states with feuding royal families. A Muslim invasion of the area during this period left Nepal relatively unscathed, though several Hindu and Buddhist shrines were damaged. It was India that faced major destruction, leading many Hindus to seek safety in Nepal. The new surge in population created even more city-states. At one time during this period, there were a total of 48 separate city-states in Nepal, each with its own currency and army.

In 1372, Kathmandu’s king, Jayasthiti Malla, took over the neighboring city-state of Patan, and a decade later, the city-state of Bhaktapur. This unified the Kathmandu Valley into one large kingdom. The reign of King Yaksha Malla, in the mid-1400s  saw Nepal’s borders extend south to the Ganges and north into Tibet. After the king’s death in 1482, however, Nepal split up again into many small states, which would continue to battle each other for two hundred years. As the fighting continued amongst the Malla kingdoms, a new dynasty came into power, led by the Shah kings of Gorkha, a small kingdom located halfway between Kathmandu and Pokhara, and gradually extended its territory. In 1768, it conquered the Kathmandu Valley. (We might note that before Nepal’s emergence as a nation, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the designation “Nepal” was generally applied only to the Kathmandu Valley.)

Throughout the 1790s Nepal and China were engaged in a constant series of border disputes over ownership of Tibet. Eventually, the Nepalese forces were defeated and pushed out. As the British power on the subcontinent continued to grow, the British arrived in Nepal in the early 1800s. Disputes over Nepal’s expanding southern borders led to a war between the British and Nepal. Nepal lost much of its land, though Nepal’s support for the British during the Indian Mutiny (or War of Independence) gave the British incentive to return the Terai and other areas of land in the south in 1858.

In 1846, an event is known as the Kot Massacre occurred. Jun Bagadur Rana, a noble from western Nepal, invited hundreds of the country’s top political and military officials to a party. He then massacred all of them. Afterward, he gave himself the title of Prime Minister, which he said would be a hereditary position in Nepal. Thus the Ranas became another “royal family” within the kingdom and held a great amount of power for over a century.

In the mid-1900s, King Mahendra Shah set up a constitution and instituted a government based on the parliamentary system. Nepal’s first general elections were held in 1959, and B. P. Koirala became the new Prime Minister. In 1960, however, King Mahendra decided that he did not like the setup of the new government and had the entire cabinet arrested, banned political parties, and regained absolute power. In 1962, Mahendra again changed the form of government, this time to an indirect democratic system. He also appointed the Prime Minister and his cabinet.

King Mahendra died in 1972 and was succeeded by his son Birendra. Throughout the 1970s corruption became rampant, and violent riots broke out in Kathmandu. The king decided to hold a referendum in which the people would choose between the panchayat system (a system well-known in South Asia, consisting of a semi-democratic government with a legislative assembly “guided” by a monarch) and a government in which political parties were allowed to campaign. The panchayat system narrowly won, but the king had already declared that no matter what the outcome of the referendum was, the new government would consist of an elected legislature (with five-year terms) which would elect the Prime Minister. The first such election was held in 1981.

In response to the king’s imposition of a political system on the country, political parties allied to form a coalition that demanded a multi-party democracy with the king as a constitutional head. The coalition held many peaceful protests, but in February of 1990, the demonstrations were met by the government with bullets, tear gas, arrests, and torture. After months of riots and over three hundred deaths, the king lifted the ban on political parties and announced his approval of a constitutional monarchy. Nepal held its general election for a 205-seat parliament in May of 1991. A Maoist insurgence began in 1996, ending with a Communist victory in 2007. Meanwhile, in 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra massacred King Birendra and the royal family and tried to commit suicide. He lived long enough to become king, but when he finally expired, Prince Gyanendra came to the throne. The hugely unpopular Gyanendra was forced to abdicate in 2007, and the Maoists won the democratic elections in 2008.

BHUTAN

The people of Bhutan call their country Druk Yul, the Land of the Thunder Dragon. Modern Bhutan is a small country with a population close to 810,000 living on 14,824 square miles—a territory approximately the size of Switzerland. The precise etymology of “Bhutan” is unknown, although it probably derives from the Tibetan endonym Bod, used for Greater Tibet. It is traditionally taken to be a transcription of the Sanskrit Bhota-anta, which literally means the “end of Tibet,” in reference to Bhutan’s position as the southern extremity of the Tibetan plateau and culture. Bhutan is a beyul—a “hidden valley”, a magical kingdom, tucked in among the green forest valleys and towering mountains of the Eastern Himalayas. The Kingdom of Bhutan lies between Tibet to the north, the Indian territories of Assam and West Bengal to the south and east, and Sikkim to the west.

The origins of its people can be traced to the tribes of northern Burma and northeast India. Much of early Bhutanese history is unclear because most of its records were destroyed when a fire ravaged the ancient capital, Punakha, in 1827. Bhutan’s historical period begins at about 747 CE when the revered guru Padmasambhava came from Tibet and introduced Buddhism to the country.

Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (r. 627–650), a convert to Buddhism who had extended the Tibetan Empire into Sikkim and Bhutan, ordered the construction of two Buddhist temples, one at Bumthang District in central Bhutan and the other at Kyichu (near Paro) in the Paro Valley. Buddhism began to take deeper root in 746 under King Sindhu Rāja, an exiled Indian king who had established a government in Bumthang, at the Chakhar Gutho Palace.

By the tenth century, Bhutan’s political development was heavily influenced by its religion. Several sub-sects of Buddhism emerged and were patronized by various Mongol warlords. After the decline of the Yuan Dynasty in the fourteenth century, these sub-sects vied with each other for supremacy in the political and religious landscape, with the Drukpa sub-sect finally achieving ascendancy in the sixteenth century.

Until the early seventeenth century, Bhutan existed as a patchwork of minor warring fiefdoms. It was then that the area was unified by Tibetan lama and military leader Ngawang Namgyal, who had fled religious persecution in Tibet. To defend Bhutan against intermittent Tibetan forays, Namgyal built a network of an impregnable dzong (fortresses), and he promulgated the Tsa Yig, a code of law that helped to bring local lords under centralized control. Many such dzongs still exists and are active centers of religion and district administration.

Portuguese Jesuits Estêvão Cacella and João Cabral were the first recorded Europeans to visit Bhutan, on their way to Tibet. They met Ngawang Namgyal, known now by the honorific “Shabdrung” (“at whose feet one submits”), presented him with firearms, gunpowder, and a telescope, and offered him their services in the war against Tibet, but the Shabdrung declined the offer. After a stay of nearly eight months, Cacella wrote a long letter from the Chagri Monastery reporting on his travels. This is a rare extant report of the Shabdrung. After Ngawang Namgyal’s death in 1651, his demise was kept secret for 54 years. During a period of consolidation, Bhutan lapsed into internal conflict. In the year 1711, Bhutan went to war against the Mughal Empire and its Subedar fighters, who restored Koch Bihar in the south. During the chaos that followed, Tibet unsuccessfully attacked Bhutan in 1714.

In the eighteenth century, the Bhutanese invaded and occupied the kingdom of Cooch Behar to the south. In 1772, Cooch Behar appealed to the British East India Company, which assisted them in ousting the Bhutanese and later, in 1774, in attacking Bhutan itself. A peace treaty was eventually signed in which Bhutan agreed to retreat to its pre-1730 borders. The peace was tenuous, however, and border skirmishes with the British were to continue for the next hundred years.

These conflicts eventually led to the Duar War (1864–65), a confrontation for control of the Bengal Duars. After Bhutan lost the war, the Treaty of Sinchula was signed between British East India and Bhutan. As part of the war reparations, the Duars were ceded to the United Kingdom in exchange for a rent of 50,000 rupees. The treaty ended all hostilities between British India and Bhutan.

During the 1870s, power struggles between the rival valleys of Paro and Tongsa devolved into civil war in Bhutan, eventually leading to victory by Ugyen Wangchuck, the ponlop (governor) of Tongsa. From his power base in central Bhutan, Ugyen Wangchuck defeated his political enemies and, following several civil wars and rebellions from 1882-85, united the country.

In 1907, an epochal year for the country, Ugyen Wangchuck was unanimously chosen as the hereditary king of the country by an assembly of leading Buddhist monks, government officials, and heads of important families. The British government promptly recognized the new monarchy, and in 1910 Bhutan signed the Treaty of Punakha, a subsidiary alliance that gave control of Bhutan’s foreign affairs over to the British; this agreement meant that Bhutan would be treated as an Indian princedom. The treaty had a little real effect, given Bhutan’s historical inwardness, and also did not appear to affect Bhutan’s traditional relations with Tibet.

After the new Union of India gained independence from the United Kingdom on August 15, 1947, Bhutan became one of the first countries to recognize India’s independence. On August 8, 1949, a treaty similar to that of 1910, in which Britain had gained power over Bhutan’s foreign relations, was signed with the newly independent India.

In 1953, in order to institute a more democratic form of governance, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck established the country’s legislature—a 130-member National Assembly. In 1965, the king set up a Royal Advisory Council, and three years later he formed a cabinet. In 1971, Bhutan was admitted to the United Nations, having held observer status for three years. In July of 1972, Jigme Singye Wangchuck ascended to the throne at the age of sixteen after the death of his father, Dorji Wangchuck. The young king introduced significant political reforms, transferring most of his administrative powers to the Council of Cabinet Ministers and allowing for impeachment of the king by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly.

In 1999, the government lifted its long-standing ban on television and the Internet, making Bhutan one of the last countries to introduce television. In his speech announcing the change, the king said that television was a critical step to the modernization of Bhutan, as well as a major contributor to the country’s Gross National Happiness (Bhutan is the only country to measure happiness), but he warned that the “misuse” of television could erode traditional Bhutanese values.

Bhutan’s political system has developed from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy. In 1999, the fourth king of Bhutan created a body called the Lhengye Zhungtshog (Council of Ministers), which exercises executive power, while the Druk Gyalpo (King of Druk Yul) is head of state. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the former Grand National Assembly. Judicial power is vested in the courts of Bhutan, and the Chief Justice is the administrative head of the Judiciary.

A new constitution was adopted in early 2005. On December 17, 2005, the country’s fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, announced to a stunned nation that the first general elections would be held in 2008 and that he would abdicate the throne in favor of his eldest son, the crown prince. King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck took the throne on December 14, 2006, upon his father’s abdication, and on November 6, 2008, was invested with Bhutan’s Raven Crown at an ornate coronation ceremony in Thimphu -becoming the world’s youngest reigning monarch and head of its newest democracy.

The new political system in Bhutan is comprised of an upper and lower house, the latter based on political party affiliations. Elections for the upper house (the National Council) were held on December 31, 2007, while elections for the lower house, the 47-seat National Assembly, were held on March 24, 2008. Two political parties, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), headed by Sangay Ngedup, and the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), headed by Jigmi Thinley, competed in the National Assembly election. The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa won the elections, with 45 out of 47 seats in the parliament.

It is estimated that between two-thirds and three-quarters of the Bhutanese population follow Vajrayāna Buddhism, which is also the state religion. About one-quarter to one-third are followers of Hinduism. Other religions account for less than 1% of the population. The current legal framework, in principle, guarantees freedom of religion; proselytism, however, is forbidden by a royal government decision and by judicial interpretation of the Constitution.

Himalayan Kingdoms

Himalayan Kingdoms is a compilation of stunning color photographs taken by Héctor Méndez Caratini during his major trip to Southeast Asia in the summer of 2011. During his pilgrimage, Méndez Caratini photographed over two-dozen major monasteries and convents high in the mountains.

 

Asian Roads

This book includes 125 striking photographs representative of this trilogy, as well as an enlightening conversation between renowned New York-based photography critic Max Kozloff and world-traveling photographer Héctor Méndez Caratini. It offers a rare insight into the artist’s creative processes.