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People
Background
It is a matter of great pride to the Bhutanese that their small kingdom was never colonized. Bhutanese history, which is a mixture of the oral tradition and classical literature, tells of a largely self-sufficient population that had limited contact with the outside world until the turn of the 20th century.
Today, Bhutan is divided into three major regions: the largely unpopulated northern Great Himalayan region along the Tibetan border; the Middle Himalayan zone consisting of fertile, populated valleys with a temperate climate; and southern Bhutan, which has both Himalayan foothills and bamboo jungle areas now largely cleared for rice cultivation. In total, the population of Bhutan totals approximately 700,000.
Ethnicity, Language and Religion
The people of Bhutan can be divided into three broad categories: Scharchops, the people of eastern Bhutan who are considered to the original inhabitants; Ngalongs, believed to be of Tibetan origin residing mainly in western Bhutan; and the recent migrants of Nepali descent dwelling mainly in southern Bhutan.
The first two categories are now referred to as Bhutias and their language is Dzongkha, a Tibetan derivative. Other dialects of the Tibetan, Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Himalayish, and Tibeto-Kanauri, linguistic families are also spoken in the country. In terms of religion, most Bhutia peoples practice Buddhism
The Nepalese who settled in the southern regions of the country brought Hinduism, a religion which some regard as being closely related to Buddhism. The Nepalese language and dialects are derived from complicated and varied linguistic roots. Nepalese belongs to the Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, and Indo-Aryan classifications of languages.
Health, Welfare and Human Development
In terms of health and welfare, the population of Bhutan has a life expectancy at birth of 66.7 years of age for the total population, according to recent estimates total population. Bhutan is reported to have an infant mortality rate of 46.92 deaths/1,000 live births.
In terms of literacy, 47 percent of the total population age 15 and over, can read and write. That number is obscures the gender disparity since the literacy rate for males is 60 percent while the rate for females is 34 percent. About 4.8 percent of GDP in this country is spent on education expenditures; 5.5 percent of GDP is spent on education health expenditures. Generally, access to sanitation and water in this country is good, although more problematic in certain rural areas.
A notable measure of human development is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is formulated by the United Nations Development Program. The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 177 countries, the HDI has placed Bhutan in the medium human development category, at 133th place. Updated numbers were not available.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com . See Bibliography for list of research sources.
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