Ethnic groups in Bhutan

Sharchop of eastern Bhutan, the Lhotshampa concentrated in southern Bhutan, and Bhutanese tribal and aboriginal peoples living in villages scattered throughout Bhutan.^[3]

Bhotia or Tibet). The Ngalop introduced Tibetan culture and Buddhism to Bhutan and were the dominant political and cultural element in modern Bhutan. Their language, Dzongkha, is the national language and is descended from Old Tibetan. The Ngalop are dominant in western and northern Bhutan, including Thimphu and the Dzongkha-speaking region.^[3] The term Ngalop may subsume several related linguistic and cultural groups, such as the Kheng people and Bumthang people

Tibeto-Burman language.^[7] Because of their proximity to India, some speak Assamese or Hindi. They traditionally practice slash-and-burn and tsheri agriculture, planting dry rice crops for three or four years until the soil is exhausted and then moving on,^[3] but the practice has been officially banned since 1969.^[8][9]

animist followers of Mundhum (these latter groups are mainly found in eastern Bhutan). Their main festivals include Dashain and Tihar

UNHCR refugee camps in Nepal, though many have been resettled to third countries.^{[12][13][14][15]}

CIA Factbook, however, estimates Ngalop and Sharchop populations together to total about 50 percent, with indigenous and migrant tribes constituting 15 percent – or 65 percent altogether.^[16]

1959 Tibetan Rebellion. The Tibetan expatriates became only partially integrated into Bhutanese society. At the time, when the King fell sick, there was a problem of who would inherit and carry on the monarchy line; son of a Tibetan queen or a Bhutanese Queen. When the conflict was occurring, the king secretly sent his Tibetan wife and her family to India. However the Tibetans in Bhutan had to suffer the consequence. Some of the Tibetans were secretly taken from their home and sent to prison. Many of those people, dead in prison and some were sent to remote places for many years. The general Tibetan public in Bhutan only heard about it later on. So, the Tibetans in Bhutan requested to have them sent to India where their beloved spiritual leader was. Perceiving a lack of allegiance to the state on the part of Tibetans, the government decided in 1979 to expel to India those who refused residency. The Tibetans were separated into three groups. India, after some reluctance, acceded to the move and accepted more than 3,100 Tibetans between 1980 and 1985. The first two groups of Tibetans were sent to India and have found their own community. However the third group is still in Bhutan. They do not have a Bhutanese passport because they were part of a group that wanted to leave Bhutan. However, there are other Tibetans who have Bhutanese residency because they accepted the offer to live in Bhutan instead of going to India. Although Bhutan traditionally welcomed refugees—and still accepted a few new ones fleeing the 1989 unrest in Tibet—government policy in the late 1980s was to refuse more Tibetan refugees.^[3]