Wangchuck dynasty

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Wangchuck
CountryBhutan
Founded17 December 1907
FounderUgyen Wangchuck
Current headJigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
Titles

The Wangchuck dynasty (

Druk Gyalpo ("Dragon King") of Bhutan since 1907. Prior to reunification, the Wangchuck family had governed the district of Trongsa as descendants of Dungkar Choji. They eventually overpowered other regional lords and earned the favour of the British Empire. After consolidating power, the 12th Penlop of Trongsa Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck
was elected Druk Gyalpo, thus founding the dynasty. The position of Druk Gyalpo – who heads the royal family of Bhutan – is more commonly known in English as the King of Bhutan, however "Druk Gyalpo" would be translated literally as "Dragon King" (or less commonly, "King of the Dragons", or "Thunder Dragon King")

The Wangchuck dynasty ruled government power in Bhutan and established relations with the British Empire and India under its first two monarchs. The third, fourth, and fifth (current) monarchs have put the kingdom on its path toward democratization, decentralization, and development.

History

Genealogy of the Wangchuck Dynasty of Bhutan

There have been five Wangchuck kings of Bhutan, namely:

  1. Ugyen Wangchuck (b.1861–d.1926) "First King"; reigned 17 December 1907 – 21 August 1926.
  2. Jigme Wangchuck (b.1905–d.1952) "Second King"; r. 21 August 1926 – 24 March 1952.
  3. Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (b.1929–d.1972) "Third King"; r. 24 March 1952 – 24 July 1972.
  4. Jigme Singye Wangchuck (b.1955) "Fourth King"; r. 24 July 1972 – 9 December 2006.
  5. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (b.1980) "Fifth King"; r. 9 December 2006 – present.

The ascendency of the Wangchuck family is deeply rooted in the historical politics of

Druk Gyalpo
by an assembly of his subjects in 1907, marking the ascendency of his dynasty.

Origins

Further information: History of Bhutan and Tibetan dual system of government

Under Bhutan's early theocratic

dzongpons of Punakha, Thimphu, and Wangdue Phodrang were particularly notable figures in the competition for regional dominance.[1][2]

Chogyal Minjur Tenpa (1613–1680; r. 1667–1680) was the first Penlop of Trongsa (Tongsab), appointed by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal. He was born Damchho Lhundrub in Min-Chhud, Tibet, and led a monastic life from childhood. Before his appointment as Tongsab, he held the appointed post of Umzey (Chant Master). A trusted follower of the Shabdrung, Minjur Tenpa was sent to subdue kings of Bumthang, Lhuntse, Trashigang, Zhemgang, and other lords from Trongsa Dzong. After doing so, the Tongsab divided his control in the east among eight regions (Shachho Khorlo Tsegay), overseen by Dungpas and Kutshabs (civil servants). He went on to build Jakar, Lhuntse, Trashigang, and Zhemgang Dzongs.[3]: 106 

Within this political landscape, the Wangchuck family originated in the Bumthang region of central Bhutan.[4] The family belongs to the Nyö clan, and is descended from Pema Lingpa, a Bhutanese Nyingmapa saint. The Nyö clan emerged as a local aristocracy, supplanting many older aristocratic families of Tibetan origin that sided with Tibet during invasions of Bhutan. In doing so, the clan came to occupy the hereditary position of Penlop of Trongsa, as well as significant national and local government positions.[5]

The

dzongs. The Penlop of Paro, unlike Trongsa, was an office appointed by the Druk Desi's central government. Because western regions controlled by the Penlop of Paro contained lucrative trade routes, it became the object of competition among aristocratic families.[5]

Although Bhutan generally enjoyed favorable relations with both Tibet and

British India through the 19th century, extension of British power at Bhutan's borders as well as Tibetan incursions in British Sikkim defined politically opposed pro-Tibet and pro-Britain forces.[6] This period of intense rivalry between and within western and central Bhutan, coupled with external forces from Tibet and especially the British Empire, provided the conditions for the ascendancy of the Penlop of Trongsa.[5]

After the

Duars 1841), armed conflict turned inward. In 1870, amid the continuing civil wars, the 10th Penlop of Trongsa, Jigme Namgyal ascended to the office of 48th Druk Desi. In 1879, he appointed his 17-year-old son Ugyen Wangchuck as the 23rd Penlop of Paro. Jigme Namgyal reigned through his death 1881, punctuated by periods of retirement during which he retained effective control of the country.[7]

The pro-Britain Penlop Ugyen Wangchuck ultimately prevailed against the pro-Tibet and anti-Britain Penlop of Paro after a series of civil wars and rebellions between 1882 and 1885. After his father's death in 1881, Ugyen Wangchuck entered a feud over the post of Penlop of Trongsa. In 1882, at the age of 20, he marched on Bumthang and Trongsa, winning the post of Penlop of Trongsa in addition to Paro. In 1885, Ugyen Wangchuck intervened in a conflict between the Dzongpens of Punakha and Thimphu, sacking both sides and seizing Simtokha Dzong. From this time forward, the office of Desi became purely ceremonial.[7]

Nationhood under the Wangchucks

King Ugyen Wangchuck, receiving the order of the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire at Punakha Dzong
Further information: Ugyen Wangchuck, Jigme Wangchuck, and Jigme Dorji Wangchuck

The 12th Trongsa Penlop,

dual system of government in place for nearly 300 years.[6][8] The title Penlop of Trongsa – or Penlop of Chötse, another name for Trongsa – continued to be held by crown princes.[9]

As

Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE
) in 1921. King Ugyen Wangchuck died in 1926.

The reign of the Second King Jigme Wangchuck (1926–1952) was characterized by an increasingly powerful central government and the beginnings of infrastructure development. Bhutan also established its first diplomatic relations with India under the bilateral Treaty of Friendship, largely patterned after the prior Treaty of Punakha.[10]

The Third King

National Assembly in 1953 and establishing relations with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1958. Under Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, Bhutan also modernized its legal codes.[11]

Democratization under the Wangchucks

Main articles: Jigme Singye Wangchuck and Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

The Third King died in 1972, and the

district officials. To the surprise of the Bhutanese public, the Fourth King announced his abdication in 2005 and retired in 2006, handing the crown to his son Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck.[7]

Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck assumed the throne as the Fifth King in 2008 as the kingdom adopted its first democratic Constitution.

Genealogy

Below is an extended patrilineal genealogy through the present monarch.[citation needed]

Name Birth Death Reign
start 		Reign
end
Romanization Wylie transliteration Dzongkha
Nyoton Dechog Thrulzhig Choeji gnyos-ston bde-mchog 'krhul-gzhig chos-rje གཉོས་སཏོན་བདེ་མཆོག་འཁྲུལ་གཞིག་ཆོས་རྗེ། 1179 1265
Zhigpo Tashi Sengye Zhig-po bKra-shis Seng-ge ཞིག་པོ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་སེང་གེ་ 1237 1322
Bajra Duepa Bajra 'Dus-pa བཇ་ར་འདུས་པ་ 1262 1296
Depa Paljor bDe-pa'i dPal-'byor བདེ་པའི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་ 1291 1359
Palden Sengye dPal-den Seng-ge དཔལ་དེན་སེང་གེ་ 1332 1384
Tenpa Nyima[nb 1] bsTan-pa'i Nyi-ma བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་ 1382
Dongrub Zangpo Don-grub bZang-po དོན་གྲུབ་བཟང་པ་
Pema Lingpa Padma Gling-pa པདྨ་གླིང་པ་ 1450 1521
Khochun Chorji mKho-chun Chos-rje མཁོ་ཆུན་ཆོས་རྗེ་ 1505
Ngawang Ngag-dbang ངག་དབང་ 1539
Gyalba rGyal-ba རྒྱལ་བ་ 1562
Dungkar Choji[nb 2] Dun-dkar Chos-rje དུན་དྐར་ཆོས་རྗེ་ 1578
Tenpa Gyalchen bsTan-pa'i rGyal-mchan བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཆན་ 1598 1694
Tenpa Nyima bsTan-pa'i Nyi-ma བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་ 1623 1689
Dadrag Zla-grags ཟླ་གྲགས 1641
Tubzhong gTub-zhong གཏུབ་ཞོང་ 1674
Pema Rije Padma Rig-rgyas (Pemarigyas) པདྨ་རིག་རྒྱས་ 1706 1763
Rabje Rab-rgyas (Rabgyas) རབ་རྒྱས་ 1733
Pema Padma པདྨ་
Dasho Pila Gonpo Wangyal Pi-la mGon-po rNam-rgyal པི་ལ་མགན་པོ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ 1782
Dasho Jigme Namgyal rJigs-med rNam-rgyal འཇིགས་མེད་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ 1825 1881
King Ugyen Wangchuck
 O-rgyan dBang-phyug ཨོ་རྒྱན་དབང་ཕྱུག་ 1862 1926 1907 1926
King Jigme Wangchuck
 'Jigs-med dBang-phyug འཇིགས་མེད་དབང་ཕྱུག་ 1905 1952 1926 1952
King Jigme Dorji[nb 3]Wangchuck
 'Jigs-med rDo-rje dBang-phyug འཇིགས་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ 1928 1972 1952 1972
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck
 'Jigs-med Seng-ge dBang-phyug འཇིགས་མེད་སེང་གེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ 1955 – 1972 2006
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck
 'Jigs-med Khe-sar rNam-rGyal dBang-phyug འཇིགས་མེད་གེ་སར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ 1980 – 2006 –

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Brother of Jamjeng Dragpa Oezer (Jam-dbyangs Grags-pa Od-zer) (1382–1442)
  2. ^ Wangchuck forefathers may be referred to as of the Dungkar Choji family
  3. ^ A member of the Dorji family through his mother

References

  1. ^ a b Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Worden, Robert L. (September 1991). Savada, Andrea Matles (ed.). Bhutan: A Country Study. Federal Research Division. Administrative Integration and Conflict with Tibet, 1651–1728.
  2. ^ Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Worden, Robert L. (September 1991). Savada, Andrea Matles (ed.). Bhutan: A Country Study. Federal Research Division. Civil Conflict, 1728–72.
  3. ISBN 81-86239-01-4
    . Retrieved 2011-08-12.
  4. ISBN 978-0-307-80190-6
    . Retrieved 2011-08-10.
  5. ^
    ISBN 1-55939-194-4
    . Retrieved 2011-08-10.
  6. ^
    ISBN 1-85743-133-2
    . Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1-74059-529-2
    . Retrieved 2011-08-09.
  8. ^ Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Worden, Robert L. (September 1991). Savada, Andrea Matles (ed.). Bhutan: A Country Study. Federal Research Division. British Intrusion, 1772–1907.
  9. ISBN 978-1-59311-734-4
    . Retrieved 2011-08-10.
  10. ISBN 0-7397-3719-8. Retrieved 2011-08-09. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help
    )
  11. ISBN 92-1-120404-6
    .

External links
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