Wangchuck dynasty
Wangchuck | |
---|---|
Country | Bhutan |
Founded | 17 December 1907 |
Founder | Ugyen Wangchuck |
Current head | Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck |
Titles |
Bhutanese royal family |
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|
The Wangchuck dynasty (
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
There have been five Wangchuck kings of Bhutan, namely:
- Ugyen Wangchuck (b.1861–d.1926) "First King"; reigned 17 December 1907 – 21 August 1926.
- Jigme Wangchuck (b.1905–d.1952) "Second King"; r. 21 August 1926 – 24 March 1952.
- Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (b.1929–d.1972) "Third King"; r. 24 March 1952 – 24 July 1972.
- Jigme Singye Wangchuck (b.1955) "Fourth King"; r. 24 July 1972 – 9 December 2006.
- 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
Origins
Under Bhutan's early theocratic
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
Although Bhutan generally enjoyed favorable relations with both Tibet and
After the
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
The 12th Trongsa Penlop,
As
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
Democratization under the Wangchucks
The Third King died in 1972, and the
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 |
'Jigs-med rDo-rje dBang-phyug | འཇིགས་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ | 1928 | 1972 | 1952 | 1972 | |
'Jigs-med Seng-ge dBang-phyug | འཇིགས་མེད་སེང་གེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ | 1955 | – | 1972 | 2006 | |
'Jigs-med Khe-sar rNam-rGyal dBang-phyug | འཇིགས་མེད་གེ་སར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ | 1980 | – | 2006 | – |
See also
- List of rulers of Bhutan
- History of Bhutan
- Politics of Bhutan
- Penlop of Trongsa
- Succession to the Bhutanese throne
Notes
- ^ Brother of Jamjeng Dragpa Oezer (Jam-dbyangs Grags-pa Od-zer) (1382–1442)
- ^ Wangchuck forefathers may be referred to as of the Dungkar Choji family
- ^ A member of the Dorji family through his mother
References
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 81-86239-01-4. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ISBN 978-0-307-80190-6. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ ISBN 1-55939-194-4. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ ISBN 1-85743-133-2. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-74059-529-2. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 978-1-59311-734-4. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- )
- ISBN 92-1-120404-6.
External links
- "Bhutan's Royal Family". RAO online. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- Official site (archived)
- Wangchuck dynasty on Facebook