NEPALESE IN BHUTAN
At least one in four people in Bhutan is Nepalese. Most are Hindus who speak various Nepalese dialects and live mostly in the south near the Indian border. They make up about 25 to 35 percent of the population. No one outside the Bhutanese government knows for sure because the government is very tight-lipped, secretive and defensive about it population and census data. According to U.S. State Department estimates in 2008, about 35 percent of the population of Bhutan is Nepalese if the displaced refugees are counted as citizens.
Many of the Nepalese are descendants of laborers brought to India after 1910 to work on a railroad in India near the Bhutanese border. Others are descendants of Nepalese farmers who came to Bhutan in search of land. In recent decades thousands of Nepalese have entered the country illegally and squatted on land in southern Bhutan. Most live in southern Bhutan, particularly around Phuntsholing, but some also live in Thimphu and Paro in the heart of Tibetan Buddhist Bhutan.
The Nepalese consider the "national identity” driglam namzha program — which promotes the values, customs and behavior codes of the Tibetan Buddhist Bhutanese — as discriminatory. Nepalese who arrived in Bhutan before 1958 were granted citizenship in Bhutan. Even those who married Bhutanese or were children of Nepalese who arrived after 1958 were not given citizenship.
Brook Larmer wrote in National Geographic: “The Hindu Nepalis” are “unlike the ruling Ngalong, or Drukpa, in the northwest and the Sharchop in the east — both Buddhist descendants of Tibetans who settled the country centuries ago. The bulk of Nepalis arrived in Bhutan’s mosquito-infested lowlands in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Other waves came after 1960, some invited as manual laborers, others crossing the border illegally. The monarchy encouraged assimilation, but the growing Nepali population alarmed the Drukpa elite. After tightening citizenship laws, the king decreed that all Bhutanese must follow the Drukpa code of dress and conduct. Thus began a cycle of protests and arrests that sent tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalis fleeing across the border between 1990 and 1992. [Source: Brook Larmer, National Geographic, March 2008]
About 95,000 Nepalese that used to live in Bhutan were kicked out of Bhutan in the late 1980s and early 1990s after they rose up against government pressure to make them adopt Bhutanese dress, customs, religion, and language. Those kicked out were forced to reside in refugee camps in Nepal near southern Bhutan. They claim they are victims of ethnic cleansing. Some were allowed to return to Bhutan. Most did not.
Lhotshampas
Lhotshampa is a term used to describe the Nepalese in Bhutan or at least some of them — the ones that have lived in Bhutan for generations or at least for a considerable amount of time. The Lhotshampa or Lhotsampa people have been described as “a heterogeneous Bhutanese people of Nepalese descent.” The are native to southern Bhutan, and often referred to simply as Southerners in Bhutan. In 2004, the UNHCR (the United Nations Refugee Agency) estimated there were 241,899 Lhotshampa in Bhutan. Bhutan has a population today of between 750,000 and 800,000 people.
The Lhotshampas have settled in the southern foothills of Bhutan. It is believed that they migrated from Nepal in the beginning of the 19th century, attracted by the employment opportunities provided by the many constructions works taking place in the kingdom are nearby in India. They speak Lhotshamkha (Nepali) and practice Hinduism. They are broken into various lineages linked with ethnic groups in Nepal such as the Bhawans, Chhetris, Rais, Limbus, Tamangs, Gurungs, and Lepchas. Nowadays they are mainly employed in agriculture and cultivate cash crops like ginger, cardamom and oranges. [Source: Tourism Council of Bhutan, tourism.gov.bt]
Lhotshampas speak Nepali as their first language. Nepali spoken in Thimphu differs from the Nepail spoken in the rural areas of Bhutan. Also, some Nepali words are used differently in Bhutan than Nepali in Nepal. Samchi, Chirang and Geylegphug are southern dzongkhags (districts) that have a large Lhotshampa community where most people speak Nepali. Traditionally, the Lhotshampa have been involved mostly in sedentary agriculture, although some have cleared forests and practiced slash and burn agriculture. [Source: Wikipedia]
The Lhotshampa are generally classified as Hindus. But this not totally accurate. Some groups such as the Tamang and the Gurung are largely Buddhist as is tru with members of their ethnic group in Nepal. The Kiranti groups that include the Rai and Limbu — which found mainly in eastern Bhutan and eastern Nepal — are largely animist followers of Mundhum. Whether they are Hindu or Tibetan Buddhist, most Nepalese don’t eat beef and some are vegetarians in accordance with Hindu and caste rules. Their main festivals include Dashain and Tihar, which is similar to the Indian Diwali.
Another complicated and oversimplified issue is when the Nepalese (Lhotshampa) immigrated into Bhutan. The government had accepted all those citizens of Nepalese origin who were there prior to 1958. Large numbers of Nepalese settlers arrived in Bhutan after first modern five-year plan was initiated in the 1960s.
Early History of the Nepalese in Bhutan
Nepalese are the most recent of major groups to arrive in Bhutan. The showed up centuries after the first Tibetan Buddhist groups migrated to the region. The first small groups of Nepalese emigrated primarily from eastern Nepal under Indian auspices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were mostly Hindus who settled in the southern foothills. Some were involved in sedentary agriculture, others cleared plots in the rain forest in the southern Bhutan and conducted tsheri (slash and burn) agriculture. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991]
Nepalese ethnic groups included Rai, Gurung and Limbu and some Nepali Brahmans and Chhetris. There were also some immigrants from India. Some were Nepalese laborers brought to India after 1910 to work on a railroad in India near the Bhutanese border. Others were Nepalese farmers in search of land.
The beginning of Nepalese immigration largely coincided with Bhutan's political development: in 1885, when Druk Gyalpo Ugyen Wangchuck consolidated power after a period of civil unrest and cultivated closer ties with the British in India. In 1910, the government of Bhutan signed a treaty with the British in India, granting them control over Bhutan's foreign relations. [Source: Wikipedia]
There was a spurt of immigration from Nepal and India to Bhutan in the 1960s after Bhutan initiated its first modern 5-year plan began. Many Nepalese arrived at that time to do construction work in Bhutan. Up until the 1980s, the Nepali language was taught in schools in southern Bhutan and was widely spoken and used in written communication in these areas.
Political Activity of the Nepalese in Bhutan
Because of the relative isolation of Bhutan and the relative isolation of Tibetan Buddhist Bhutanese in the north, central, western and eastern parts of Bhutan and the Nepalese in the south, there was not much trouble and relatively little interaction between the two groups and the Nepalese were left to themselves.
Things began to change in the 1940s and 1950s when the Nepalese minority began growing to a significant size and became increasingly exposed to the radical politics of Nepalese migrants from India. These migrants brought political ideas inspired by Indian democratic principles and agitation to the minority community in southern Bhutan. By 1950 the presence of that community had resulted in government restrictions on the cultivation of forest lands and on further migration. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
Expatriate Nepalese, who resettled in West Bengal and Assam after leaving Bhutan, formed the Bhutan State Congress in 1952 to represent the interests of other expatriates in India as well as the communities they had left behind. An effort to expand their operations into Bhutan with a satyagraha (nonviolent resistance) movement in 1954 failed in the face of the mobilization of Bhutan's militia and a lack of enthusiasm among those Nepalese in Bhutan who did not want to risk their already tenuous status. The government further diffused the Bhutan State Congress movement by granting concessions to the minority and allowing Nepalese representation in the National Assembly. The Bhutan State Congress continued to operate in exile until its decline and gradual disappearance in the early 1960s. The leaders in exile were pardoned in 1969 and permitted to return. *
Growth of the Nepalese Population in Bhutan
The rapid growth of the Nepalese population in Bhutan towards the end of the twentieth century resulted in significant ethnic conflicts with the Buddhist majority. Officially, the government stated that 28 percent of the national population was Nepalese in the late 1980s, but unofficial estimates ran as high as 30 to 40 percent, and Nepalese were estimated to constitute a majority in southern Bhutan. The number of legal permanent Nepalese residents in the late 1980s may have been as few as 15 percent of the total population, however. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
There was a spurt of immigration from Nepal and India to Bhutan in the 1960s after Bhutan initiated its first modern 5-year plan began. Many Nepalese arrived at that time to do construction work in Bhutan. The number of Nepalese immigrants continued to grow significantly after that time.
The Bhutanese government tried to limit immigration and restrict residence and employment of Nepalese to the southern region. Liberalization measures in the 1970s and 1980s encouraged intermarriage and provided increasing opportunities for public service. The government allowed more internal migration by Nepalese seeking better education and business opportunities. [Source: Wikipedia]
A census in 1988 indicated that the Tibetan Buddhist Bhutanese were in danger of being outnumbered by Nepalese. This led to the branding of many ethnic Nepalis as illegal immigrants. Local Lhotshampa leaders responded with anti-government rallies demanding citizenship and attacks against government institutions. [Source: Wikipedia]
Bhutan Restricts and Imposes Bhutanese-Buddhist Culture on the Nepalese
Government decrees promulgated in the 1980s sought to preserve Bhutan's cultural identity in a "one nation, one people" policy called driglam namzha (national customs and etiquette). The government hoped to achieve integration through requiring national dress — the kira for women and the gho for men — in public places (by a May 1989 decree that was quickly reversed) and insisting that individual conduct be based on Buddhist precepts. The government stressed standardization and popularization of Dzongkha, the primary national language, and even sponsored such programs as the preservation of folksongs used in new year and marriage celebrations, house blessings, and archery contests. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
The most divisive issue in Bhutan in the 1980s and early 1990s was how to deal with the Nepalese. The government initially responded to the influx of Nepalese by tightening immigration and citizenship laws to reduce the flow of Nepalese into Bhutan. Then it began taking aim at Nepalese culture and imposing Tibetan Buddhist culture.
King Jigme Singye Wangchuk (reigned 1972-2006) took many measures in the name of preserving Bhutan’s traditional culture. He made “driglam namba”, the Buddhist Bhutanese code of conduct, part of the school curriculum. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he issued a series of edicts designed to “preserve native culture.” Under the 1989 promulgation of Driglam Nam Zha (Etiquette and Manners) people were required to wear traditional Bhutanese clothes such as the gho in public. Western clothes were banned. Those who didn’t wear traditional clothes had to pay stiff fines and faced jail terms. Some of these laws are still place today to some degree. . To promote national unity, Dzongkha, the language of the Buddhist Bhutanese was made the national language and the language taught in school. The teaching of minority languages was discouraged. There were also laws that discouraged Bhutanese from marrying non-Bhutanese. As a result of all this Nepali was no longer taught schools and could no longer be easily used in communications. At the time many Lhotshampa (Nepalese) could speak virtually no Dzongkha at all. After that Nepali was only taught in the home and become a spoken language in Bhutan. Today, some Nepali speakers from southern Bhutan can not read or write in Nepali. Currently, Nepali is the first language for most southern Bhutanese and most people use it in their home. Also, Nepali is most commonly used in school outside of the classes. [Source: Wikipedia +]
Under the mandatory national dress code dictated by the Driglam namzha laws, all citizens of Bhutan, including the Nepalese Lhotshampa were required to observe the dress code in public during business hours. The Lhotshampa were understandably upset by being forced to wear the clothing of the Tibetan Buddhist majority and voiced their anger. +
In 1989 the government also moved to implement the Citizenship Act of 1985, which provided that only those Nepalese immigrants who could show they had resided in Bhutan for fifteen or twenty years (depending on occupational status), and met other criteria, might be considered for grants of citizenship by nationalization. An earlier law, passed in 1958, had for the first time granted Bhutanese citizenship to Nepalese landed settlers who had been in Bhutan for at least ten years. To ameliorate some of the differences between the ethnic communities, interethnic marriages among citizens, once forbidden, were allowed as a means of integrating the Nepalese.
Nepalese Respond to Bhutan Government Restrictions
The edicts designed to “preserve native culture” focused on Buddhism and Bhutanese culture. This "Bhutanisation drive" alienated the largely Hindu Nepali population. Nepalese within Bhutan formed political groups and tried pressure the government to make social reforms. Clashes broke out in 1990.
Demonstration led by reform-minded Nepalese in southern Bhutan in the fall of 1990 resulted in three deaths and several injuries. The Bhutan People's party, an outlawed political party composed of ethnic Nepalese, initially claimed hundreds of demonstrators were killed but Amnesty International found these reports to be unfounded. According to Bhutan government, protestors set off a bomb, looted buildings, killed one policeman and injured 15 citizens. [Source: Bruce W. Bunting, National Geographic, May, 1991]
The Bhutan government first became concerned in the late 1980s when Nepalese liberation movements emerged in India. In 1988 some ethnic Nepalese in Bhutan again began protesting the alleged discrimination against them. They demanded exemption from the government decrees aimed at enhancing Bhutanese national identity by strengthening aspects of traditional culture (under the rubric of driglam namzha). It was likely that they were inspired by prodemocracy activities in their homeland as well as by democratic, Marxist, and Indian social ideas picked up during their migration through or education in India. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
In the face of government resistance to demands that would institutionalize separate identities within the nation, protesters in the south insisted that the Bhutan People's Party flag be flown in front of administrative headquarters and that party members be allowed to carry the kukri, a traditional Nepalese curved knife, at all times. They also called for the right not to wear the Bhutanese national dress and insisted that schools and government offices stay closed until their demands were met. The unmet demands were accompanied by additional violence and deaths in October 1990. At the same time, India pledged "all possible assistance that the royal government might seek in dealing with this problem" and assured that it would protect the frontier against groups seeking illegal entry to Bhutan.
The reaction to the royal decrees in Nepalese majority communities surfaced as ethnic strife directed against non- Nepalese-origin people. Reactions also took form as protest movements in Nepal and India among Nepalese who had fled Bhutan. The Druk Gyalpo was accused of "cultural suppression," and his government was charged by antigovernment leaders with human rights violations, including the torture of prisoners; arbitrary arrest and detention; denial of due process; and restrictions of freedoms of speech and press, peaceful organization and assembly, and workers' rights. *
Antigovernment protest marches involved more than 20,000 participants, including some from a movement that had succeeded in coercing India into accepting local autonomy for ethnic Nepalese in West Bengal, who crossed the border from West Bengal and Assam into six Bhutan districts. In February 1990, antigovernment activists had detonated a remote-control bomb on a bridge hear Phuntsholing and set fire to a seven-vehicle convoy. In September 1990, clashes occurred with the Royal Bhutan Army, which was ordered not to fire on protesters. The men and women marchers were organized by S.K. Neupane and other members of the illegal Bhutan People's Party, which reportedly urged the marchers to demand democracy and human rights for all Bhutanese citizens. Some villagers willingly joined the protests; others did so under duress. *
Bhutanese Government Cracks Down on the Nepalese
The government branded the party, reportedly established by antimonarchists and backed by the Nepali Congress Party and the Marxist-Leninist faction of the Communist Party of Nepal, as a terrorist organization. The party allegedly led its members — said to be armed with rifles, muzzle- loading guns, knives, and homemade grenades — in raids on villages in southern Bhutan, disrobing people wearing traditional Bhutanese garb; extorting money; and robbing, kidnapping, and killing people. Reportedly, there were hundreds of casualties, although the government admitted to only two deaths among security forces. Other sources indicated that more than 300 persons were killed, 500 wounded, and 2,000 arrested in clashes with security forces. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991 *]
Along with the above-mentioned violence, vehicle hijackings, kidnappings, extortions, ambushes, and bombings took place, schools were closed (some were destroyed), and post offices, police, health, forest, customs, and agricultural posts were destroyed. For their part, security forces were charged by the Bhutan People's Party, in protests made to Amnesty International and the International Human Rights Commission, with murder and rape and carrying out a "reign of terror." In support of the expatriate Nepalese, the general secretary of the Nepali Congress Party, the ruling party in Nepal, called on the Druk Gyalpo to establish a multiparty democracy. *
By early 1991, the press in Nepal was referring to insurgents in southern Bhutan as "freedom fighters." The Bhutan People's Party claimed that more than 4,000 advocates of democracy had been arrested by the Royal Bhutan Army. Charges were made that some of those arrested had been murdered outside Bhutanese police stations and that some 4,200 persons had been deported. Supporting the antigovernment activities were expatriate Nepalese political groups and supporters in Nepal and India.
The Bhutanese government admitted only to the arrest of forty- two people involved in "anti-national" activities in late 1989, plus three additional individuals who had been extradited from Nepal. All but six were reportedly later released; those remaining in jail were charged with treason. By September 1990, more than 300 additional prisoners held in the south were released following the Druk Gyalpo's tour of southern districts. *
The Bhutan People's Party operated among the large Nepalese community in northern India. A second group, the Bhutan People's Forum for Human Rights (a counterpart of the Nepal People's Forum for Human Rights), was established in Nepal by a former member of Bhutan's National Assembly, Teknath Rizal. In November 1989, Rizal was allegedly abducted in eastern Nepal by Bhutanese police and returned to Thimphu, where he was imprisoned on charges of conspiracy and treason. The Bhutan Students Union and the Bhutan Aid Group-Nepal also were involved in political activism. *
By the end of 1990, the government admitted the serious effects of the antigovernment violence. It was announced that foreign- exchange earnings had dropped and that the GDP had decreased significantly because of terrorist activities. *
Nepalese Flee and Expelled from Bhutan
After the Bhutanese government responded with force, and violence broke out. Tens of thousands of people of Nepali origin were expelled or fled from Bhutan. The majority of them, estimated to be between 100,000 and 135,000 in number, ended up in refugee camps in eastern Nepal monitored by the UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency). [Sources: “Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments” Thomson Gale, 2008; “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”, Cengage Learning, 2009]
Between 2,000 and 12,000 Nepalese were reported to have fled Bhutan in the late 1980s, and according to a 1991 report, even high-level Bhutanese government officials of Nepalese origin had resigned their positions and moved to Nepal. Some 5 million Nepalese were living in settlements in India along the Bhutan border in 1990. Nepalese were not necessarily welcome in India, where ethnic strife conspired to push them back through the largely unguarded Bhutanese frontier. [Source: Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1991]
The Lhotshampa and Nepalese forced out of Bhutan were accused by the Bhutan government of being illegal aliens. Between 1988-1993, thousands of other Nepalese left alleging ethnic and political repression. According to U.S. State Department estimates in 2008, about 35 percent of the population of Bhutan is Lhotshampa if the displaced refugees are counted as citizens. [Source: Wikipedia]
Govinda Dhimal was a Bhutanese Nepalese in a refugee camp in the late 2000s. Brook Larmer wrote in National Geographic: A devout Hindu, he and his family had lived contentedly in the southern district of Tsirang for more than half a century. But the indignities piled up. Dhimal was required to wear a bulky gho, ill-suited for the subtropical heat. A soldier forced him to erase the Hindu markings from his forehead. When Nepali militants organized protest rallies, the army responded with mass arrests — and Dhimal ended up in jail. Weary and broken, the 69-year-old signed a “voluntary migration form” and fled into the unknown. When he reached the border, in early 1992, he hurled his gho back into Bhutanese territory — the last vestige of Drukpa culture imposed on him....For the past 16 years Dhimal, now 85, has languished in a United Nations camp in eastern Nepal, trapped in one of the world’s most intractable refugee crises.” [Source: Brook Larmer, National Geographic, March 2008]
In the late 1990s, about 94,000 ethnic Nepalese, who consider themselves to be Bhutanese citizens, lived in huts made from bamboo, thatch and plastic tarps in refugee camps in southeastern Nepal. The refugees claim that not only were they unlawfully thrown out of the country, the were tortured, brutalized and raped. The wanted to return to Bhutan. The Refugees claim that the Bhutanese government had expelled up to 15 percent of the Nepalese population in Bhutan. Over 10,000 a month were expelled in early 1992.
According to a U.S. State Department Report: "tens of thousands were declared illegal immigrants." Others fled "in the face of officially sanctioned pressure, including arbitrary arrests, beatings, rape, robberies and other forms of intimidation by the police and the army." After being accused of assisting anti-government terrorists who destroying a local bridge, 40 Nepalese were forcibly evicted from Bhutan even their relatives had lived there for years. The people said they had nothing to do with destroying the bridge. [Source: John W. Anderson and Molley Moore, Washington Post],
Nepal Refugees
Between 100,000 and 135,000 Nepalese fled or were expelled from Bhutan. About 85,000 left or were expelled in 1992-93 alone, and about 5,000-15,000 more moved to India. In the early 2000s, there were still an estimated 112,000 Nepalese refugees residing in seven refugee camps in Nepal and India. Some were allowed to return Bhutan. In January 2010, there were still 85,544 refugees resided in the camps. Others were working in India. Around 6,500 people still lived in the refugee camps in the 2010s. By that time many former refugees had been granted political asylum in India, the United States and other countries. [Source: Wikipedia, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007; ]
The Bhutanese government said that legitimate Bhutanese (Lhotshampas) were welcome back but non-Bhutanese citizen Nepalese who had drifted into the camps or were illegal aliens in Bhutan were not welcome. The Nepalese government insisted they were all Bhutanese citizens and should be allowed in. Negotiations were been hampered by changes of government and civil war in Nepal.
Starting in 2007, many of the Nepalese in the refugee camps were resettled to third countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other European countries. Today, the number of Lhotshampa in Nepal are significantly lower than that in the United States and other countries where they were resettled. [Source: Wikipedia]
In the late 2000s, Brook Larmer wrote in National Geographic: “In his dirt-floor hut in the UN refugee camp, Dhimal still longs to return to Bhutan, though there is little chance of that now. The monarchy has not budged from its refusal to let the refugees back, and an offer by the United States to admit 60,000 of them — though stymied in early 2007 by violent militants demanding a full return to Bhutan — is regaining momentum. Dhimal’s grandchildren seem eager to start a new life. “We have no future here,” says his 15-year-old grandson, Tek Nath. “I’d like to see what America is like.” Dhimal is unconvinced. “What would I do there?” he asks. “My home is Bhutan.” [Source: Brook Larmer, National Geographic, March 2008]
Bhujel Dhan Kumar wrote in the South Asia Journal: The refugee camps in Nepal had around 107,000 refugees in 2008 but the Bhutanese government has claimed not all of them are Bhutanese. Some are said to have migrated from India and Nepal to live in refugee camps as well. Until July 2011 Bhutan and Nepal had held 15 rounds of talk without any resolution. The Bhutanese government made minimal efforts in taking the issue further for reaching to a durable solution. In addition, given the political situation in Nepal the talks are expected to get further prolonged. However since 2008, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have jointly started refugee resettlement programs to eight countries including the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark and New Zealand. A total of 75,261 people have been resettled until the end of 2012. [Source: Democracy in Bhutan: A Critical Assessment by Bhujel Dhan Kumar, South Asia Journal, July 8, 2015]
A few thousand Nepalese are still in refugee camps in Nepal and their status is still a matter of dispute. According to the CIA World Factbook: Of the more than 100,000 ethnic Nepali — predominantly Lhotshampa — refugees who fled or were forced out of Bhutan in the 1990s, about 6,500 remain displaced in Nepal. Some refugees spent two decades in the camps in Nepal, appealing for the chance to return to Bhutan. Some of those who emigrated to the U.S. have ended up in the Bronx and West Virginia. [Source: Simon Denyer, Washington Post, October 30, 2011; CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Discrimination and Living Condition of the Nepalese in Bhutan
Some Nepalese in Bhutan say they still face discrimination. Nepalese are Hindus and they consider the Tibetan-Buddhist-oriented driglam namzha policy — described above and still in effect to some degree — as discriminatory. There are laws that forbid Nepalese from settling north of line running rough east to west across the middle of the country. In 2000, Amnesty International said that members of in Nepali-speaking communities faced police discrimination when attempting to get permission to open a bank account, to travel abroad for training or work, or to send their children to school.
The Nepalese claim the government kicked oust descendants of people who lived in Bhutan for generations for no reason. They say they are fighting for democracy, and against the king who uses his policies to keep his people in power. "They are biased against Nepalese," one refugee told the Washington Post. The Nepalese accuse the government of conducting a depopulation program. In the Samchi District, farms have been abandoned, field are overgrown and crops are unattended.
Bhujel Dhan Kumar wrote in the South Asia Journal: “The state still has challenges of solving the issues of the Lotshampas community. In spite of no fault of their own, some who physically were living in Bhutan were not able to get state recognition as citizens. Some others living in Bhutan but with a past history of their family members being involved in demonstrations of 1990s were not granted citizenship. Without a citizenship identity card they virtually cannot do anything except work as laborers. Citizenship Identity Card and Security Clearance Certificate are prerequisite in almost all economic and social activities, be it the opening of a bank account, getting a job, buying property, travelling abroad or doing business. The government has said that the matter has been studied and the report has been forwarded to the King who has the sole prerogative of granting citizenship; but it seems it will take a very long time. [Source: Democracy in Bhutan: A Critical Assessment by Bhujel Dhan Kumar, South Asia Journal, July 8, 2015]
In Bhutan in 2008, Brook Larmer wrote in National Geographic, “the overt tensions in the south mostly are gone now. Robust economic growth along with easing cultural restrictions have enabled some Nepalis to build comfortable lives. Many, however, still live on the fringes of society, relegated to manual labor and barred from obtaining business licenses, government jobs, or access to higher education. “We are not treated as equals,” says one Nepali engineer in Thimphu. “If my father died, I would not even be able to give him a proper Hindu burial.” [Source: Brook Larmer, National Geographic, March 2008]
In the 2008 election, 19 Nepalese were candidates for legislature seats. At that time political parties were prohibited from speaking about security, citizenship or the royal family. [Source: Associated Press]
Bhutanese Position on the Nepalese
The Bhutanese are worried that the Nepalese will ultimately outnumber the Bhutanese or become large enough that the Nepalese would become politically and culturally dominant and Bhutan will end up like Sikkim, a neighboring kingdom that was annexed by India after the native people became a minority and the monarchy was toppled. In Sikkim Nepalese immigrants ultimately outnumbered the local Buddhist people and India took over the kingdom.
The Bhutanese government claims it has only deported illegal immigrants. It is difficult to determine which Nepalese are legitimate Bhutanese citizens are which are illegal immigrants drawn by opportunity of Bhutan. The Bhutanese government has asserted that so many Nepalese illegally entered southern Bhutanese that, as one Bhutanese minister put it , "We are becoming an endangered species."
Many Bhutanese regard the Nepalese and Indians as newcomers and opportunists who want to exploit Bhutan’s resources. Thery worry about the high Nepalese fertility rate. Some Nepalese have had large families. Some were polygamous with 15 or 16 children.
Bhutan’s fourth king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel (reigned 1972-2006), said he was worried that Bhutan might one day be overrun. The Nepalese in Nepal outnumber the Bhutanese in Bhutan 25 to 1. And there is China to the north and India to the south. In an attempt to integrate the Nepalese into Bhutan, the king has offered financial rewards for Nepalese to marry Drukpas (Tibetan Buddhists). "We want to unify the country as a single entity," the King said. "It is too small to maintain diversity. We want people in the south to stop regarding Nepal as their motherland. We are all Bhutanese." The king said that he had outlawed forceful evictions and visited the south where he sought to "request and even beg" Nepalese not leave." [Source: Washington Post]
Nepalese Insurgency
In 1990, violent ethnic unrest and anti-government protests in southern Bhutan were led by Nepalese seeking greater democracy and respect for minority rights. That year, the Bhutan Peoples' Party, whose members are mostly Lhotshampa, began a campaign of violence against the Bhutanese government. Since then there have been reports of armed men from Nepal entering Bhutanese territory. They have burned down schools and been involved in robberies. They were suspects in attacks on the king and the Tiger’ Nest monastery.
Southern Bhutan was placed under Army control, and international human rights agencies have claimed extensive violations of human rights in the Bhutanese security forces' operations against Nepalese dissidents. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”, Cengage Learning, 2009 *]
Cross-border attacks between Bhutan and Nepal through a narrow corridor of India have forced thousands of ethnic Nepalese — both illegal immigrants and Bhutanese citizens — to migrate. [Source: Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, 2007]
According to Associated Press Nepalese refugee rebel groups set off at least nine small bombs in 2008 in an effort to disrupt the election that year, killing one person. To head off more attacks, Bhutan sealed its borders with India, which separates Bhutan and Nepal, before the election and said it would not reopen them until after the vote. [Source: Associated Press, March 24, 2008]
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Tourism Council of Bhutan (tourism.gov.bt), National Portal of Bhutan, the Bhutan government’s main site (gov.bt), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022