Kingdom of Bhutan (6.0)

The **Kingdom of Bhutan** (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་, romanized: *Druk Gyal Khap*).

*In 1945, the world changed, in 1945 Asia changed, nations were toppled, dynasties disappeared and from their ashes new nations were born, but for the people of* Bhutan *1945 was just another year. As the world crumbled and sank beneath the rising waters, Bhutan not only did not sink, but rose beneath the ruins of the world. Protected by its mountains Bhutan endured and survived, and when the oceans finally calmed down, they flourished.*

*Bhutan was one of the few if not the only country that did not lose but benefitted from the aftermath of the Trinity test. The sinking gave Bhutan access to the sea, and with it, brought new opportunities for the country to prosper, but despite the radical territorial changes, socially and culturally, nothing has changed. Bhutan and its people prospered and expanded beyond their historical territories, accumuating riches and at the same time incorporating new citizens, religions and languages, all of which enrichened the culture of Bhutan and made it more varied, but like any culture, the bhutanese maintained their deep-rooted isolationist tradition and remained without news from the outside world, prospering economically, socially, culturally and militarily while mantaining themselves in ignorance of what was happening outside their borders.*

*But as everyone knows, nothing lasts forever and it was in 1979 under the rule of King* འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་པོ་ འཇིགས་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་མཆོག་ (*Jigme Dorji Wangchuck) when, due to the democratization process initiated by him, and the last expansion of the kingdom in that same year, that the parliament, with the permission of his majesty, sanctioned a new act regarding the situation of Bhutan and the outside world, this act, known as Act 1053, opened the ports of Bhutan to foreign trade. It was then, that for the first time since 1945, the newspapers of Bhutan showed the conditions of Asia. At the beginning the people showed little interest and many were scared, seeing how imperialistic, dictatorial and fanatical* *governments* *had* *emerged, but as trade deals were made and the economy, which had been started to show the first (but not alarming) signs of stagnation, skyrocketed, the people started to wonder if it was thanks to this and many other laws passed by the legislation, that the country was prospering and the fears of the outside world started to diminish. With the money that the state was earning, new schools were built in the rural areas and the recently incorporated border provinces.*

*Now, Bhutan enters 1995 as a prosperous nation, a nation where tradition and modernization clash with each other. The education is still a matter that the government needs to resolve, with many, if not all schools, using backward teaching and study methods that are almost two hundred years old, some propose to totally change this situation, while others, the most conservative, are totally opposed to the idea that the traditions are lost, while others, mostly young, they propose a progressive and mixed modernization, incorporating new ideas and maintaining others. The question of female suffrage and rights, which are the same as men, but, for example in the case of suffrage, with a different value (a man who votes is one vote for a party, while a woman's vote means a quarter of a common vote) are on the discussion table of the government.*

*Nobody knows what will happen to this old and at the same time young country, a country of contradictions, but one thing is sure, the bhutanese people will always do whatever it takes to maintain the existence of its country and its monarchy.*