Bumthang District (
Dzongkha
Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
: བུམ་ཐང་རྫོང་ཁག་;
Wylie: ''Bum-thang rzong-khag'') is one of the 20
dzongkhag
The Kingdom of Bhutan is divided into 20 districts ( Dzongkha: ). Bhutan is located between the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and India on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas in South Asia.
are the primary subdivisions of Bhutan. They ...
(districts) comprising
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
. It is the most historic dzongkhag if the number of ancient temples and sacred sites is counted. Bumthang consists of the four mountain valleys of Ura, Chumey, Tang and
Choekhor ("Bumthang"), although occasionally the entire district is referred to as
Bumthang Valley
Bumthang Valley is the main inhabited valley in the Bumthang district of Bhutan.
History
Bumthang is one of the most beautiful and sacred valleys in Bhutan.
The main town in the valley is Jakar. Bhutan's only brewery, brewing Red Panda wheat ...
.
''Bumthang'' directly translates as "beautiful field" – ''thang'' means field or flat place, and ''bum'' is said be an abbreviation of either ''bumpa'' (a vessel for holy water, thus describing the shape and nature of the valley), or simply ''bum'' ("girl," indicating this is the valley of beautiful girls). The name is said to have arisen after the construction of
Jambay Lhakhang.
Economy
Bumthang farms yield
buckwheat
Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as '' Fago ...
,
dairy product
Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food items in th ...
s,
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
, apples, potato, rice, woolen products and many other products. Bumthang is rich in producing wheat, buckwheat, dairy products, and potatoes. Bumthang is also nationally famous for yatha and bumthna matha weaving.
Languages
East Bodish languages
The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:
* Dakpa (Tawang Monpa)
* Dzala
* Nyen, including Mangde and Phobjib
* Chali
* Bumthang
...
are primarily spoken in Bumthang District.
The language spoken in the Bumthang district is known as
Bumthangkha. It is a
Tibeto-Burman language
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...
mutually intelligible with
Khengkha and closely related to
Dzongkha
Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
, the national language of Bhutan. Bumthangkha is partially comprehensible to speakers of
Dzongkha
Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
, which originated in valleys to the west of Bumthang. Each of the four valleys of Bumthang has its own dialect, and the remnants of the
Kheng kingdom, near and in
Zhemgang District
Zhemgang District (Dzongkha: གཞམས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration: ''Gzhams-sgang rdzong-khag''; previously "Shemgang"), is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Sarpang, Tr ...
to the south, speak
Khengkha. Historically, Bhumthangkha and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of
Kurtöpkha to the east,
Nupbikha
The Nupbi language ( dz, nupba'i kha "Western language") is an East Bodish language spoken by about 2200 people in central Bhutan.
Historically, Nupbikha and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of Bumthang, Kurtöp and Kheng, ne ...
to the west, and
Khengkha to the south, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages."
Brokkat, an endangered
Southern Bodish language, is spoken by about 300 people in the village of
Dhur
Dhur or D°ur ( Dzongkha: དུར་; Wylie: ''dur'') is a town in western Chhoekhor Gewog, Bumthang District in central Bhutan.
Dhur is the main area where Brokkat, one of the endangered languages of Bhutan
There are two dozen languages of ...
in
Bumthang Valley
Bumthang Valley is the main inhabited valley in the Bumthang district of Bhutan.
History
Bumthang is one of the most beautiful and sacred valleys in Bhutan.
The main town in the valley is Jakar. Bhutan's only brewery, brewing Red Panda wheat ...
. The language is a remnant of pastoral
yak
The domestic yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox or hairy cattle, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin Sta ...
herd communities.
Administrative divisions
Bumthang District is divided into four village blocks (or ''
gewogs''):
*
Chhume Gewog
Chhume Gewog (, kjz, Chunmat) is a gewog (village block) of Bumthang District, Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated ...
*
Choekor Gewog
*
Tang Gewog
Tang Gewog ( dz, སྟང་རྒེད་འོག) is a gewog (village block) of Bumthang District, Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in Sou ...
*
Ura Gewog
Ura Gewog ( dz, ཨུ་ར་རྒེད་འོག) is a gewog (village block) of Bumthang District, Bhutan. Ura Gewog consists of ten major villages- Tangsibi, Shingnyeer, Shingkhar, Pangkhar, Somthrang, Beteng, Trabi, Tarshong, Toepa and C ...
Bumthang also contains several notable towns:
*
Chhumey
*
Prakhar
*
Jakar
Jakar (Dzongkha: བྱ་ཀར་; Wylie: ''Bya-kar'') is a town in the central-eastern region of Bhutan. It is the district capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Bumthang District and the location of Jakar Dzong, the regional dzong fortress. The na ...
- the district administrative headquarters
*
Tang Valley
*
Ura
Annual Jakar Tshechus:
*Mid October (every year)
Tandindang school was started on 17 July 2010, to benefit the children going to school.
Environment
Most of Bumthang District is part of Bhutan's extensive
protected areas network. The northern two-thirds of the district (the ''gewogs'' of
Chhoekhor and
Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...
) belong to
Wangchuck Centennial Park
Wangchuck Centennial National Park in northern Bhutan is the kingdom's largest national park, spanning over five districts, occupying significant portions of northern Bumthang, Lhuntse, and Wangdue Phodrang Districts. It borders Tibet to th ...
, buffered by pockets of
biological corridor
A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...
s. Southern Bumthang (the ''gewogs'' of
Chhumig,
Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...
and
Ura) is part of another protected area,
Thrumshingla National Park
Phrumsengla National Park (Dzongkha: ཕུརམ་སེང་ལ་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གླིང་ག), formerly Thrumshingla National Park, in central Bhutan covers just over across four districts, but primarily in Mongar. It ...
.
Bumthang is known for its important population of black-necked cranes migrating in winter.
Landmarks
*
Membartsho
Membartsho (Dzongkha མེ་འབར་མཚོ།), also known as Mebar Tsho, is a holy site, revered as the place where Pema Lingpa, Bhutan's greatest tertön (treasure discoverer), discovered several of Guru Rinpoche's terma in the 15 ...
(Burning Lake), where sacred scriptures were hidden by
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
in the 8th century and later recovered by
Pema Lingpa
Pema Lingpa or Padma Lingpa (, 1450–1521) was a Bhutanese saint and siddha of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is considered a ''terchen'' or "preeminent tertön" (, discoverer of spiritual treasures) and is considered to be foremos ...
in the 15th century.
*
Kurjey Lhakhang, the final resting place of the
remains
Remains or The Remains may refer to:
Music
*The Remains (band), a 1960s American rock band
*The Ramainz, originally The Remains, a Ramones tribute band
Albums
* ''Remains'' (Alkaline Trio album), 2007
* ''Remains'' (Annihilator album), 1997
* ' ...
of the first three
Kings of Bhutan.
*
Jakar Dzong
Jakar Dzong or Jakar Yugyal Dzong is the ''dzong'' or fortress of the Bumthang District in central Bhutan. It is located on a ridge above Jakar
Jakar (Dzongkha: བྱ་ཀར་; Wylie: ''Bya-kar'') is a town in the central-eastern region of ...
, adjacent to the main town of
Jakar
Jakar (Dzongkha: བྱ་ཀར་; Wylie: ''Bya-kar'') is a town in the central-eastern region of Bhutan. It is the district capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Bumthang District and the location of Jakar Dzong, the regional dzong fortress. The na ...
.
*
Jambay Lhakhang, one of the two most ancient temples of Bhutan, built in the 7th century by
Songtsän Gampo
Songtsen Gampo (; 569–649? 650), also Songzan Ganbu (), was the 33rd Tibetan king and founder of the Tibetan Empire, and is traditionally credited with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, influenced by his Nepali consort Bhrikuti, of Nepa ...
, founder of the
Tibetan Empire
The Tibetan Empire (, ; ) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. The empire further expanded under the 38 ...
.
*
Tamzhing Monastery
Tamzhing Lhündrup Monastery () in Bumthang District in central Bhutan is a Nyingma gompa in Bhutan. Its temple and monastery are remarkable for their direct connection to the Bhutanese tertön and saint, Pema Lingpa (1450-1521) and his tulkus. ...
, the most important
Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...
institution in the country.
*
Padtshaling Gonpa, The monastery was established by the first Padtshaling Tulku Siddha Namgyal Lhendub in 1769, according to the prophecy of Lhasa Jowo.
See also
*
Districts of Bhutan
The Kingdom of Bhutan is divided into 20 districts ( Dzongkha: ). Bhutan is located between the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and India on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas in South Asia.
are the primary subdivisions of Bhutan. They p ...
*
Bumthang Province
Bumthang Province (Dzongkha: བུམ་ཐང་; Wylie: ''bum-thang'') was one of the nine historical Provinces of Bhutan.
Bumthang Province occupied lands in north-central Bhutan. It was administered from the Jakar Dzong in the town of Jaka ...
*
Nangnang, Bhutan
Nangnang is a town in Bumthang in northern-central Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, betwe ...
*
Thrumshing La
Thrumshing La, also called Thrumshingla Pass and Donga Pass, ( Dzongkha: ཁྲུམས་ཤིང་ལ་; Wylie: ''khrums-shing la''; "Thrumshing Pass"), is the second-highest mountain pass in Bhutan, connecting its central and eastern regio ...
References
External links
Bumthang Dzongkhag official websiteFive year plan 2002-2007*
{{Authority control
Districts of Bhutan