HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Kingdom of Bhutan is divided into 20 districts ( Dzongkha: ). Bhutan is located between the
Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions ...
of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
on the eastern slopes of the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...
in
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...
. are the primary
subdivisions of 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 mounta ...
. They possess a number of powers and rights under the Constitution of Bhutan, such as regulating commerce, running elections, and creating local governments. The Local Government Act of 2009 established local governments in each of the 20 overseen by the
Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs The Bhutanese Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs (Dzongkha: ནང་སྲིད་དང་སྲོལ་འཛིན་ལྷན་ཁག་; Wylie: ''nang-srid(-dang srol-'dzin) lhan-khag''; "Nangsi Lhenkhag") is the government ministry ...
. Each has its own elected government with non-legislative executive powers, called a (district council). The is assisted by the administration headed by a (royal appointees who are the chief executive officer of each ). Each also has a court presided over by a (judge), who is appointed by the Chief Justice of Bhutan on the advice of Royal Judicial Service Council. The , and their residents, are represented in the
Parliament of Bhutan The Parliament of Bhutan ( dz, རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་ཁང་ ''gyelyong tshokhang'') consists of the King of Bhutan together with a bicameral parliament.Constitution: Art. 1, § 3; Art. 10 This bicameral parliament i ...
, a
bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single gr ...
legislature consisting of the National Council and the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...
. Each has one National Council representative. National Assembly representatives are distributed among the in proportion to their registered voter population as recommended by the Delimitation Commission, provided that "no shall have less than two and more than seven National Assembly constituencies." As of the 2017 census, Thimphu is the most populous , with 138,736 residents; Gasa is the least populous, with 3,952 residents. Thimphu is the most densely populated, with , whereas Gasa is the least densely populated, with . The largest by land area is Wangdue Phodrang, encompassing , while the smallest is Tsirang, encompassing .


History

Medieval Bhutan was organized into provinces or regions headquartered in (castles/fortresses) which served as administrative centres for areas around them. The of Paro, Dagana and Trongsa were headed by (provincial lords/governors) while other were headed by (fortress lords). and gained power as the increasingly dysfunctional dual system of government eventually collapsed amid civil war. The victorious Penlop of Trongsa Ugyen Wangchuck gained sovereignty over the entire realm in 1907, marking the establishment of the modern Kingdom of Bhutan and the ascendancy of the House of Wangchuck. At the direction of the fourth (Bhutan head of state),
Jigme Singye Wangchuk Jigme Singye Wangchuck ( dz, འཇིགས་མེད་སེང་གེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་, ; born 11 November 1955) is a member of the House of Wangchuck who was the king of Bhutan (Druk Gyalpo) from 1972 until his abdicatio ...
, the process of decentralisation of local administration started in 1981 with the formation of a (DYT, district development committee) in each of the newly created . Four (zones) were established in 1988 and 1989: Zone I, including four western districts, seated at Chhukha; Zone II, including four west-central districts, seated at Damphu; Zone III, including four east-central districts, seated at Geylegphug; and Zone IV, including five eastern districts, seated at Yonphula; to "provide a more efficient distribution of personnel and administrative and technical skills." acted as the intermediary administrative divisions between the administration and the central government. Although Thimphu and Thimphu (municipality) were within the boundaries of Zone I, they stayed outside the zonal system. By 1991, however, only Eastern (Zone IV) was fully functional. Zone I, Zone II and Zone III were "indefinitely" disabled in early 1991. Zone IV also ceased to function in mid-1992. slowly lost relevance and went defunct as they were not included in the Constitution of Bhutan and the Local Government Act of 2009, which repealed the previous local governments and administrative divisions. Under the (District Development Council Act) of 2002, a (administrator), assisted by a (deputy district collector), carry out administrative activities, while the DYT coordinates all developmental activities within the . Each DYT includes representatives of the municipalities and the towns within the , who elect a chairperson from among themselves. The DYTs also had non-voting members, which included the , the ( (sub-district) head) (where a exists) and the officials from various sectors such as the chief engineer, and the planning, finance, education, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and health officers. The Constitution of 2008 laid basic provisions for an elected and courts in each . The Local Government Act of 2009 further codified the election process of , the appointment process of , and the role of courts within the
judicial system of Bhutan The judicial system of Bhutan is the purview of the Royal Court of Justice, the judicial branch of the government of Bhutan under the Constitution of 2008. The judicial system comprises the Judicial Commission, the courts, the police, the penal co ...
. It also repealed all previous acts and laws regarding local governments, including the of 2002.


Political structure

Under the Local Government Act of 2009, the is the non-legislative executive body of the , composed of the ( head) and the (elected representatives of the ) from each (block of villages), and representatives from the of that . They are empowered to enforce rules on health and public safety, regulate environmental pollution, advertise in regard to environmental aesthetics, regulate broadcast media in accordance with the Information, Communications, and Media Act, regulate gambling, and raise their own funds. They also oversee the . A , in turn, is responsible for maintaining law and order, and for enforcing the (rules for disciplined behavior).



See also

* ISO 3166-2:BT


Notes


Footnotes


References


External links


Dzongkhag of Bhutan
{{featured list Bhutan, districts Bhutan 1 Districts, Bhutan Bhutan geography-related lists