Lhuntse District (
Dzongkha: ལྷུན་རྩེ་རྫོང་ཁག་;
Wylie: ''Lhun-rtse rdzong-khag''; previously "Lhuntshi") is one of the 20
dzongkhag (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 mountai ...
. It consists of 2506 households. Located in the northeast, Lhuntse is one of the least developed dzhongkhags of Bhutan. There are few roads, the first gas station was opened in September 2005, electricity is not well distributed, and the difficult terrain makes distribution of social welfare problematic. Despite its favourable climate, farming is hindered by the lack of infrastructure.
Culture
Lhuntse is culturally part of eastern Bhutan. The
languages
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
and lifestyle of its inhabitants may be contrasted against the dominant western
Ngalop culture.
This region is renowned as a textiles producing region and as the ancestral homeland of the
Bhutanese royal family
The Wangchuck dynasty () have held the hereditary position of Druk Gyalpo ("Dragon King") of Bhutan since 1907. Prior to reunification, the Wangchuck family had governed the district of Trongsa District, Trongsa as descendants of Dungkar Choji. ...
.
Alcohol
Eastern Bhutanese culture is distinctive in its high alcohol consumption in relation to other parts of Bhutan.
Ara, the traditional alcohol of Bhutan, is most often home made from
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...
or
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...
, either
fermented
Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...
or
distilled
Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heatin ...
.
It may only be legally produced and consumed privately. Ara production is unregulated in method and quality. Its sale has been prohibited in Bhutan and enforced since a severe crackdown. However, because Ara returns far more profit than other forms of maize, many Bhutanese farmers have pressed for legal reform.
The Bhutanese government, meanwhile, is intent on discouraging excessive alcohol consumption, abuse, and associated diseases through taxation and regulation.
Through government efforts to reduce
ara production and consumption in Lhuntse District, locals conceded in 2011 that something should be done to curb the distinctly eastern Bhutanese tradition of heavy drinking. The government's strategy is to reduce ara production and consumption gradually until it is eliminated. Alcoholism and ara production have been notable topics of political discussion Bhutan, especially at the local level. Ara, however, is culturally relevant for its religious and medicinal uses. In 2011, the government passed its Alcohol Control Regulation, which imposed up to three times the previous taxes on alcohol. As a result, alcohol sales have dropped and prices have risen.
Languages
Lhuntse is home to a variety of language groups. In the east,
Dzala an
East Bodish language, is spoken. In southern Lhuntse,
Chocangacakha, a sister language to
Dzongkha, is spoken. The northern and western parts of the district are known as the Kurtö region, where inhabitants speak the East Bodish
Kurtöp language.
Administrative divisions
Lhuntse District is divided into eight village blocks (or ''
gewogs''):
*
Gangzur Gewog
Gangzur Gewog (Dzongkha: སྒང་ཟུར་) is a gewog (village block) of Lhuntse District, Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia ...
*
Jaray Gewog
Jarey Gewog (Dzongkha: རྒྱ་རས་) is a gewog (village block) of Lhuntse District, Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It ...
*
Khoma Gewog
Khoma Gewog (Dzongkha: མཁོ་མ་) is a gewog (village block) of Lhuntse District, Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ...
*
Kurtoe Gewog
Kurtoed Gewog (Dzongkha: ཀུར་སྟོད་) is a gewog (village block) of Lhuntse District, Bhutan. It is inhabited by speakers of the Kurtöp language
The Kurtöp language (Dzongkha: ཀུར་ཏོ་པ་ཁ་; Wylie: ''Kur-t ...
*
Menbi Gewog
*
Metsho Gewog
Metsho Gewog (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". ...
*
Minjay Gewog
Minjay Gewog (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". ...
*
Tsenkhar Gewog
Within these divisions are individual villages withy small populations such as
Autsho
Autsho is a village in north-eastern Bhutan near the border with Tibet. It is located in Lhuntse District.
At the 2005 census its population was 301.
References
Populated places in Bhutan
{{Bhutan-geo-stub ...
.
Geography
Most of Lhuntse District is part of the environmentally
protected areas of Bhutan. The district contains parts of
Wangchuck Centennial Park in the north (the ''gewogs'' of
Gangzur,
Khoma
Khoma is a progressive and alternative metal musical group from Sweden (Umeå). Some of its members also play with Cult of Luna
Cult of Luna is a Swedish heavy metal band from Umeå founded in 1998. They are known for post-metal music simil ...
and
Kurtoe),
Thrumshingla National Park in the south (the ''gewogs'' of
Gangzur,
Jarey and
Metsho), and
Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary in the east (the ''gewogs'' of
Khoma
Khoma is a progressive and alternative metal musical group from Sweden (Umeå). Some of its members also play with Cult of Luna
Cult of Luna is a Swedish heavy metal band from Umeå founded in 1998. They are known for post-metal music simil ...
and
Minjay). These three parks are connected by
biological corridors that crisscross the central and southern regions of the district.
Gallery
File:Close view of Lhuentse Dzong.jpg, Back side view Lhuentse Dzong
File:Kuri Chi river flowing below the Lhuentse Dzong.jpg, Kuri Chu river flowing below the Lhuentse Dzong
File:Chorten below Lhuentse Dzong.jpg, Chorten below Lhuentse Dzong
File:Close view of Chorten.jpg, Close view of Chorten
File:Musician monks.jpg, Musician monks
File:Archery Tournament, Lhuentse, Bhutan.jpg, Archery tournament at Lhuentse Dzong
File:On the weavers loom.jpg, On the weaver's loom
File:Handloom creation.jpg, A weaver at work
Towns and settlements in Lhunste District
*
Khenpa Dzong
Khenpa Dzong is a town in Lhuntse District in northeastern Bhutan.
References
External links Satellite map at Maplandia.com
Populated places in Bhutan
{{Bhutan-geo-stub ...
See also
*
Districts of Bhutan
*
Khoma
Khoma is a progressive and alternative metal musical group from Sweden (Umeå). Some of its members also play with Cult of Luna
Cult of Luna is a Swedish heavy metal band from Umeå founded in 1998. They are known for post-metal music simil ...
*
Kurtöp language
*
Kurtoed Province
References
External links
Dzongkhag profile with map over gewogsWindhorsephotography Lhutse galleryKuensel Online; September 23, 2005: Lhuntse's first gas station
{{Authority control
Districts of Bhutan
Drugs in Bhutan