The

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 ...

ese Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs (

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 ...

: ནང་སྲིད་དང་སྲོལ་འཛིན་ལྷན་ཁག་; Wylie: ''nang-srid(-dang srol-'dzin) lhan-khag''; "Nangsi Lhenkhag") is the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

ministry Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...

within the

Lhengye Zhungtshog 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 ...

(Council of Ministers) which oversees

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and order; the civil administration;

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

services; the issuance of citizenship documents, and other related documents; the delivery of services by local governments; and the preservation, promotion, development, and protection of the culture and heritage of Bhutan. It is headed by the Home Minister (''Kidu Lyonpo''), who sits on the Lhengye Zhungtshog and is led by the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. The Ministry currently operates from

Tashichho Dzong Tashichho Dzong ( dz, ) is a Buddhist monastery and fortress on the northern edge of the city of Thimphu in Bhutan, on the western bank of the Wang Chu. It has traditionally been the seat of the Druk Desi (or "Deb Raja"), the head of Bhutan's ci ...

Background

On May 20, 1968, 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 repre ...

, in its 28th session, formed a council of Ministers because of the increasing number of development activities in Bhutan. Accordingly, it resolved to appoint Lyonpo Tamji Jagar as the first Home Minister. Until 1999, this post was one among a council of Ministers appointed by the King (

Druk Gyalpo The Druk Gyalpo (; 'Dragon King') is the head of state of the Bhutan, Kingdom of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha, Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as ''Drukyul'' which translates as "The Land of the Thunder Dragon". Thus, while kings of Bhutan are ...

). In 1999, as a major step toward democratization, King

Jigme Singye Wangchuck 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 abdicati ...

dissolved the existing cabinet and withdrew from his role in the decision-making in the cabinet. Six new ministers, including a Home Minister, were nominated, placed before the

, and voted in as new ministers. On July 26, 1999, the National Assembly enacted the Lhengye Zhungtsho Act on advice of the King. Under this Act, candidates for the post of Home Minister were nominated by the King and elected indirectly through the National Assembly. Under the first incarnation of the Lhengye Zhungtshog, as under the "CCM," Ministers continued to enjoy five-year terms while the Chair rotated among them on a yearly basis. In 2008, the status of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs was reshaped under Article 17 and Article 20 of the

Constitution of Bhutan The Constitution of Bhutan ( Dzongkha: འབྲུག་གི་རྩ་ཁྲིམས་ཆེན་མོ་; Wylie:'' 'Druk-gi cha-thrims-chen-mo'') was enacted 18 July 2008 by the Royal Government of Bhutan. The Constitution was thorough ...

. Executive power is wholly vested in the

, consisting of the Ministers headed by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. The number of Ministers is determined by the number of Ministries required to provide efficient and good governance; currently the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs is one of ten ministries. The Home Minister, like all Ministers, is appointed from among National Assembly members by the King on advice of the Prime Minister, and must be a natural-born citizen of Bhutan. The Home Minister carries out part of the Lhengye Zhungtshog's Constitutionally mandated duty to aid, advise, and inform the King about the affairs of the State. While the Ministry of Cultural and Home Affairs, like other Ministries, may formulate and implement policy, these regulations are subordinate to laws of Bhutan.

List of Home Ministers

Secretariat Divisions

The Bureau of Law and Order provides legal advice and guidance; facilitates prosecution; conducts research; reviews security clearance cases and verifies adverse records; and regulates explosives. It also coordinates visits by international human rights and humanitarian agencies; coordinates with the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

on matters relating to transnational crimes; coordinates government level Bhutan-India meetings on border management and security; coordinates Border District meetings with Indian states of Assam and West Bengal; and liaises and coordinates on national security issues with the

Royal Bhutan Police The Royal Bhutan Police ( dz, རྒྱལ་གཞུང་འབྲུག་གི་འགག་སྡེ་; ) is the national police force of the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is responsible for maintaining law and order and prevention of crime i ...

and

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 ...

Administrations. The Administrative and Finance Division implements the policy of the government to have a small, efficient and compact civil staff. This division is responsible for strengthening the administrative units of all the

s (districts) and

Dungkhag A dungkhag ( dz, དྲུང་ཁག་ ''drungkhak'') is a sub-district of a dzongkhag (district) of Bhutan. The head of a dungkhag is a ''Dungpa''. As of 2007, nine of the twenty dzongkhags had from one to three dungkhags, with sixteen dungkh ...

s (sub-districts) by posting, promoting, training and transferring the administrative personnel. This division also coordinates with other government agencies to deploy other categories of personnel to the

s. The Policy and Planning Division works with the Planning Commission, an independent agency, to coordinate development projects within the Dzongkhags. Its Information and Communication Technology Unit (ICT Unit) maintains government websites, publications, and other online resources.

Departments

The Department of Culture has eight divisions: the Division for Cultural Properties; the Division for Conservation of Architectural Heritage Sites; the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, o ...

; the

Textile Museum A textile museum is a museum with exhibits relating to the history and art of textiles, including: * Textile industries and manufacturing, often located in former factories or buildings involved in the design and production of yarn, cloth and clo ...

; the

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

; the

Folk Heritage Museum The Folk Heritage Museum or Phelchey Toenkhyim is a museum in Thimphu, Thimphu District, Bhutan. History The museum was opened on 28 July 2001 from the initiative of founder queen mother ''Ashi'' Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck. Architecture The museum ...

; the

Royal Academy of Performing Arts The Royal Academy of Performing Arts (RAPA) is a Bhutanese government body within the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, Department of Culture, that supports the preservation of traditional Bhutanese culture. It was founded in 1954 under the i ...

; and the Driglam Sections. The Department of Culture was previously known as the Special Commission for Cultural Affairs (SCCA), the Commission was established through a Royal Decree on July 31, 1985, with the mandate to preserve and promote Bhutan's cultural and traditional heritage. The Commission was reconstituted in 1995 as the ''Solzin Lhentshog'' with fifteen members. Following the devolution of the executive authority to the elected

in June 1998, the body was reconstituted for the third time in September 1998 with 15 members for three-year terms with Lyonpo Thinley Gyamtsho as its chairman. With the third restructuring exercise of the Government Organizations, the Commission was again renamed as the National Commission for Cultural Affairs (NCCA), which later became a Department of Culture under the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs in on June 19, 2003. The Department of Immigration polices illegal immigration and provides immigration services for legal residents, including naturalization and visa services.

Bhutanese passport A Bhutanese passport is a document that authorises and facilitates travel and other activities in Bhutan or by Bhutanese citizens. Foreign travel passports are issued to citizens of Bhutan for international travel by the Ministry of Foreign Af ...

s, however, are the purview of the

. The department has three divisions: the Immigration Service Division (managing Regional Immigration Offices and

Paro Airport Paro International Airport ( dz, སྤ་རོ་གནམ་ཐང༌།, paro gnam thang) is the sole international airport of the four airports in Bhutan. It is from Paro in a deep valley on the bank of the river Paro Chhu. With surr ...

); the Inspection Division; and the Naturalization and Resident Permit Division. The Department of Civil Registration and Census is composed of three divisions: the Civil Registration and Citizenship Services Division; the Demography and Information Division; and the Population Census Division. The Department of Local Governance oversees and implements Bhutan's program of decentralization. The Department of Disaster Management oversees and directs local and national governments in preparation and prevention for disasters.

References

External links

Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs

National Portal of Bhutan
{{authority control Home and Cultural Affairs

Society of Bhutan Bhutanese culture Politics of Bhutan

Background

List of Home Ministers

Secretariat Divisions

Departments

See also

References

External links