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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 native speakers and about 640,000 total speakers. Dzongkha is considered a South Tibetic language. It is closely related to and partially intelligible with Sikkimese, and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha, Brokpa, Brokkat and Lakha. It has a more distant relationship to Standard Tibetan. Spoken Dzongkha and Tibetan are around 50 to 80 percent mutually intelligible. Usage Dzongkha and its dialects are the native tongue of eight western districts of Bhutan ('' viz.'' Wangdue Phodrang, , Thimphu, Gasa, Paro, Ha, Dagana and Chukha). There are also some native speakers near the Indian town of Kalimpong, once part of Bhutan but now in North Bengal and in Sikkim. Dzongkha was declared the national language of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thimphu
Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city of Punakha was replaced by Thimphu as capital in 1955, and in 1961 Thimphu was declared as the capital of the Kingdom of Bhutan by the 3rd Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck. The city extends in a north–south direction on the west bank of the valley formed by the Wang Chhu, which flows out into India as the Raidāk River. Thimphu is the fifth highest capital in the world by altitude and ranges in altitude from to .Brown, p. 97Palin, p. 245 Unusually for a capital city, Thimphu does not have its own airport, instead relying on the Paro Airport (connected by road some away). Thimphu, as the political and economic center of Bhutan, has a dominant agriculture and livestock base, which contributes to 45% of the country's GNP. Tourism ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 country, Bhutan is known as "Druk Yul," or "Land of the Thunder Dragon". Nepal and Bangladesh are located near Bhutan but do not share a land border. The country has a population of over 727,145 and territory of and ranks 133rd in terms of land area and 160th in population. Bhutan is a Constitutional Democratic Monarchy with King as head of state and Prime Minister as head of government. Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism is the state religion and the Je Khenpo is the head of state religion. The subalpine Himalayan mountains in the north rise from the country's lush subtropical plains in the south. In the Bhutanese Himalayas, there are peaks higher than above sea level. Gangkhar Puensum is Bhutan's highest peak and is the highe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibetan Script
The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (''abugida'') of Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. It has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali. The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script. This writing system is used across the Himalayas, and Tibet. The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Meitei, Lepcha,Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright. ''The World's Writing Systems''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Marchen and the multilingual ʼPhags-pa script. History According to Tibetan historiography, the Tibetan script was introduced by Thonmi Sambhota i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chocangaca Language
The Chocha Ngacha language or ''Chochangachakha'' ( dz, ཁྱོད་ཅ་ང་ཅ་ཁ་ "'You' and 'I' language"; also called "Kursmad-kha", "Maphekha", "rTsamangpa'i kha", and "Tsagkaglingpa'i kha") or Tsamang is a Southern Tibetic language spoken by about 20,000 people in the Kurichu Valley of Lhuntse and Mongar Districts in eastern Bhutan. Chocha Ngacha and Dzongkha Chocha Ngacha is a "sister language" to Dzongkha. Under pressure to assimilate into the mainstream Dzongkha-speaking Ngalop culture, this proximity has resulted in significant loss of its particularly distinctive Kurichu linguistic substrate. Nicholas Tournadre writes: See also * Dzongkha *Languages of Bhutan *Language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are percei ... References Languag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dzongkha Development Commission
The Dzongkha Development Commission (), also called the DDC, is the pre-eminent body on matters pertaining to the Dzongkha language. The DDC was officially established in 1986 by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth king of Bhutan, to preserve and promote the use of Dzongkha as the national language of Bhutan. The DDC offices are now located in the Kawajangtsa area of Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city ..., close to the National Library of Bhutan and the Ministry of Education. The Dzongkha Development Commission consists of two parts: the Commission itself having nine eminent members (or commissioners) chaired by the Prime Minister of Bhutan; and the DDC Secretariat which carries out the day-to-day work of the Commission. The body has the task of acting as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haa District
Haa District ( Dzongkha: ཧཱ་; Wylie: ''Haa''; alternative spellings include "Ha") is one of the 20 dzongkhag or districts comprising Bhutan. An alternative name for the district is "Hidden-Land Rice Valley." It the second least-populated dzongkhag in the country after Gasa.http://www.haa.gov.bt/downloads?Type=12&Sector=AlBhutan Census website The most-spoken language of the district is Dzongkha. The river Haa Chhu, originating at Jomolhari mountain, flows through the district. Mystical history of Haa The name Haa (pronounced "hah"), as well as the more ancient name ''Has'' ( Dzongkha: ཧས་; Wylie: ''Has''; pronounced "hay"), connotes esoteric hiddenness. Haa's major feature is the Haa Valley, a steep north-south valley with a narrow floor. The district is presided over by three mountains collectively referred as "Three Brothers" -- ''Jampelyang, Chana-Dorji, and Chenrezig.'' Black, White, and Haa Gonpa temples Local historians maintain that two important temp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 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. 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, a bicameral le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibetic Languages
The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descended from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries).Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the Himalayan area''. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. According to Tournadre (2014), there are 50 languages, which split into over 200 dialects or could be group into 8 dialect continua. These languages are spoken in the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas in Gilgit-Baltistan, Aksai Chin, Ladakh, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Bhutan. Classical Tibetan is the major literary language, particularly for its use in Buddhist literature. Tibetan languages are spoken by some 6 million people, not all of whom are Tibetans. With the worldwide spread of Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan language has spread into the western world and can be found in many Buddhist publications and prayer materials; with some western students ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dzongkha Braille
Dzongkha Braille or Bhutanese Braille, is the braille alphabet for writing Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. It is based on English braille, with some extensions from international usage. As in print, the vowel ''a'' is not written. Despite Dzongkha and Tibetan using nearly the same alphabet in print, the braille alphabets differ radically, with Tibetan Braille closer to German conventions and assigned letter values according to different sound correspondences. Alphabet UNESCO (2013World Braille Usage 3rd edition. The reversed letters used in Sanskrit loanwords are indicated with the diacritic : :ཊ , ཋ , ཌ , ཎ , ཥ . The vowel "a" is inherent in a consonant letter, and is not written explicitly. Other vowels are written after a consonant as in English Braille. When a vowel occurs at the beginning of a word, the vowel letter is carried by a null consonant ཨ : Sanskrit vowel-marking includes: : ཨཿ ''aḥ'', ཨྃ ''aṃ'', as in ཀི ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dagana District
Dagana District is a district located in Bhutan. Most of the district is populated by Dzongkha speakers. However, in the southwest part near the Sarpang District, Nepali is also spoken as a native language. Administrative divisions Dagana District itself is divided into fourteen village blocks (or '' gewogs''): * Dorona Gewog * Drujegang Gewog * Gesarling Gewog *Goshi Gewog * Karmaling Gewog * Kana Gewog * Khebisa Gewog * Lajab Gewog * Lhamoy Zingkha Gewog *Nichula Gewog * Tashiding Gewog * Tsangkha Gewog * Tsendagang Gewog * Tseza Gewog Environment Like most of the districts of Bhutan, Dagana contains environmentally protected areas. In southeastern Dagana that is along the border with India, lies the western half of Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary, covering parts of Karmaling, Lhamoy Zingkha and Nichula Gewogs. Phibsoo has no human inhabitants. It has districts that are habituated by Nepali speaking people. Daga Zong can be reached only by one single passage. History On Apr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laya Dialect
Laya ( Dzongkha: ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, ལ་ཡག་ཁ་; Wylie: ''la-ya-kha'', ''la-yag-kha'') is a Tibetic variety spoken by indigenous Layaps inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan in the village of Laya, Gasa District. Speakers also inhabit the northern regions of Thimphu ( Lingzhi Gewog) and Punakha Districts. Its speakers are ethnically related to the Tibetans. Most speakers live at an altitude of , just below the Tsendagang peak. Laya speakers are also called ''Bjop'' by the Bhutanese, sometimes considered a condescending term. There were 1,100 speakers of Laya in 2003. Laya is a variety of Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. There is a limited mutual intelligibility with Dzongkha, mostly in basic vocabulary and grammar. See also * Layap * Laya Gewog * Laya village * Languages of Bhutan There are two dozen languages of Bhutan, all members of the Tibeto-Burman language family except for Nepali, which is an Indo-Aryan language, and Bhutanese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gasa District
Gasa District or Gasa Dzongkhag ( Dzongkha: མགར་ས་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Mgar-sa rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The capital of Gasa District is Gasa Dzong near Gasa. It is located in the far north of the county and spans the Middle and High regions of the Tibetan Himalayas. The dominant language of the district is Dzongkha, which is the national language. Related languages, Layakha and Lunanakha, are spoken by semi-nomadic communities in the north of the district. The People's Republic of China claims the northern part of Gasa District. Gasa has an area of , formerly . It had a population of 3,116 as of the 2005 census, making it the largest, least populated, and thus least densely populated of all the dzongkhags; it is also the least developed district of Bhutan. History Gasa was formerly a '' drungkhag'' (sub-district) of the Punakha ''dzongkhag'' (district). It became a separate ''dzongkhag'' in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
