Prince ''

Dasho Dasho (Dzongkha: དྲག་ཤོས; Wylie: ''Drag-shos'') (lit. Excellent One) is a Bhutanese honorific that is bestowed upon individuals, along with a red scarf kabney, by the Druk Gyalpo. In common practice, however, many senior government o ...

'' Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck (born 16 July 1984) is a Bhutanese prince. Born as the second son of the

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

Jigme Singye Wangchuck, he was the

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

to the throne 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 mountainou ...

until 5 February 2016, when his nephew Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, his older half-brother and current King

Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck ( dz, འཇིགས་མེད་གེ་སར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཕྱུག་, ; born 21 February 1980) is the Druk Gyalpo (Dzongkha: Dragon King) of the Kingdom of Bhutan. After his ...

's son, was born. Prince Jigyel Ugyen is the second son of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck from Queen Mother ''Ashi''

Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck Queen Mother Dorji Wangmo (Dzongkha: རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་མོ་དབང་ཕྱུག་; Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''Rdo-rje Dbang-mo Dbang-phyug'') (born 10 June 1955, second daughter of ''Yab Dasho'' Ugyen Dorji and ...

. He has an older sister, Princess ''Ashi'' Sonam Dechen Wangchuck, as well as four half-brothers and four half-sisters.

Education

He was educated at Yangchenphug Higher Secondary School, then Choate Rosemary Hall in

Wallingford, Connecticut Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...

, USA, graduating in 2003. He read Modern History and Political Science at

St Peter's College, Oxford St Peter's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is located in New Inn Hall Street, Oxford, United Kingdom. It occupies the site of two of the university's medieval halls, dating back to at least the 14th ...

, in the United Kingdom starting in 2003 and graduating in 2007.

Royal duties

Sharing responsibilities with his siblings, Prince Jigyel Ugyen travels extensively to represent the King in various functions in Bhutan as well as abroad. In 2008 he travelled to the

Smithsonian Folklife Festival The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, launched in 1967, is an international exhibition of living cultural heritage presented annually in the summer in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is held on the National Mall for two weeks around the F ...

where he delivered an opening address before roaming the festival area, and interacting with visitors. At the end of the festival, he travelled with several performers to attend the Bhutan Festival 2008 at the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

. As the King's representative and President to the Bhutan Olympic Committee (BOC), he visited

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in order to attend the XIII Olympic Congress in 2009. He was appointed to the Chairmanship during the 34th General Assembly of the

Olympic Council of Asia The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is a governing body of sports in Asia, currently with 45 member National Olympic Committees. The current Acting President is Raja Randhir Singh, substituting Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah. The headquarters ...

, held in

Ashgabat Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشق‌آباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lie ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

and will chair the committee for four years from 2015 to 2019. On 9 October 2018, His Royal Highness was elected as an International Olympic Committee member, whose candidature was linked to a function within the NOC, that is the Bhutan Olympic Committee.

Personal interests

He and his brothers share interests in various sporting activities, such as archery, basketball, golf, association football, football and cycling.Ugyen Yoeser wins
/ref> He initiated the Tour of the Dragon in Bhutan, a mountain bike race covering 268 km, from central to western Bhutan in 2010.

Humanitarian causes

The prince with his sister, Princess ''Ashi'' Sonam Dechen Wangchuck (born 1981), Sonam Dechen, are collaborating in the Tarayana Foundation (TF) as board members. Founded by their mother, Queen Mother ''Ashi'' Dorji Wangmo, the foundation focuses on various efforts to reduce poverty in Bhutan. The prince is also the founder of Bhutan Philanthropy Ventures, a social enterprise established to support the Tarayana Foundation.

Notes

External links