People of Jakar and Kurjey attend the Kurjey Tsechu in Bumthang, Bhutan’s central green pasturage valley, to pay obeisance to Guru Rinpoche / Rinpoche, who brought Buddhism to Bhutan. On his birthday, the thankha / thanka / thangka / thangkha / thongdrel is unfurled at the Kurjey Tsechu or festival. A monk counts the Buddhist rosary while holy water is distributed. On a drum beat, the huge wall painting is lowered, drum beat by drum beat, for the people to see it. Bhutan is a Buddhist state where power is shared by the king and government. The country’s name in the local dialect means Land of the Dragon. In Bhutan, thunder is believed to be the voices of dragons roaring. The two colors of the flag, divided diagonally, represent spiritual and temporal power within Bhutan. The orange part of the flag represents the Drukpas monasteries and Buddhist religious practice, while the saffron yellow field denotes the secular authority of the dynasty Early records suggest scattered clusters of inhabitants had already settled in Bhutan when the first recorded settlers arrived 1400 years ago. Bhutan’s indigenous population is the Drukpa. Three main ethnic groups, the Sharchops, Ngalops and the Lhotsampas (of Nepalese origin), make up today’s Drukpa population. Bhutan’s earliest residents, the Sharchops reside predominantly in eastern Bhutan. Their origin can be traced to the tribes of northern Burma and northeast India. The Ngalops migrated from the Tibetan plains and are the …
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