Bhutanese Society
Boys at a festival wear the gho.Other notable symbols of Bhutanese culture and national identity are the distinctive Bhutanese dress, the Bhutanese monarchy, and Dzongkha, the national language.
The driglam namzha, a seventeenth-century code on dress, etiquette, and architecture, mandates wearing Ngalop clothing, the gho and kira, in public. The code, while distinctive and symbolic of Bhutanese identity, is resented by many non-Ngalop Lhotshampa.
The Ngalop Bhutanese monarchy itself, and especially the reigning Druk Gyalpo, are prominent symbols of Bhutan. The kingdom, which began in 1907 as an absolute monarchy, has endeavored on a path of modernization and democratization largely at the behest of its latest three kings. The democratic Constitution of 2008 explicitly enshrines the institution of the monarchy and the line of Ugyen Wangchuck. The Constitution and modern laws also preserve the monarch's active role in reviewing and assenting to laws, hearing judicial appeals, and guiding domestic and foreign policy.
One prominent symbol of the Bhutanese monarchy is the Raven Crown, worn by reigning monarchs since the reign of Ugyen Wangchuck (1907–1926). The first King of Bhutan Ugyen Wangchuck adopted as the unique symbol of his authority a crown surmounted by the head of a raven. The bird represents a form of Mahakala, Bhutan's guardian deity. The prototype of the founding monarch's Raven Crown had first been devised as a battle helmet for his father, Jigme Namgyel (1825–81). Known as the Black Regent, he had worn it in bloody struggles against his many rivals within the country and against the British who tried, unsuccessfully, to subdue him.
The national language, Dzongkha, is a symbol of the state of Bhutan and is its legally designated lingua franca among the many languages of Bhutan. Like the driglam namzha and Bhutanese monarchy, Dzongkha is also a salient feature of Ngalop culture in particular. The name of the language hearkens to the distinctive dzong fortresses, now used as government centers.
Read more about this topic: National Symbols Of Bhutan
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