A Brief History of the Bhutanese Refugee Crisis

Bhutan, called "The Dragon Kingdom" is a landlocked, mountainous country located between Nepal and China and the current population is made up of three main ethnic groups. The elite class is made up of Ngalongs from the western mountains and the central Bhutanese with whom they have intermarried.   The two other groups are the more numerous Sharchhops (“easterners”) and the Lhotshampa, who at one time occupied the agricultural lands in the south of the country.  Both Ngalongs and Sharchhops are Buddhist, while the Lhotshampa, who are defined as Bhutanese of Nepali origin are for the most part practitioners of Hinduism.

MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF BHUTAN

The Lhotshampa began to settle in Bhutan late in the 19^th century and by the 1950’s were a recognized group who occupied the terraced farmlands to the south where they made their living as farmers.  By 1930 their population had grown to 60,000 and the area they lived in was regarded as the main supplier of food for the entire country.  In spite of their contributions to the nation the Lhotshampa were viewed as ethnic outsiders and they and their descendants had very little political stability until they were granted full Bhutanese citizenship under the Citizenship Act of 1958.

The Lhotshampas remained participating members of Bhutanese society until the 1980s when they came to be seen as a threat to the political order.  In 1985 a new citizenship act was passed and it became the basis for a census exercise in southern districts.  In order to qualify for Bhutanese citizenship every member of the southern population had to produce documentary evidence of their legal residence in 1958 or be declared a non-national with no citizenship rights.  Furthermore the Lhotshampas in particular were classified into seven categories, and these arbitrary categories made it possible for the government to confiscate property in the south, forbid the Lhotshampa from wearing their traditional clothing and from speaking their traditional language.  When public demonstrations took place in protest of these policies, all those who took part were identified and labeled ‘anti-national’ by the government.  The thousands of Southern Bhutanese who were classified as such were imprisoned under primitive conditions without being formally charged or convicted of any crime and more than two thousand were tortured (according to Amnesty International). 

TIMELINE

When the King of Bhutan finally granted them amnesty they found when they returned to their homes that their houses had been demolished and their families forced to flee to either India or Nepal.  By the end of 1992 more than 80,000 were living in UNHCR camps in SE Nepal.  The numbers have swelled to over 100,000 since that time and most of the children who immigrate to the United States and other places of refuge have never known another life but that of imprisonment.

The Ethnic Cleansing of a Nation: Bhutan (Youtube Video)

King Jigme Singye Wangchuk propounded Gross National Happiness as the unifying concept for Bhutan’s future development, yet many Bhutanese remain to be included in the project.  A sense of what this may mean is given in the Bhutan National Human Development Report, 2000:

"Bhutan seeks to establish a happy society, where people are safe, where everyone is guaranteed a decent livelihood, and where people enjoy universal access to good education and health care. It is a society where there is no pollution and violation of the environment, where there is no aggression and war, where inequalities do not exist, and where cultural values get strengthened every day. (…) A happy society is one where people enjoy freedoms, where there is no oppression, where art, music, dance, drama and culture flourish.  Ultimately a happy society is a caring society, caring for the past and future, caring for the environment and caring for those who need protection…"(

The issue at hand in regards to the plight of the Bhutanese refugees is that until the time when all of its citizens have a voice in the determination of their own lives and are free from the human rights abuses perpetrated on them by the government of Bhutan , any declaration on the definition of ‘happiness’ is suspicious at best.