My Bhutan
Bhutan is a sovereign country bordering India to the south and China to the north. Bhutan borders to the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal in the south-west region and shares border with Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in the central and the south-eastern part. Bhutan lies on the eastern Himalayas between latitudes 26°N and 29°N, and longitudes 88°E and 93°E. Bhutan’s altitude starts from 98 meters in the south to the highest in the north at mount Gangkar Puensum at 7,570 meters. The climate of Bhutan ranges from sub-tropical climate in the south to temperate zones and then the polar climatic conditions in the northern part of the country. The form of governance in the country is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
The total size of the country is 38,394 km2 and 56.3% of all Bhutanese Citizens are involved with agriculture, forestry or conservation. Bhutan has 72% of its total area under forest cover and it has also decided to keep at least 60% of the land under forest cover at all times. Bhutan has a very rich biodiversity and it became a party to the “Rio Convention on Biological Diversity – 11th June, 1992” on 25th August, 1995. In its endeavor to preserve the rich biodiversity, Bhutan has identified 10 areas with approximately 51.44% of the country as protected area and wild life sanctuary.
According to PEW Research center, two third of Bhutanese people follow Vajrayana Buddhism followed by Hinduism mainly in the southern foothills of the country and other minorities follow Christianity and others. There are mainly three ethnic groups in Bhutan, the people from the western Bhutan also known as the Ngalop, the people from the eastern Bhutan also known as the Sharchogpa and the people from the southern Bhutan also known as the Lhotshampas. People from the southern Bhutan are mainly Nepali descendants who have migrated to Bhutan in the nineteen century, thus they are devout Hindu.
Bhutan is a member of the United Nations (UN) and it is also a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Bhutan joined the United Nations as 128th member on 21st September, 1971. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was founded with seven member states in 1985; the founding members were Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Srilanka. However, the SAARC currently has a new member state Afghanistan who became a member state in April 2007.
