A cultural mosaic
As of 1 January 2019, Bhutan's population was estimated at 827,790, 53 per cent male and 47 per cent female. Three-quarters of Bhutanese practice Tibetan Buddhism, with the remaining quarter claiming Hinduism. With an average age of 25 years and over 65 per cent of people in the 15-64 age group, Bhutan's population is young and life expectancy is 68 years. Even today, almost two thirds of the population still lives from agriculture and livestock farming and the remaining third is concentrated in the cities, mainly in Thimphu, the capital (114,551 inhabitants) and Paro. Deprived of communication routes, separated by steep terrain and wide variations in altitude, Bhutanese have long lived separated into small communities, scattered throughout the country with very little contact between them. Interaction between villages was rare and each trip was like an expedition!
A true cultural mosaic, the Bhutanese population is divided into different ethnic groups, of which the three main groups alone represent 75 % of the total population. To the east live the Sharchops, literally "the people of est ", considered the first inhabitants of the country and who have their own language. In the west, the Ngalops ("people of the west") are said to be the descendants of Tibetan migrants who arrived in the region at IXe siècle. Finally, the Lhotshampas, descendants of immigrants from Nepal who settled in Bhutan in the last century, live in the south of the kingdom. To these groups can be added other smaller communities with their own dialectes : Kurtoep at est ; Mangdep, Khengpa and Bumthrap in Bhutan central ; Layap and Lunap in the northwest, Brokpa and Dakpa in the northeast; Doya in the southwest. Long isolated from each other, these communities have been cultivating and claiming their independence. But don't believe that Bhutan is an austere nation, far from it! On the contrary, the population is particularly open, smiling and cultured, constantly oscillating between tradition and modernity. Don't be surprised to come across monks playing with their mobile phones, archers using steel arrows, or young Bhutanese in traditional costume taking it all out on the local dance floors. All these paradoxes are the charm of this country that is unlike any other.Dzongkha: the language of the Dzong
Dzongkha, a dialect of Tibetan, was promoted as the official and national language of Bhutan in 1971. From "dzong", fortress, and "kha", language, meaning "language of the fortress", Dzongkha refers to the fortress monasteries erected by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, the unifier of Bhutan, in the 17th century. Made up of an Indian syllabary alphabet, the Dzongkha language owes much of its development to Buddhist monks, the most educated citizens of the society. It is now widely spoken throughout the country, alongside three other languages dominants : Tshanglakha, spoken in the east, a Tibeto-Burmese dialect; Bumthangkha, spoken in central Bhutan; and Lhotshamkha or Nepali, spoken in the south of the country. In addition, there are nineteen very different dialects from Indo-Nepalese and Tibeto-Burmese tribes. English is taught in all schools from an early age and most Bhutanese are fluent in it, while Dzongkha continues to be used in monastery schools.
