The official religion in

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

is Vajrayana Buddhism, which is practiced by almost 85% of the population. Bhutan is a Buddhist country by constitution and Buddhism plays a vital role in the country.

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

is the cultural heritage of Bhutan and its people's identity as well. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the King. Approximately 85 percent of the

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 770,000 follow either the

Drukpa Lineage The Drukpa Kagyu (), or simply Drukpa, sometimes called either Dugpa or " Red Hat sect" in older sources,

of the Kagyu school, the

Nyingma Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and transl ...

school of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

or another school of

. Almost 12 percent (11.3 percent ), mainly Lhotshampas, practice

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

.Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project: Bhutan
Pew Research Center. 2010.

Buddhism

The

Ngalop people The Ngalop ( dz, སྔལོངཔ་ ; "earliest risen people" or "first converted people" according to folk etymology) are people of Tibetan origin who migrated to Bhutan as early as the ninth century. Orientalists adopted the term "Bhote" or ...

, descendants of Tibetan immigrants, comprise the majority of the population in the western and central areas and mostly follow the Drukpa Lineage of Kagyu

Vajrayana Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...

.United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Bhutan: International Religious Freedom Report 2007
''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

.'' The Sharchops, descendants of the country's probable original inhabitants, live in the east. Reportedly, some Sharchops practice Buddhism combined with elements of Bon whereas others practice

animism Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather syst ...

and Hinduism. The government supports both Kagyu and Nyingma

Buddhist monasteries Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. The royal family practices a combination of Nyingma and Kagyu Buddhism and many citizens believe in the concept of "Kanyin-Zungdrel," meaning "Kagyupa and Ningmapa as one."

Hinduism

Hindus, mainly in the South, practice

. There are about 92,167 Hindus mainly of Lhotshampa ethnicity living in Bhutan. They form 12% of the country's population, and Hinduism is the second largest religion of the nation. The very first Hindu

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

was constructed in

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city ...

in 2012 by the Je Khenpo, Chief Abbot of Bhutan, and Hindus practice their religion in small to medium-sized groups. Hinduism is more common among the

Lhotshampa The Lhotshampa or Lhotsampa ( ne, ल्होत्साम्पा; ) people are a heterogeneous Bhutanese people of Nepalese descent. "Lhotshampa", which means "southern borderlanders" in Dzongkha, began to be used by the Bhutanese state i ...

ethnic group, although a fair amount of ethnic Lhotshampa follow Buddhism as well.

Bon

Bon ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...

, the country's animist and

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

istic belief system, revolves around the worship of

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

and predates Buddhism. Although Bön

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

s often officiate and include Bön rituals in Buddhist festivals, very few citizens adhere exclusively to this religious group.

Christianity

Christians are present in small numbers, especially in the Nepalese ethnic group. According to a 2007 report there were no Christian missionaries in the country, although international Christian relief organizations and Roman Catholic Jesuit priests engaged in education and humanitarian activities. Christianity was first brought to Bhutan in the late 17th century by Portuguese Jesuits, but the teachings failed to gain much traction among the devout Bhutanese Buddhists.

Islam

In 2010, the Pew Research Center estimated that 0.1% of the population were Muslims and Islam has no recognition there according to Bhutan constitution.Pew Research Center - Global Religious Landscape 2010 - religious composition by country

Freedom and regulation of religion

The law provides for freedom of religion; the religious institutions and personalities have a duty "to promote the spiritual heritage of the country while also ensuring that religion remains separate from politics" and that religious institutions and personalities remain "above politics." Reflecting the government's stated purpose of preserving individuals' religious and cultural values, the above prohibitive clauses in the Constitution have been interpreted to apply to proselytism and to prohibit religious personalities from voting, respectively. The Religious Organizations Act of 2007 aims to protect and preserve the spiritual heritage of Bhutan through providing for the registration and administration of religious organizations. To meet those goals, the Act creates the Chhoedey Lhentshog as the regulatory authority on religious organizations. This body regulates, monitors, and keeps records on all religious organizations in Bhutan, which are in turn required to register and maintain specified corporate formalities. Through 2007, there were no reports of violence associated with pressure to conform to Vajrayana beliefs. There were no reports of societal abuse or discrimination based on religious belief or practice.

References

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