Chukha District (

Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language ...

: ཆུ་ཁ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Chu-kha rdzong-khag''; officially spelled "Chhukha" ) is one of the 20

dzongkhag The Kingdom of Bhutan is divided into 20 districts (Dzongkha: ). Bhutan is located between the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and India on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas in South Asia. are the primary subdivisions of Bhutan. They pos ...

(districts) comprising

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

. The major town is

Phuentsholing Phuntsholing, also spelled as Phuentsholing (), is a border town in southern Bhutan and is the administrative seat of Chukha District. The town occupies parts of both Phuentsholing Gewog and Sampheling Gewog. Phuentsholing adjoins the Indian ...

Languages

In Chukha, the main native languages are

, the national language, and Nepali, spoken by the

Lhotshampa The Lhotshampa or Lhotsampa (; ) people are a heterogeneous Bhutanese people of Nepali descent. The Lhotshampa were estimated to comprise around 35% of the Bhutan's population by the U.S. Department of State as of 2008. The Lhotshampa are pre ...

in the south. The Bhutanese

Lhokpu language Lhokpu, also ''Lhobikha'' or ''Taba-Damtoe-Bikha'', is one of the autochthonous languages of Bhutan spoken by the Lhop people. It is spoken in southwestern Bhutan along the border of Samtse and Chukha Districts. Van Driem (2003) leaves it uncl ...

, spoken by the Lhop minority, is also present in the southwest along the border with

Samtse District Samtse District (Dzongkha: བསམ་རྩེ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bsam-rtse rdzong-khag''; older spelling "Samchi") is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It comprises two subdistricts (''dungkhags''): Ta ...

Administrative divisions

Chukha District is divided into eleven village blocks (or '' gewogs''): *

Bjacho Gewog Bjacho Gewog (Dzongkha: བྱག་ཕྱོགས་), also spelled Bjagchhog, is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalay ...

Bongo Gewog Bongo Gewog (Dzongkha: སྦོང་སྒོར་) is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the no ...

Chapcha Gewog Chapcha Gewog (Dzongkha: སྐྱབས་ཆ་,''Chaapchha Gewog'') is a '' gewog'' (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas be ...

Dala Gewog Dala Gewog (Dzongkha: དར་ལ་,''Darla Gewog'') is a gewog (village group) of Chukha District, Bhutan. The gewog has an area of around 140 km² and contains 7 villages. Dala Gewog is part of Phuentsholing Dungkhag, along with Logchina and ...

Dungna Gewog Dungna Gewog (Dzongkha: གདུང་ན་,''Doongna Gewog'') is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China ...

Geling Gewog Geling Gewog (Dzongkha: དགེ་གླིང་) is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the nort ...

Getena Gewog Getena Gewog (Dzongkha: གད་སྟག་ན,''Getana Gewog''་) is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between ...

Logchina Gewog Logchina Gewog (Dzongkha: ལོག་ཅི་ན་,''Loggchina Gewog'') is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan. The gewog has an area of 70.4 square kilometres and contains 12 villages. The estimated population is 2,500 inhabitan ...

Metakha Gewog Metakha Gewog (Dzongkha: སྨད་སྟབས་ཁ་,Metabkha Gewog) is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas bet ...

Phuentsholing Gewog Phuentsholing Gewog (Dzongkha: ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་,''Phuentshogling Gewog'') is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan. The gewog has an area of 139.8 km2 and contains 19 villages and a population of 5,183, ...

Sampheling Gewog Sampheling Gewog (Dzongkha: བསམ་འཕེལ་གླིང་,''Samphelling Gewog'') is a gewog (village block) of Chukha District, Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the E ...

Environment

Chukha Dzongkhag covers 1,880 sq. km, but unlike most other districts, Chukha, along with

Samtse Samtse is a town and the headquarters of the Samtse District in Bhutan. The population of the town was 5,396 as of 2017. The population of the Samtse district was 60,100 at the 2005 census. Samtse is close to the Bhutan–India border. Across t ...

, contain no

protected areas of Bhutan The protected areas of Bhutan are its national parks, nature preserves, and wildlife sanctuaries. Most of these protected areas were first set aside in the 1960s, originally covering most of the northern and southern regions of Bhutan. Today, pro ...

. Although much of southern Bhutan contained protected areas in the 1960s, park-level environmental protection became untenable.

Infrastructure

Chukha contains Bhutan's oldest hydropower plant, Chukha hydel (completed in 1986–88), and

Tala Hydroelectricity Project Tala Hydroelectric Power Station is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power station on the Wangchu River in Chukha District, Bhutan. The station consists of a tall gravity dam which diverts water through a long headrace tunnel to the power sta ...

, the country's largest power plant.

Tourism

Dokhachu Goenpa Dokhachu Goenpa, also known as Ekajati Lhakhang, is a Buddhist temple located in Chapcha, Bhutan. It was founded in 1650 by Choeje Thinley Jamtsho. The Monastery houses a revered statue of the wish-granting goddess Ekajati, or Aum Kangchim, believed to fulfill devotees' wishes. Tumdra Aminey Tumdra Ami Ney is a chief abode of wish-granting goddess Lhamo Ekajati located in Darla Gewog under Chhukha Dzongkhag in Bhutan. The Ney was discovered by Thangthong Gyalpo, and later Terton Drukdra Dorji meditated and discovered “''Ter''” of Aum Kangchim Statue from the Ney in the eighteenth century. Zangdo Pelri Lhakhang Zangdo Pelri Lhakhang in Phuentsholing is a small monastery representing the ''“celestial abode of Guru Rimpoche”'' located in the heart of the Phuentsholing town. Dasho Aku Tongmi built the Temple in the 1900s. Kharbandi Monastery Kharbandi Monastery, also known as ''Rinchending Goemba'', is a monastery in Phuntsholing built by the Royal Grandmother, Ashi Phuntsho Choden in 1967. The Rinchending monastery has become a tourist attraction among Indian tourists in Phuentsholing due to its historical significance and views of the plains of

Jaigaon Jaigaon is a census town in Alipurduar subdivision under Kalchini Block of Alipurduar district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is located on the country's border with Bhutan, and ''Bhutan Gate'' separates the two countries. Phuentsholin ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

and the Phuentsholing town.

Climate

References

External links

Official ''Dzongkhag profile''
ith a map of gewogs

From RAO Online {{Authority control Districts of Bhutan