Thimphu Province (

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 ...

: ཀྲོང་གསར་; Wylie: ''krong-gsar'') was one of the nine historical

Provinces of Bhutan The Provinces of Bhutan were historical regions of Bhutan headed by penlops and dzongpens (both translated as "governor"). Provincial lords gained power as the increasingly dysfunctional "Tibetan dual system of government, Dual System of Governmen ...

. Thimphu Province occupied lands in western

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 , ...

, corresponding approximately to modern day

Thimphu District Thimphu District (Dzongkha: ཐིམ་ཕུ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''Thim-phu rdzong-khag'') is a dzongkhag (district) of Bhutan. Thimphu is also the capital of Bhutan and the largest city in the whole kin ...

. It was administered from the Simtokha Dzong in the town of

Thimphu Thimphu (; ) 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 of Punakha was replac ...

, and the ruling governor was known as the

Dzongpen Dzongpen (Dzongkha: རྗོང་དཔོན་; Wylie: ''rjong-dpon''; also spelled "Dzongpon," "Dzongpön," "Jongpen," "Jongpon," "Jongpön") is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as governor or dzong lord. Bhutanese dzongpens, prior to unif ...

, or Thimphub.

History

Under Bhutan's early theocratic

dual system of government The Dual System of Government is the traditional diarchal political system of Tibetan peoples whereby the Desi (temporal ruler) coexists with the spiritual authority of the realm, usually unified under a third single ruler. The actual distribut ...

, decreasingly effective central government control resulted in the '' de facto'' disintegration of the office of Shabdrung after the death of Shabdrung

Ngawang Namgyal Ngawang Namgyal (; alternate spellings include ''Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel;'' 1594–1651), known colloquially as ''The Bearded Lama'', was a Tibetan Buddhist Drukpa Kagyu school Rinpoche, and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state. He was lat ...

in 1651. Under this system, the Shabdrung reigned over the temporal

Druk Desi The Druk Desi (, Wylie: 'brug sde-srid; also called Deb Raja)The original title is , Wylie: sde-srid phyag-mdzod. was the title of the secular (administrative) rulers of Bhutan under the dual system of government between the seventeenth and ni ...

and religious

Je Khenpo The Je Khenpo (; "The Chief Abbot of the Central Monastic Body of Bhutan"), formerly called the ''Dharma Raja'' by orientalists, is the title given to the senior religious hierarch of Bhutan. His primary duty is to lead the Dratshang Lhentsh ...

. Two successor Shabdrungs – the son (1651) and stepbrother (1680) of Ngawang Namgyal – were effectively controlled by the Druk Desi and Je Khenpo until power was further splintered through the innovation of multiple Shabdrung incarnations, reflecting speech, mind, and body. Increasingly secular regional lords (

penlop Penlop (Dzongkha: དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''dpon-slob''; also spelled Ponlop, Pönlop) is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as provincial governor. Bhutanese penlops, prior to unification, controlled certain ...

s and dzongpons) competed for power amid a backdrop of civil war over the Shabdrung and invasions from

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, and the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire was the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in human history, history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Euro ...

. The penlops of

Trongsa Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gran ...

and Paro, and the dzongpons of

Punakha Punakha () is the administrative centre of Punakha dzongkhag, one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. It is about 72 km away from Thim ...

, and

Wangdue Phodrang Wangdue Phodrang (, Dzongkha 'Wangdi Phodr'a) is a town and capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Wangdue Phodrang District in central Bhutan. It is located in Thedtsho Gewog. Khothang Rinchenling History The town shares its name with the Wangdue Ph ...

were particularly notable figures in the competition for regional dominance. During this period, there were a total of nine provinces and eight

s vying for power. Traditionally, Bhutan comprised nine provinces:

, Paro,

, Daga (also Taka, Tarka, or Taga), Bumthang, Thimphu, Kurtoed (also Kurtoi, Kuru-tod), and Kurmaed (or Kurme, Kuru-mad). The Provinces of Kurtoed and Kurmaed were combined into one local administration, leaving the traditional number of governors at eight. While some lords were

Penlop Penlop (Dzongkha: དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''dpon-slob''; also spelled Ponlop, Pönlop) is a Dzongkha term roughly translated as provincial governor. Bhutanese penlops, prior to unification, controlled certain ...

s, others held the title

(

: རྗོང་དཔོན་; Wylie: ''rjong-dpon''; also "Jongpen," "Dzongpön"); both titles may be translated as "governor." The 10th

Penlop of Trongsa The Penlop of Trongsa (; ), also called Chhoetse Penlop (Dzongkha: ཆོས་རྩེ་དཔོན་སློབ་; Wylie: ''Chos-rtse dpon-slob''; also spelled "Chötse"),The spelling of this title varies widely in sources because trans ...

Jigme Namgyel (''r.'' 1853–1870) began consolidating power, paving the way for his son the 12th Penlop of Trongsa (and 21st Penlop of Paro)

Ugyen Wangchuck ''Gongsar'' Ugyen Wangchuck (, ; 11 June 1862 – 26 August 1926) was the first Druk Gyalpo (King) and founding father of the Kingdom of Bhutan from 1907 to 1926. In his lifetime, he made efforts to unite the fledgling country and gain the trus ...

to prevail in battle against all rival

s and establish the monarchy in 1907. With the establishment of the monarchy and consolidation of power, the traditional roles of provinces, their rulers, and the

came to an end.

References

{{coord missing, Bhutan Provinces of Bhutan

History

See also

References