Dzongkha (/ˈzɒŋ.kə/ ZONG-kə or /ˈdzɒŋ.kə/; རྫོང་ཁ་, pronounced [d͡zòŋkʰɑ́]) is a Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The word dzongkha means "the language of the fortress", from dzong "fortress" and kha "language". As of 2013, Dzongkha had 171,080 native speakers and about 640,000 total speakers.
Gross National Happiness, (GNH; Dzongkha: རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དཔལ་འཛོམས།) sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan. It includes an index used to measure a population's collective happiness and well-being. The Gross National Happiness Index was instituted as the goal of the government of Bhutan in the Constitution of Bhutan, enacted on 18 July 2008.
Gangkhar Puensum (Dzongkha: གངས་དཀར་སྤུན་གསུམ་, romanized: Kangkar Punsum, alternatively, Gangkar Punsum or Gankar Punzum) is the highest mountain in Bhutan and the highest unclimbed mountain in the world, with an elevation of 7,570 metres (24,836 ft) and a prominence of 2,995 metres (9,826 ft). In Dzongkha language, its name means "White Peak of the Three Spiritual Brothers".
Gangkhar Puensum lies on the border between Bhutan and Tibet. After Bhutan was opened for mountaineering in 1983, there were four expeditions that resulted in failed summit attempts in 1985 and 1986.
The prime minister of Bhutan (Lyonchen, Dzongkha: བློན་ཆེན) is the head of government of Bhutan. The prime minister is nominated by the party that wins the most seats in the National Assembly (Gyelyong Tshogdu) and heads the executive cabinet, called the Council of Ministers (Lhengye Zhungtshog).
On 9 April 2008, Jigme Thinley became the first elected prime minister; he took office following the country's first democratic election.
Thimphu (/tɪmˈpuː/ tim-POOH; Dzongkha: ཐིམ་ཕུག [tʰim˥.pʰu˥]) 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 replaced by Thimphu as the capital in 1955, and in 1961 Thimphu was officially declared the capital of the Kingdom of Bhutan by the 3rd Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.
The city extends in a north–south direction on the west bank of the valley formed by the Wang Chhu, which flows out into India as the Raidāk River. Thimphu is the fifth highest capital in the world by altitude and the highest capital in Asia, ranging from 2,248 metres (7,375 feet) to 2,648 metres (8,688 feet). Unlike many capitals, Thimphu does not have its own airport, instead relying on the Paro Airport, accessible by road 52 kilometres (32 miles) away.
The Kingdom of Sikkim (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་ལྗོངས།, Drenjong, Dzongkha: སི་ཀིམ་རྒྱལ་ཁབ།, Sikimr Gyalkhab) officially Dremoshong (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས།) until the 1800s, was a hereditary monarchy in the Eastern Himalayas that existed from 1642 to 16 May 1975, when it was annexed by India. It was ruled by Chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty.
The Sharchops (Dzongkha: ཤར་ཕྱོགས་པ, Wylie: shar phyogs pa; "Easterner") are the populations of mixed Tibetan, Southeast Asian and South Asian descent that mostly live in the eastern districts of Bhutan.
26°55′N 90°5′E / 26.917°N 90.083°E
Tsirang District (Dzongkha: རྩི་རང་རྫོང་ཁག།; Wylie: tsi-rang rdzong-khag; previously Chirang) is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) of Bhutan. The administrative center of the district is Damphu.
27°0′N 89°55′E / 27.000°N 89.917°E
Dagana District (Dzongkha: དར་དཀར་ནང་རྫོང་ཁག།; Wylie: dar-dkar-nang rzong-khag; also དར་དཀར་ན་རྫོང་ཁག།) is one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Covering an area of 1,713 km (661 sq mi), it is located in the lower foothills of the mid-Himalayan ranges. The district had a population of 24,965 people as of 2017, living across 14 gewogs (village blocks). Economically, Dagana’s population follows mixed subsistence agriculture and livestock rearing.
The Bhutan national football team (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་གི་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་རྐང་རྩེད་སྡེ་ཚན) represents Bhutan in men's international football. The team is controlled by the governing body for football in Bhutan, the Bhutan Football Federation, which is a member of the Asian Football Federation and the regional body the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). The national football team of Bhutan plays its home games at the national stadium, Changlimithang.
The side has consistently been ranked as one of the worst national teams in the world on both the official FIFA rankings and the Elo rating system. As of the end of November 2017, they have only won six competitive fixtures and have a goal difference of −279. The team have never qualified for the finals of a major tournament and, beyond friendlies and qualifying matches, their only participation in an official competition has been in the regional South Asian Games and the South Asian Football Federation Cup.