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Bhutan Ethnic Groups
Bhutan's society is made up of four broad but not
necessarily
exclusive groups: the Ngalop, the Sharchop, several
aboriginal
peoples, and Nepalese. The Ngalop (a term thought to mean
the
earliest risen or first converted) are people of Tibetan
origin who
migrated to Bhutan as early as the ninth century. For this
reason,
they are often referred to in foreign literature as Bhote
(people
of Bhotia or Tibet). The Ngalop are concentrated in
western and
northern districts. They introduced Tibetan culture and
Buddhism to
Bhutan and comprised the dominant political and cultural
element in
modern Bhutan.
The Sharchop (the word means easterner), an
Indo-Mongoloid
people who are thought to have migrated from Assam or
possibly
Burma during the past millennium, comprise most of the
population
of eastern Bhutan. Although long the biggest ethnic group
in
Bhutan, the Sharchop have been largely assimilated into
the
Tibetan-Ngalop culture. Because of their proximity to
India, some
speak Assamese or Hindi. They practice slash-and-burn and
tsheri agriculture, planting dry rice crops for
three or
four years until the soil is exhausted and then moving on.
The third group consists of small aboriginal or
indigenous
tribal peoples living in scattered villages throughout
Bhutan.
Culturally and linguistically part of the populations of
West
Bengal or Assam, they embrace the Hindu system of
endogamous groups
ranked by hierarchy and practice wet-rice and dry-rice
agriculture.
They include the Drokpa, Lepcha, and Doya tribes as well
as the
descendants of slaves who were brought to Bhutan from
similar
tribal areas in India. The ex-slave communities tended to
be near
traditional population centers because it was there that
they had
been pressed into service to the state. Together, the
Ngalop,
Sharchop, and tribal groups were thought to constitute up
to 72
percent of the population in the late 1980s.
The remaining 28 percent of the population were of
Nepalese
origin. Officially, the government stated that 28 percent
of the
national population was Nepalese in the late 1980s, but
unofficial
estimates ran as high as 30 to 40 percent, and Nepalese
were
estimated to constitute a majority in southern Bhutan. The
number
of legal permanent Nepalese residents in the late 1980s
may have
been as few as 15 percent of the total population,
however. The
first small groups of Nepalese, the most recent major
groups to
arrive in Bhutan, emigrated primarily from eastern Nepal
under
Indian auspices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Mostly Hindus, the Nepalese settled in the
southern
foothills and are sometimes referred to as southern
Bhutanese.
Traditionally, they have been involved mostly in sedentary
agriculture, although some have cleared forest cover and
conducted
tsheri agriculture. The most divisive issue in
Bhutan in the
1980s and early 1990s was the accommodation of the
Nepalese Hindu
minority. The government traditionally attempted to limit
immigration and restrict residence and employment of
Nepalese to
the southern region. Liberalization measures in the 1970s
and 1980s
encouraged intermarriage and provided increasing
opportunities for
public service. More in-country migration by Nepalese
seeking
better education and business opportunities was allowed.
Bhutan also had a sizable modern Tibetan refugee
population,
which stood at 10,000 persons in 1987. The major influx of
6,000
persons came in 1959 in the wake of the Chinese army's
invasion and
occupation of Tibet. The Tibetan expatriates became only
partially
integrated into Bhutanese society, however, and many were
unwilling
to accept citizenship. Perceiving a lack of allegiance to
the state
on the part of Tibetans, the government decided in 1979 to
expel to
India those who refused citizenship. India, after some
reluctance,
acceded to the move and accepted more than 3,100 Tibetans
between
1980 and 1985. Another 4,200 Tibetans requested and
received
Bhutanese citizenship. Although Bhutan traditionally
welcomed
refugees--and still accepted a few new ones fleeing the
1989
imposition of martial law in Tibet--government policy in
the late
1980s was to refuse more Tibetan refugees.
Data as of September 1991
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